<p>This article is old, but I was wondering, how did the Dartmouth alum board controversy turn out? Did the alums win and continue to see alum-voted trustees on the board?</p>
<p>I also found this article interesting because on this board, there's been a lot of talk about how student-centered LACS (or the like, such as Dartmouth), offer such great resources and opportunities for students. At the same time, it seems like a good number of Dartmouth's board members wanted Dart to become more of a big research institution. I've met plenty of Dart grads who loved their time up in Hanover, so I'm curious to see how this all played out.</p>
<p>The other big Dartmouth news story this year was the selection of a new president. The trustees chose Dr. Jim Yong Kim MD, PhD, the Chair of the Dept. of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also former head of the World Health Organization HIV/AIDS dept., and a MacArthur “genius” grant winner for his biomedical work. </p>
<p>Funny that you mention Brown, because Kim’s undergraduate degree just happens to be from Brown. His graduate degrees are from Harvard.</p>
<p>Dr. Kim’s (very impressive) achievements are clearly in research and administration. So there is naturally speculation that his appointment could signal increased focus on research at Dartmouth. But it’s too soon to tell.</p>
<p>In contrast, the other major presidential search this year was at Northwestern. NU picked Dr. Morty Schapiro, the president of Williams College, who was known for promoting small classes (e.g. two-student tutorials) and a strong committment to undergraduate teaching. So there is naturally speculation that Schapiro’s appointment could signal increased focus on teaching at Northwestern. Again, it’s too soon to tell.</p>
<p>It think it’s clear that in part Kim’s mission is to give Dartmouth greater international presence. What a coup for the college to have gotten a guy of his stature. He does, however, embrace Dartmouth’s role as what he calls the best place in the world for an undergrad education. I don’t think Dartmouth is trying to become Harvard.</p>
In September 2007, the Dartmouth Board of Trustees announced that it would expand from 18 to 26, while keeping the number of alumni-elected trustees at 8. The change would not have eliminated alumni trustees, but it would have obviously reduced their influence. </p>
<p>Many alumni were strongly opposed to this change. In October 2007, the Association of Alumni filed a lawsuit to block it.</p>
<p>In 2008, the Association of Alumni held a hotly contested election. The election pitted “Unity” candidates (who vowed to accept expansion of the Board and to drop the lawsuit) against “Parity” candidates (who vowed to fight expansion of the Board through the lawsuit). The Unity slate won, by about 60-40%, in record high turnout. The lawsuit was dropped soon afterwards.</p>
<p>So it’s misleading to suggest that the “alumni lost”. The expansion of Board of Trustees may or may not have been a good idea, but it was endorsed by a majority of alumni voters in a fair election.</p>
<p>So Dartmouth continues to have alumni-elected trustees, but they are a smaller fraction of the Board (8/26). The Dartmouth Board of Trustees still has a relatively high percentage of alumni trustee representation, compared to other schools with alumni trustees, like Williams (5/25), Middlebury (6/31), or Wesleyan (9/33)</p>
<p>You have to wonder how many of these non-alum trustee positions are given out merely as a form of honoraria? A better measure of alumni influence might be who sits on the Steering Cmte, if there is one.</p>