Alumni Council
Passion. Consistently Dartmouth alumni describe their feelings about their alma mater with that word. As the "clearinghouse for alumni sentiment," the Alumni Council must understand that passion in all of its many shapes and sizes, ethnicities, genders, political and religious affiliations, majors and minors and professions. Never in the history of the College have alumni voices been so loud and so immediate. For nearly a decade the council has worked to increase our responsiveness to alumni opinion in conjunction with the Association of Alumni. With the failure of the 2006 proposed new joint alumni constitution, we turned our attention instead to our own structure, dedicating the past year to shoring up our capacity to field, synthesize and communicate the passionate opinions of 68,800 alumni. This fall we approved a new Alumni Council constitution that strengthens the alumni voice. To read how the council has expanded representation to classes, focused regional representation and adjusted committee composition to provide a more flexible and effective working structure, visit www.alumni. dartmouth.edu/council. The council has also asked that constituencies consider electing their alumni councilors in contested elections, something desired by many alumni longing for "democracy" in alumni leadership. While Dartmouth is not a democracy, some democratic principles can be applied. In order for them to be effective, however, alumni must be fully informed of the state of the College.
To keep that information flowing the Alumni Council maintains a close relationship with the College on many levels. This partnership is not a rubber stamp for administration and trustee actions; the council speaks for alumni. The Alumni Council played an integral role in discussions about the Indian symbol and coeducation. It was the council that worked with the College to strengthen Greek life when the Student Life Initiative became contentious, and when the swim team faced elimination, the council helped the administration to develop a solution. In times of crisis the Alumni Council has always stepped up to aggressively represent alumni opinion.
Similarly, higher education reforms such as those described by trustee Todd Zywicki '88 during his controversial October 2007 speech at the John William Pope Center for Higher Education do not reflect what most of us believe Dartmouth should strive for to provide the best possible undergraduate education. Indeed, the council found his remarks distressing from many perspectives, and stated so in a resolution at the fall meeting. The overwhelming feedback received by councilors from alumni also expressed concern, which was echoed in the subsequent and unprecedented reprimand he received from the board of trustees.
Likewise, the Alumni Council filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the College in the lawsuit brought against the board of trustees by the Association of Alumni executive committee, since councilors had received feedback in opposition to the lawsuit. This action caused the association executive committee to walk away from discussions with the council aimed at establishing trustee nomination guidelines that met the recommendations of the boards governance report, talks that we pursued even after the lawsuit was filed. The council remains open and eager to resume those talks.
Going forward, the Alumni Council remains focused on its mission "to sustain a fully informed, representative and engaged exchange of information and sentiment between alumni and their College"—a mission that will preserve the best traditions of Dartmouth while looking to the future of the College and her students. I urge you to keep in touch with your Alumni Council representative.
To view- the councilor directory, visit www. alumni.dartmouth.edu/council-members.aspx. Or e-mail me at council.president@alum. dartmouth.org. We look forward to hearing from you.
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