The Connections of 'Strong Dartmouth'

By Michael J. Ellis | Friday, March 11, 2005

This year's election for the two open seats on Dartmouth's Board of Trustees has been marked by unusually vociferous public debate. The slate of candidates nominated by the Alumni Council, Sheila Cheston '80, Gregg Engles '79, Ric Lewis '84, and Curtis Welling '71 T '77, meet the usual politically correct requirements: one woman (Cheston), one minority (Lewis), and one corporate suit-turned do gooder (Welling). Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88, following in the footsteps of T.J. Rodgers '70, were nominated by popular petition and are decidedly not politically correct. Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter who penned the famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech, is currently a Fellow at the Hoover Institution and hosts the PBS program Uncommon Knowledge, while Zywicki, a professor of Law at George Mason University, is a regular contributor to the conservative Volokh Conspiracy web log.

Nathaniel Ward

— A web of connections. Click for larger version. —

Both Robinson and Zywicki share concerns about the state of undergraduate education at the College, the administration's suppression of free speech, and the Student Life Initiative. But while these views have won them support among many alumni, they have also provoked a sharp backlash from others. In particular, a shadowy group calling themselves "Alumni for a Strong Dartmouth" has organized a website (www.strongdartmouth.org) to oppose the petition candidates and support the Alumni Council's hand-picked candidates.

Of course, the Alumni Association's prohibitions on campaigning prevent A.S.D. from directly advocating for or against any particular candidates. So instead, their website uses a series of code words to make their points. They aren't opposed to Robinson and Zywicki, they just "remain supportive of the College and would like to ensure that responsible leadership remains on the Board of Trustees." They don't attack Robinson and Zywiciki's criticism of Karl Furstenburg and the Athletics Department, just note that "some people, even two in particular who weren't athletes themselves at Dartmouth, believe the College's commitment to athletics is waning." They don't criticize Robinson and Zywicki's petition candidacies, they just "believe that renegade campaigns that denigrate the good name and achievements of the College are divisive and do not contribute constructively to the debate."

But who are these Alumni for a Strong Dartmouth? Are they really just a group of "concerned alumni" who all coincidentally opposed the petition candidates and found each other through the magic of the Internet? Hardly. As can be seen in the below diagram, many of the members of A.S.D. are connected directly or indirectly to the Alumni Association, Alumni Council, the College's Alumni Relations Office, or the College itself. The man who organized A.S.D. and designed its website is a Geoff Berlin, member of the class of 1984 and founder of Alums Online, a company specializing in alumni outreach. His op-ed piece in the March 1 Daily Dartmouth cleared up any doubt over his opposition to the petition candidates. In it, he calls Robinson and Zywicki's campaigns "alarming," "utterly mistaken," and "inclined to mislead their fellow alumni." Berlin has created the websites for the Class of 1982 and 1984, and is rumored to have done work for the Alumni Relations office as well. Nels Armstrong '71, the College's Director of Alumni Relations, said that he knew Berlin, and that he was "a wonderful entrepreneur," but denies that he has ever done work for Alumni Relations. Berlin did not return phone calls seeking comment.

However, the connections between A.S.D and the College's administration run deeper than just Geoff Berlin. Several Dartmouth College employees, including Elizabeth Meyer '96, the director of the Parents and Grandparents Fund in the College's Development Office, and Prof. Susan Ackerman '80, chairwoman of the religion department, are also affiliated with the A.S.D. When contacted, Meyer was unavailable for comment and Ackerman refused to comment. While no members of the Alumni Relations Office are directly connected to the group, Stan Colla '66, the vice president of alumni relations has a slightly more indirect link. His son, Geoffrey Colla '04, is a member of A.S.D. A complete coincidence, I'm sure. Two members of the Alumni Magazine's editorial board, Julie Koeninger '81 and Patricia Berry '81, are affiliated with A.S.D. So are eight former Trustees of the College: I. Michael Heyman '51, Henry Nachman, Jr. '51 T '55, Robert P. Henderson '53, Joe Mathewson '55, Robert Danzinger '56 T '57, Ronald Schram '64, Kate Stith '73, and Ann Fritz Hackett '76. The chance that all of these individuals gathered together to form A.S.D. without the knowledge (and, in all likelihood, the tacit approval) of administrators in Parkhurst and the Alumni Relations Office is so small that it makes the Powerball lottery look like a quality investment.

But it isn't just the College's administration that has ties to A.S.D.: members of the Alumni Council and Alumni Association, the very bodies that nominate the candidates for Trustee and run the elections, are tied to A.S.D. as well. Noel Fidel '66, Chas Carner '71, and Missy Attridge '77, former presidents of the Alumni Council (which nominates the official Trustee candidates) are all members of A.S.D., so too are J. Michael Houlahan '61, Robert Conn '61, Patricia Berry '81, and Karen Brown Letarte '84, all former or current members of the Alumni Council. Perhaps most troubling is Jeanhee Kim '90, a member of the Alumni Association's Executive Committee who is also a member of A.S.D. Three of Ms. Kim's colleagues on the Executive Committee also serve on the Ballot Committee, which oversees and establishes guidelines for the Trustee elections. Kim did not respond to attempts to contact her for comment.

While it seems highly unlikely that all of these individuals, with so many diverse ties to the College's administration and the Alumni governing bodies gathered together of their own initiative, nothing about the group is against the election rules, per se. Since their members are affiliated with the alumni bodies that write the rules for the election, it comes as little surprise that A.S.D. has taken great pains to stay within their bounds. But as much as the Alumni for a Strong Dartmouth might whine about returning responsible leadership to the Board of Trustees, the real cause of their opposition is fear—fear that the alumni will keep up the precedent set by Rodgers of nominating and electing the Trustees without the involvement of the Alumni Council or Association. The very existence of their organized opposition to Robinson and Zywicki is evidence that they are more concerned with maintaining power over their own personal fiefdoms among the alumni than with the future of the College.

The Connections of 'Strong Dartmouth'

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