Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2005/06/02/tdr_interview_todd_zywicki_88.php
Thursday, June 2, 2005
Todd Zywicki '88 is one of Dartmouth's two new Trustees. A petition candidate running against determined opposition from the College establishment, Mr. Zywicki garnered the support of 45 percent of alumni.
The Dartmouth Review: What made you decide to run for Trustee?
Todd Zywicki: What made me decide to run? Two things. First, the proximate cause was obviously [T.J.] Rodgers winning last year and showing it can be done, that the alumni were ready for change. Secondly—I'm sure a lot of alumni have thought about this—general dissatisfaction with the direction of the College over the past decade. The combination of those two—the combination of the general dissatisfaction with the College and the fact of T.J. Rodgers's success last year opened the door to try to do something constructive about it. Put the two together and I decided to run.
TDR: Some have called this election a referendum of sorts on the current administration. Would you say that?
TZ: I would not say that. I'm looking forward to working with President Wright and the rest of the incumbent Board—the rest of the members of the Board—and that's all I'll say about that issue.
TDR: Are you surprised you won?
TZ: I am, certainly, I am surprised. It's only happened twice before in history [that a petition candidate has won]. Although I share many of the same concerns as T.J. Rodgers did last year, he was a very different sort of person and candidate than I was. I'm just very grateful and pleased that the alumni were open to listening and responded in the way that they did. You really never know how something like this is going to turn out when you undertake it. The four Alumni Council candidates were really very impressive people, very thoughtful, so it was very stiff competition.
To some extent I was surprised. In another way—I've talked with a lot of alumni over many years and I think that the concerns that I was articulating and the goals I was articulating really resonated with a lot of people. From that perspective, in terms of the message, I'm not surprised. In terms of me as the particular messenger, I'm very humbled and gratified that the alumni put their trust and faith in me in this way.
TDR: What are your goals? Where do you see Dartmouth in ten years?
TZ: I think that my goals are pretty clear. First, I'd like to see the College recommit itself to undergraduate education in particular. The most tangible way is to clarify its financial goals, to make sure that money and resources are going into educational programming—not into bureaucracy and not into expenditures of dubious education value, like the infamous sustainability director post [see page 15].
Secondly, I've talked to a lot of recent alumni in particular, and one thing I think I'd like to do is rebuild Dartmouth's community and the affection and loyalty that students and alumni have for the institution. I think that in terms of recruiting and educating more well-rounded leaders, people who are concerned about the community who are willing to give of themselves for Dartmouth and who will go out and represent Dartmouth as opposed to people who are just preoccupied with narrow interests and that sort of thing.
And finally, I'd like to increase the transparency and the accountability of College governance. I feel, as many alumni do, that the College has a tendency to patronize us and to make alumni feel like they have nothing to contribute to College governance and that sort of thing. I would like to have a greater transparency in College governance so people have more of a sense of what the College is doing and why they're doing what they do, as opposed to whitewashed communications from the College that come down as if from on high. [I propose] a more collaborative process between the College and its stakeholders: students, alumni, faculty, and parents alike.
TDR: Do you think that Dartmouth should have a core curriculum?
TZ: Yes, personally.
TDR: What do you make of the recent decision by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to upgrade Dartmouth's free speech ratings?
TZ: I think that Dartmouth's repeal of its speech code is a step in the right direction. From that perspective, I was very pleased to see FIRE's tentative steps in that direction. I think it's also a first step. I think a next step is for Dartmouth, in both word and deed, is to unambiguously come out in favor of free speech. I would like to see Dartmouth as a leader on this issue in modern academia, to hold Dartmouth up as a model for freedom of speech and freedom of expression on college and university campuses. From that perspective, I think that what Dartmouth has done so far—I'm cautiously optimistic it is a good step in the right direction. I'd like to see us continue moving in that direction and build on that.
TDR: You spoke about rebuilding the Dartmouth community. Do you see fraternities playing a role in this community?
TZ: I believe so, yes. I think that the College would do better to have a more balanced attitude towards fraternities and be more cooperative with students in arranging social and other residential alternatives. The College should continue to invest in alternative social arrangements, but it must also respect students' rights of freedom of association and freedom of speech. I believe the touchstone should be that the College should try to make available a wide variety of alternative social and residential alternatives and allow the students to choose among them.
I think, in some senses, student choice and student preferences, especially when it comes to social and residential arrangements, should be the primary factor we look at. For instance, if there is demand for more sororities, the College should think about how to respond to that demand, to allow more sororities. That's what I think it is: the College needs to be a bit more humble in trying to create—socially engineering—the "right sorts" of social arrangements on campus. I think the students have a much better sense of how they want to spend their free time and whom they want to socialize with. The College's heavy-handed efforts over many years to try to funnel students into what they think of as the approved social alternatives have not only been a failure, but also fail to respect the autonomy and rights of association of students.
At the same time, obviously, there are issues involving law enforcement—underage drinking and that sort of thing—that the College needs to be concerned about. That should be what the focus is on, with respect to the College, rather than these other sorts of social engineering-type concerns that have animated things like the [Student] Life Initiative.
TDR: One of the major issues addressed during the campaign was the state of the athletics program. What do you think could be done to improve sports at Dartmouth?
TZ: I've already started trying to get in contact with a number of the Dartmouth varsity coaches to find out from them and to work with them. At this point, I want to find out from the coaches and the athletes what they think would be steps in the right direction.
I just want to say that Ivy League athletics strikes the correct balance between academics and athletics. Not only is [the balance] appropriate, but every other conference and institution in the country tries to match. I think the Ivy League is the gold standard.
The concern that there's going to be an anti-intellectual culture spawned by college athletics at Dartmouth is frankly absurd.
What I want to do is work with the various constituents of Dartmouth athletics to find out what we can do to strengthen that program in terms of facilities, in terms of support, and in terms of recruiting.
TDR: What was your reaction, then, to Dean [of Admissions Karl] Furstenberg's letter that came out last December?
TZ: I think that Dean Furstenberg's letter shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the positive role that Ivy League athletics plays at Dartmouth. One of the great things about College athletics is that when you're in the stands at Memorial Field or at the basketball arena, at that point, you're not a Democrat or a Republican or Catholic or Presbyterian, or whatever. You're just a loyal son or daughter of Dartmouth coming together to cheer on the students who are representing the College. I think that is a very valuable experience in building the Dartmouth community. It's clear that athletics is one of the important ways in which alumni relate to the College, in a very public and high-profile way. Dean Furstenberg's comments on football fundamentally ignore the role that Ivy League athletics plays at Dartmouth in terms of building community, bringing students together, and building and maintaining alumni loyalty to the College.
TDR: Many wrote off T.J. Rodgers's election last year as a fluke. But now there have been three petition candidates, who ran against the establishment and have been elected to the Board of Trustees, in two years. Do you think it's now a trend?
TZ: It's clearly more than a fluke, but it's hard to say whether or not it is a trend. I think that each election is different, but I think it's quite clear that there's deep-seated concern about the direction of the College, not only reflected in this, but also in alumni contribution rates and that sort of thing. I'm just very pleased that the alumni felt like I was speaking for them and that they put their trust in me. That's all I can really say.
Whether or not it's part of a larger trend, I think it would be premature to try to guess that at this point.
TDR: There were some alumni who saw you as a sort of an ideologue or a reactionary. Is that true? Are they right?
TZ: [Laughing] No, that's not true. That's not true at all.
TDR: Do you think the rules governing the Trustee elections, in particular the campaigning, are fair? Do they need reform?
TZ: I would say they need to be largely abolished. In the modern era where information is so valuable and so difficult to control, the idea of trying to control information seems to be largely absurd. What it ends up doing is controlling those of us who can be sanctioned by failure to follow the rules. It does not place any limitations—nor should it place any limitations—on others. What you end up with is the kind of situation you saw here, where you can have alumni—many of them, astoundingly to me, campaigning in the name of their various Alumni Association officers, attacking properly qualified petition candidates and us not having the opportunity to respond in any way. I think that is really, fundamentally unfair.
Second, any effort to try to enforce those rules, which are so counterproductive and silly, were going to inevitably be rife with unequalness because the rules themselves don't make any sense. Any way you try to enforce it is going to be largely arbitrary. I think we saw that this time around.
TDR: There have been various proposals to redo the whole structure of alumni governance in the past couple years, reforms to the alumni constitution. Do you support such reforms?
TZ: I would have to study those more closely at this point to render an extended opinion on what's happening with that. I'm generally familiar with that, but I've not looked into the specific details of it enough to have an opinion at this point.
TDR: Do you expect you'll be able to work well on the Board?
TZ: Yes. I'm looking forward to working with the other members of the Board, absolutely. I hope one thing I can bring to the Board in addition to the goals that I've articulated is that I will be the only academic, the only professor, who's a member of the Board. I hope that my colleagues on the Board find that to be a useful perspective in addition to the particular issues that I campaigned on.
TDR: Do you have anything else to add?
TZ: One lasting impact of this is, regardless of the particular winners or losers this time around, I hope it has energized alumni interest in the College, and made the alumni feel like they have a constructive voice in College governance. I hope it'll have a long-lasting contribution to alumni elections in terms of trying to make them more substantive and trying to make clear to alumni the choices they have available among the various different candidates. I hope that this won't be just a short-run victory for me but perhaps more importantly, I hope it'll have a long-run change on empowering Dartmouth alumni in terms of greater democracy and openness in the alumni governance process.