— Marian Chambers —
Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2008/04/21/pullout_tdr_interview_marian_chambers.php
Monday, April 21, 2008
Elections to the Association of Alumni are rapidly approaching, and things are starting to heat up. The majority of the body’s current make-up supports the lawsuit, but if the administration gets its way, that’s going to change. Twenty-two candidates—eleven selected by the administration and eleven nominated by alumni—are competing for eleven spots on the Executive Committee. Four officers, consisting of a president, two vice presidents, and a secretary-treasurer, will be elected alongside seven other members.
The Dartmouth Review continues to give our readers a broad view of the candidates and what they stand for. In this edition, we speak with Marian Chambers ‘76, who is gunning for AoA’s Secretary-Treasurer position. Ms. Chambers falls in with the petition candidates, representing herself on DartmouthParity.com as the “Independent, Pro-Parity” choice. Literately the first woman graduate from Dartmouth, she graduated summa cum laude and went on to work for the Congress International Relations Committee for twenty two years. She has visited 117 countries and overseen twenty billion dollars in U.S. foreign spending. Having married her high school sweetheart in 1999, she now resides in Wichita, Kansas—but she manages to maintain an active role at her alma mater.
As “the first female to graduate from Dartmouth’s first coeducational class,” Ms. Chambers—who insists on being called Marian—describes herself as “what might be deemed an unlikely supporter, much less slate member, of an ‘old-school-tie cabal.’” Nonetheless, she strongly supports the efforts of the 2007-2008 Executive Committee to “preserve the 1891 Agreement that established board parity and guaranteed it for 117 years.”
— Marian Chambers —
Chambers remembers her time at Dartmouth with both fondness and a critical eye for reality. Though actually part of the Class of ’76, she graduated in ‘75 and was the first woman to receive a diploma during commencement. “You know, my freshman year, the alumni hired airplanes to fly over the football stadium with banners [saying] ‘Kick coeds out of Dartmouth!’” Chambers comments, “It was not a 100% pleasant experience…I wanted to get out of there really quick!”
“But the one thing that Dartmouth really did for me,” she continues, “was it taught me how to think—not what to think, but how to think,” an important distinction in today’s PC culture. “I believe that is the most important lesson you can learn in life. I was always cramming, not a party girl—though I did my share of it [laughs]—but you know I was sort of bookish. And that’s how I graduated so quickly.” She did so in a little under three years.
“What disturbs me,” she says, “and why I am running with the other petition candidates, is that alumni now have to overcome all sorts of obstacles to stand for the Board of Trustees or the leadership of the Association of Alumni—to which all of us 68,000 alumni belong…We are supposed to contribute, but not ask where the money goes. We are supposed to swallow meekly whatever candidates the establishment serves up to us. We are reproved for offering competitive candidates as trustees, or for the leadership of the Association of Alumni, and if we do, and win—then ‘oops,’ the rules have to be changed.”
Chambers compares the board’s attempt to expand itself—at the expense of alumni—to fixing an election. “It’s sort of like playing croquet in Alice in Wonderland,” she says. “[The administration] keeps changing the mallets and the wickets and all that…The [Board has tried] to set up a system which is self-perpetuating, and if anybody gets close to threatening that self-perpetuating system, they find a way to change the rules so that the people who were threatening it can’t. I just find it astonishing that [these things] would be happening at Dartmouth, I mean these are intelligent people—but in 2006, the authorities tried to change the 1891 Agreement, and when they were overwhelmingly outvoted by the alumni, they [responded by saying], ‘Oh, well, in secret, we’ll just change it anyways.’ Well, that’s not a democratic system to me, [nor is it] fair.”
As for her personal position on President Wright and other prominent College officials, Chambers strives to emphasize what she thinks is wrong, not who she thinks is causing the problems or why. “I want to say first of all that I’m really honored to have been nominated to run for this [position]. I personally fall in an odd category: I don’t hate the president of the College, I don’t hate the current trustees… I know that given my previous work experience, a lot of things are blamed on the person at the top when the guiding hand is not necessarily there. I really don’t know much about [President Wright]. I know he’s worked very hard for fundraising; I don’t know how much he should be blamed for this. I really have no personal animus towards any of these people. I think they are very loyal to our college, and I think they believe they’re doing the right thing—and I don’t think they are. It’s that simple.”
Chambers makes only one other comment regarding her opponent, David Spaulding:
“I am running as a truly independent candidate, and I pledge that, if elected, my responsibilities as the Association Secretary-Treasurer will always be guided by my judgment of what is best for the alumni I represent. No other concerns will influence my actions. On this point, I must note that my opponent for this office, David Spalding, Vice President of Alumni Affairs, is a full time employee of the College…I think [Spalding] is a great guy; I think he has a wonderful background…[but] because the Association is currently involved in litigation (and later, perhaps, in negotiations) with the Trustees, it is necessary to recognize a serious conflict of interest that Mr. Spalding has in determining which constituency should be primary for him.”
There are several goals Chambers has for Dartmouth. She states, “I see at least three areas for improvement: 1) Cutting out the administrative excesses that have plagued institutions of higher learning across the country. 2) Improving benefits for retired faculty and staff. I find it inconceivable that our College won’t pay health care benefits for such loyal people. 3) A greater willingness to work with all three ‘legs of the stool’ of the Dartmouth system, from students pressed by an unbelievable course selection process, to faculty worried about their futures, to alumni who correctly desire answers [about how] the money they contribute so generously [is spent], and a desire to have some say in the governance process.
“And, of course, good governance!”
Like many of her comrades, she has experienced a good deal of unpleasantness for her stand opposite the administration. Many have attributed ulterior motives to the alumni movement, and since the lawsuit’s birth, AoA members have been called just about every name in the book. A recent trend has seen them categorized as a conservative clique intent on undermining Dartmouth’s administration via covert actions. It’s natural for Chambers to feel goaded into responding:
“You know, one of my really dear friends believes that all [the recent conflict] is about getting a group of people together to choose the next president. Well, it’s not; I can assure you I’m not part of a ‘conservative cabal’: I worked for the Democrats in Congress for 23 years! But I believe in common sense, and common sense tells me that there should be rules that everybody has to play by…If this is a conservative cabal, then nobody bothered to give that news to me.”
“I don’t like lawsuits at all, OK?” she continues. “I am not a lawyer. I would avoid lawsuits in almost any context that I could think of. But I also know that when push comes to shove, at some point you have to go down that road if all the other roads have been closed off. So, I think it’s unfortunate that [this path] had to be taken, [but] there wasn’t anywhere else to go.”
“This lawsuit has attracted a lot of attention. I would challenge you to find any member of our slate who is truly enthusiastic about going down this road. I for one have read Bleak House twice, so I know what [damaging lawsuits can] mean…But this is really the only option that was left [to the Association]…I think it’s very unfortunate, but it doesn’t mean I love Dartmouth any less, or any of the other alumni love Dartmouth any less; it’s just what we felt forced into doing.”
“And that the judge agreed is something.”
In the end, it’s about fairness—not naming names or pointing fingers. But sometimes it is important to do is give specifics, like when searching for Dartmouth’s seventeenth President. Chambers hopes the next President would “show the kind of personal attention to scholarship and students that President Kemeny did.” Kemeny was an idol of hers for “his brilliant mind, kindness, and ‘gentle persuasion.’”
“He knew his students,” she says. “I’m not really qualified to judge who the next president should be. I mean that’s what the trustees are for hopefully, and I realize that…you can’t let 60,000 people vote. But I would hope that he or she would show those kinds of qualities, you know, ‘gentle persuasion’…attention to students, faculty, and staff.”
Chambers cites the recent controversy surrounding healthcare benefits at the College.“I find it astonishing that this administration has over night said, ‘Oh, we’re going to take away all the healthcare benefits for anybody from 2009 on for faculty and staff.’ Well, goodness, that seems pretty arrogant to me. I just think, you know, there needs to be evenness to what a president brings to all the people who are involved in Dartmouth—the faculty, the students, and the alumni. And I don’t think [that makes me part of a] conservative cabal [laughs].”
Finally, she makes a point of contrasting her academic experience with ours. “I want a college that reflects everyone’s needs. I think it’s important that students have a say in which direction our college is going, and I’ve heard—I can’t vouch for it—but I’ve heard a lot of stories that trouble me about oversubscribed courses. That it’s hard to get into courses….I never had trouble getting into a course,” she says. “I think something is going wrong. [That, as well as the problems with] health benefits…all these things trouble me. I don’t think anyone is malicious in doing this, but they may be focused on the wrong things, and I would like to help change that —without portraying myself as being unfair.”