Dartmouth has been locked in a major power struggle regarding its mission and future for some time--as evidenced by the series of contentious alumni trustee elections that have taken place over the years. Since the late ninteenth century, Dartmouth has maintained a small board, half of whom are charter trustees appointed by existing board members and half of whom are elected by alumni. The alumni elections always contain the possibility of surprise, as anyone who satisfies some basic criteria can add themselves to the ballot as a petition candidate. Lately, petition candidates have been running on strong reform platforms -- and in four straight elections, they have been winning. This, in turn, has sent Dartmouth establishment-types into spirals of worry and outrage about their power to control the institution and secure their own interests. And, not surprisingly, they have responded with efforts to make it harder for reform-minded alumni with lots of popular support to find their democratic way onto the board of trustees.

The most recent effort was also the most dramatic. Last fall, Dartmouth announced plans to completely restructure its board. Under the new plan, the 16-member board would increase its overall size to 24, adding eight new charter trustees while keeping the same number of alumni trustees. The new structure would radically diminish the power these eight trustees have. Where alumni-elected trustees were once 50% of the board, equal partners in governance, the new structure aims to render them a comparatively disempowered minority.

There was lots of legitimate outrage and uproar when word got out about the proposed changes--and there was also a lawsuit. Filed by Dartmouth's Association of Alumni in October, it sought an opinion on the validity of the changes to the board. A motion to dismiss was denied on February 5--and Dartmouth has responded by agreeing, for the time being, not to make any changes to the College's governance structure without giving alumni substantial notice.

Powerline reproduces an email that explains:

The attorneys for the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees and for the Dartmouth Association of Alumni reached an agreement on Valentine's Day that the College would indefinitely forebear from seating new trustees under the Trustees' September 7 Board-expansion plan.

In light of Judge Vaughan's recent denial of the College's motion to dismiss, and the likelihood that the Judge would follow up his decision with an injunction preventing the Trustees from increasing the size of the Board, the Trustees have accepted not to increase the size of the Board for the time being, and if they change their decision, they will notify the AoA of this decision 45 days prior tool its implementation. Clearly the College has finally understood the strength of the AoA case against it.

So ... Dartmouth's board can't go ahead with its plans to reorient its power base in ways that don't speak terribly well for its faith in democratic procedure or its respect for its alumni stakeholders. But that doesn't mean that it can't take on some necessary reforms. ACTA president Anne Neal wrote a very telling memo last summer, pointing out some serious conflicts of interest that are currently built into Dartmouth's governance structure and offering some strong advice on how to resolve them. Perhaps Dartmouth's board could get going on that.