One of Dartmouth College’s two official alumni groups announced on Tuesday that it planned to seek a court order to prevent the institution from making a controversial change in the structure of its board. In a divided decision, the executive committee of the Dartmouth Association of Alumni voted to take legal action to block the college from filling eight newly created trustee slots. Even the alumni group’s president, William J. (Bill) Hutchinson, said he “deplores” the legal action.
Critics have blasted the planned board overhaul as diluting alumni participation, and an association official called the lawsuit a “last resort.” Dartmouth officials said the lawsuit had no legal merit. The board overhaul follows a series of increasingly bitter elections for alumni trustees, the last was followed by $300,000 in protest advertisements. —Paul Fain
