Dartmouth College has been the focus in recent years of hotly contested elections for alumni slots on the Dartmouth Board of Trustees — a series of clashes that have turned the usually somnolent alumni-trustee votes into what one observer called battlegrounds for academic freedom.

Balloting has now begun in a new election, in which a petition candidate, Stephen F. Smith, and three candidates selected by the Dartmouth Alumni Council are vying for an open seat on the board. This election has again become controversial, with allegations that both Mr. Smith and the council’s slate of candidates are pawns propped up by politically tainted groups, The Boston Globe reported today.

Electioneering has been more extensive during this election, with Mr. Smith, a law professor at the University of Virginia, running a campaign Web site that features a blog. The Dartmouth administration has also weighed in for the first time. In March it opened a Web site, called Ask Dartmouth, in which it answers questions about the board and issues that have emerged in the recent elections. —Paul Fain