Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Waiting for Results

After 45 days, the polls for the trustee election have closed. According to Dartblog, the results should be coming out tomorrow.

This is a very significant election. It will be interesting to see whether the success streak of petition candidate continues. But it is also interesting that the stated platforms of the leading candidates, Stephen Smith and Sandy Alderson, are very similar. Each of them approaches COS, Free Speech, and College vs. University with similar stances, only Alderson is much more restrained. The most notable aspect of this matchup are the weaknesses of the candidates - Smith's disconnection from campus and his hyperbole, and Alderson's unwaivering and unquestioning praise for James Wright.

2 comments:

A.S. Erickson said...

I'd be interested if you could expand on how Smith and Alderson take the same College v. University stance. From what I've read, Alderson seems much more supportive of the Dartmouth University idea—this ties in with his friendship with Wright.

David Nachman said...

I agree that Alderson favors a more research-oriented balance that Smith does, but in terms of his rhetoric, he emphasizes that Dartmouth is a capital letter College. It's not that Alderson and Smith are really so similar, it's that Alderson has been closely mirroring Smith, trying to have every issue both ways.