@marlowe1 at #17 I wonder if it was the latter - I get the feeling that Hutchins had an almost hypnotic power over that board!! Also, I wonder if we’ve been getting invitations to suggest trustees and just have tossed them out with the other junk mail. I’ll have to watch for that.
@surelyhuman yes, all trustees have voting rights once on the board, unless an honorary member perhaps. Zimmer’s position as pres. is “ex officio” but I think he still votes.
My point was that any alums elected by the alumnae association are a small group compared to the appointed positions. So if, say, the AA was staging some sort of intervention or wanted to make a statement and elected a younger group whose goals for the university differed from the appointed positions (most of whom were 60+ let’s say), they’d still be in the minority even if they voted lockstep with one another. Not sure if a unanimous vote is needed - hadn’t thought of that - but I suppose that might muck things up if so. Any board can foresee that and make sure that the vote doesn’t have to be unanimous merely by amending the by-laws before adding the seats eligible to be elected by alums.
My impression - and it may be cynical - is that boards allow elected trustees mainly to placate the AA. They may have the same sway in trustee decisions that alumnae interviews of candidates for admission have with the Admissions Dept. Not much, but it’s nice to have the input.