25 percent turnout expected in alumni Corp. vote
By Nora Caplan-Bricker
Staff Reporter
The Yale Daily News
Published Friday, April 23, 2010
A little over a week after roughly 60 percent of Yale College students turned out to vote for Yale College Council candidates, the University is holding another election, and anticipating a much smaller turnout.On Thursday, alumni received electronic ballots for the annual Alumni Fellow Election, which will decide the newest member of the University’s highest governing body, the Yale Corporation. In past years, an average of 20 to 25 percent of Yale alumni have participated in the election — a figure that past Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee Chair Melanie Ginter ’78 GRD ’81 said...
#1 By Rigged 9:26a.m. on April 23, 2010
I never received a ballot; at least, there's none in my Inbox or Deleted Items for April 23.
I call for a re-vote! Hamid Karzai can oversee the results.
PK
M.Div. '80
#2 By Pasta Keane 12:26p.m. on April 23, 2010
PK,
You have returned at last! O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay! I too did not receive a ballot.
Pasta Keane-The Anti Pasta Blog
#3 By Yale 80 3:34p.m. on April 23, 2010
I got my electronic ballot weeks ago.
#4 By King Vidor 3:15a.m. on April 24, 2010
Yeah, mine came weeks ago too. Will be a miracle if I still have it! I'd think a reminder would be useful, a couple of days before the deadline, but who knows, I might have gotten one of those too.
#5 By Y01 7:13a.m. on April 24, 2010
I too got my ballot weeks ago--and voted. Though I can see why so few would bother voting. The choices are pretty grim. Every bio is CEO-this and CEO-that. I want to vote for someone who will push for an open and ethical endowment, and support liberal academia NOT the corporatization of it. It feels pretty useless when you realize that we get to vote for the alumni members only, but the largest part of the Yale Corporation is actually installed by departing members. Now, that old-blue good-old-boys system merits a serious article, PLEASE. Announcing that a ballot is coming is a little thin on substance YDN.
#6 By dsimon 11:18a.m. on April 24, 2010
The problem with voting process is that we alums are given no information that is relevant to the purpose of the election: what the candidates think Yale's policies should be. Here's what I wrote to the administration last year when I declined to participate.__________
The letter from President Levin says "The ten Successor Fellows and six Alumni Fellows who convene five times a year are responsible for setting the policies that guide Yale's future." Yet the materials about the candidates provide absolutely no information on their views regarding the policies they think should guide Yale's future. Given the complete absence of such information, I don't see how any alum can cast a responsible vote for anyone for the position.I am sure each of the nominees is a fine individual with an outstanding record of accomplishment. But a great personal history should not be the reason we are electing someone. No employer would hire a candidate for a job without asking questions specific to the job. I don't see why Yale alumni voting in this election should not have the same rights and responsibilities regarding those questions--if they are to have a meaningful role in the process.I would not be greatly upset if the Corporation simply selected its own Alumni Fellows, since I feel we're not given the relevant information to cast an informed vote. But since I don't believe we have the relevant information, I cannot in good faith participate in what seems to me to be a sham process.I urge the University to either provide materials about the candidates concerning the position to which they are being elected, or change the process to leave alumns out of it. This intermediate position where we get to vote but are not given the information to vote on seems simply untenable to me.
#7 By Poking Around 12:07p.m. on April 24, 2010
Dear Anti-Pasta:
Returned?
I've been poking around, especially the Ying Yang Twins and Immigration posting boards.
PK
PS
I actually "quit" three times,but this blogging is addictive.
After Charlie Rose's "Brain Series" (episode 7 on addiction Thursday night) I realized that every new issue of the On-Line YDN sends a little squirt of dopamine into my striatum which triggers my "posting" compulsion.
Now, if we could market that insight into a Skinner Box Behavior Modification formula we could solve a crisis in addictive behavior which is simmering beneath the surface of our culture just waiting to explode.
Actually, 12-Step Programs ARE that very Skinner Box formula, unacknowledged as such.
My name is PK and I'm a Postaholic.
#8 By Coming galumphing back 1:27p.m. on April 24, 2010
PS to Anti-Pasta:
Actually, I 'returned' ("galumphing") from watching Mr. Shaffer's "vorpal blade go snicker snack" as "one, two, one, two and through and through" it cut the hypocrisy surrounding the Ying/Yang Twins' invitation to shreds.
#9 By Re: Galumphing Back 5:13p.m. on April 24, 2010
I hear you may appoint Mr. Shaffer your successor. If that is the case, it has been an honor posting with you. May the wind be always at your back.
#10 By Successor or Guest Columnist? 9:29p.m. on April 24, 2010
Successor when I'm dead. Right now I'm still alive.
I would gladly post any guest column he wished to put on The Anti-Yale, especially if his keyboard is still on fire.
But for me, the pictures are half the fun. That would have to be co-ordinated between guest and host.
PS:
I don't know if your final sentence was serious or tongue-in-cheek, but I've had a lot of fun and intellectual stimulation posting with the YDN posters this year.
Many thanks to all.
# 11By Thanks for the Irish Blessing 12:59 a.m. on April 25, 2010
# 9
Thank you for the Irish blessing. And good luck to you in your endeavors.
PK
The Anti-Yale
PK
The Anti-Yale
#12 By No tongue in Cheek at all 1:06p.m. on April 25, 2010
Merely a celebration of a worthy conversationalist.
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