Statement of Opponents to the Proposed Amendments

Both proponents and opponents of the proposed amendments were asked to submit, no later than December 3, a 500-word statement that will appear at a page of the Reed College web site once ballots are transmitted to all alumni for voting. 

The following statement has been submitted by the opponents:

Because of our love of Reed College and our community, we oppose key aspects of the proposed constitutional changes. We, the authors and co-signers, include past and present trustees, alumni board members, alumni office staff, Reed service award honorees, and chapter leaders. Three dedicated chapter chairs resigned in protest of this proposal, and at least one at-large board member resigned. Our goal is to strengthen the Alumni Association and Board of Directors (ABD).

ARTICLE II Purpose: ...Alumni Association exists to foster the continuing welfare of both the College and its alumni by promoting mutually beneficial interaction, by sustaining a sense of community among alumni and between the College...

Chapters are essential to ABD’s defined purpose—promoting beneficial interaction and strengthening the Reed community. 65% of alumni live in chapter regions. Programming by chapters is a critical way for alumni to meet other alumni outside of reunions. When ABD and Reed offices need people to assist students or alumni, they count on chapter leaders. Chapter representatives are essential participants in ABD discussions—they explain what does and doesn’t work locally; coordinate potentially conflicting efforts; leverage complementary projects; and serve as liaison between the ABD and chapters.

The ABD consists of 23 members chosen by the board’s Nominating Committee, and a representative selected by each active chapter (currently 9), for a total of 32 members. The proposal would reduce chapter representation to a maximum of 3, chosen by the Nominating Committee from a list supplied by a yet-to-be-created nominally independent Chapter Steering Organization. These representatives would serve for one year (as opposed to three or four for other ABD members), possibly renewable twice by the Nominating Committee. Importantly, these changes have no transition provision—if accepted, they remove all chapter representatives from the ABD until July 1, 2020, after the Chapter Steering Organization is created and can go through the annual nomination process.

The four "Goals for changes” (https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2018/alumni-board-changes.html) published in September 2018 Reed Magazine are vague and do not reflect what the changes actually do. No rationale for reducing the number of chapter representatives is ever given. One stated goal is to provide chapter independence, yet each chapter would remain required to report to the ABD. Chapter representation would be controlled by the ABD. The constitutional changes do not change committee assignments or project-based work.

Although supporters of the proposed changes claim that the ABD will be more streamlined and nimble once the changes have been adopted, the changes we oppose will instead add bureaucracy and distance between the ABD and the Chapters. Other changes, especially those that permit distanced and asynchronous participation, are entirely reasonable, but they have been unfortunately packaged with changes to chapter representation for a single yes-or-no vote.

The Alumni Association Board’s principal purpose is bringing together alumni as well as other College constituencies. Chapters are essential to this function.

We urge alumni to vote NO to these constitutional changes.

A list of authors and co-signers can be found at https://reedalumni.blogspot.com/2018/12/list-of-authors-and-cosignors-of.html