The Dartmouth College Board of Trustees consists of the president of the College, the governor of New Hampshire (ex officio), and 24 other trusteeships: 16 charter trustee positions and eight alumni-nominated trustee positions.

When an alumni-nominated trustee completes his or her service on the board, the board of trustees asks the Alumni Council to select up to two candidates to fill that vacancy.

The Alumni Council Nominating and Trustee Search Committee, which oversees that process, is made up of 11 alumni with a wide range of professions, beliefs, ethnicity, class years, and cultural and regional backgrounds. They solicit suggestions from the entire alumni body by mail and online, and then begin the process of reviewing every recommendation they receive. That involves reading each alumnus’s biography, thoroughly discussing the candidate's potential as a trustee, and speaking with references. The process takes many months and several hundred volunteer hours. For more information about the composition and work of the Alumni Council Nominating and Trustee Search Committee, click here.

The discussions of the nominating committee are frank and involve healthy debate. They focus on the experience or expertise a candidate would bring to the board, how active an individual has been in the life of the College, and whether the candidate would add a different or important perspective to the existing board.

The committee reviews hundreds of names each year. This comprehensive search process enables the committee to identify outstanding trustee candidates, which is critical in shaping a strong board to steward the academic, athletic, extracurricular, social, and fiscal future of Dartmouth.

View the Dartmouth Board of Trustees Statement of Governance and Trustee Responsibilities.

The Alumni Council has nominated two trustee candidates for the 2010 election. To view the nominated candidates, click here.

To read the current guidelines for trustee nominations, click here.