Yale University - an oligarchy exposed

 

If you want to see the operations of an oligarchy exposed - the same sort of oligarchs who appear to have seized control of the USA as a whole - look no further than the governing board of Yale University.

Yale is a nonprofit corporation and a very wealthy one, whose alumni are supposed to elect its governing board. Ordinarily, Yale alumni get a ballot containing two candidates for each open slot on the board. The two candidates are chosen by . . . the board.

You can vote for whichever one you like, but the candidates are forbidden from taking any positions on any issues. The biographical information that comes with the ballots is scanty and, as I can attest, almost entirely useless in deciding whom to vote for.

Until recently, there was a safety valve: A candidate who could gather enough petitions could have his or her name placed before the alumni, too, running against the two candidates the board nominated. The last time that happened successfully was the first time a Jewish candidate, William Horowitz, was elected to Yale’s governing board. That was in 1965.

But this year, a distinguished Yale alumnus, Victor Ashe, a former mayor of Knoxville and ambassador to Poland, ran his own petition campaign. 

Ashe wanted to end the secrecy that defines Yale governance. (How secret? The minutes of board meetings aren’t released until 50 years later.) In particular, Ashe had questions about the operation of Yale’s endowment, which, though huge, hasn’t been managed as well as some other schools’, though one board member’s investment firm has reaped multimillion-dollar management fees, according to Yale’s 2018 tax return.

Ashe, in other words, ran a campaign on openness and reform. And he lost, which was a disappointment, but not a disgrace.

The disgrace was that, even before the election result was announced, the Yale board met in secret and abolished the petition process. Apparently, even the possibility that an outsider might challenge the insiders’ choices was intolerable.

The net effect is that a small group now controls a multibillion-dollar corporation, with no real accountability. As Ashe told me, “They’ve seized control without any outside supervision. . . . It’s a $31 billion corporation. That’s not pocket change.”

There's more at the link.

The arrogance and insularity displayed by the board are absolutely breathtaking in their impudence and insouciance.  Challenged to be more open, honest and accountable, instead they slam the windows shut, preventing even one single breath of fresh air from penetrating the fusty, stale frowsiness of their once-venerable institution.  Allow greater transparency?  Allow alumni a greater say in the running of their alma mater?  Perish the thought!

I don't know whether, or how, it might be possible to challenge and overthrow this unelected, dictatorial board of governors, but if it can be done, it should be done.  They've just demonstrated their complete and utter lack of fitness for their positions - not to mention exhibiting what appears to be at least underhandedness, possibly pandering to self-interest, perhaps even gross dishonesty, in the ethics of their governance.

How can anyone be proud of graduating from a once-great institution such as Yale, a former bastion in the evolution of what was once the greatest democracy in the world, when it's now seemingly governed by undemocratic, arrogant oligarchs who'll blatantly feather their own nests at the expense of their alumni?

Peter