2010 Alumni Trustee Candidates

Morton Kondracke ’60 (Alumni Council Nominated)

Biography
Morton Kondracke has been a national journalist for 41 years, for the past 18 years as executive editor and columnist at Roll Call, the leading newspaper covering the U.S. Congress.

He was a senior editor at The New Republic, Washington bureau chief of Newsweek, and a Wall Street Journal columnist. He is a Fox News commentator and was a regular panelist on The McLaughlin Group, in each case occupying the “moderate” chair, and on ABC’s This Week. He frequently appeared on Meet the Press and NPR and was a panelist in the 1984 presidential debate.

He is on the boards of Communities in Schools of the Nation’s Capital, the Parkinson’s Action Network and the Michael J. Fox Foundation and is author of the best-selling Saving Milly: Love, Politics and Parkinson’s Disease, subject of a CBS Sunday Night Movie.

As an undergraduate, he was president of The Dartmouth and a member of Delta Upsilon (Foley House). He was a board member of the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine and class secretary. He received the Daniel Webster Award for Public Service from the Dartmouth Club of Washington.

He is married to Marguerite Kondracke, president of America’s Promise, founded by Colin Powell. He has two daughters, Alexandra ’91, a Hollywood filmmaker, and Andrea, a New York physician.

Statement
For the College we all revere, this is a moment of stiff challenge and great opportunity—and time to end the rancor surrounding trustee elections that has damaged Dartmouth’s reputation.

The challenge is to close a $100 million shortfall and restore long-term fiscal health. Our opportunity lies in Jim Kim’s selection as Dartmouth’s visionary new president.

Negativity from past governance wars has obscured that Dartmouth ranks No. 1 for undergraduate teaching and that 98 percent of students express satisfaction with their access to professors.

President Kim wants Dartmouth to achieve even greater excellence. I’ve met him and I believe that he’s sincere, gifted, filled with ideas about how higher education can execute its mission more effectively—and open to ideas from others in and out of the Dartmouth family.

In supporting him and a better Dartmouth future, I will perform as I have as a journalist—work hard to understand the issues, listen to all sides, determine what’s best, and speak my mind, mainly in the board setting, but publicly if Dartmouth comes under attack, as it has in the recent past.

As great as Dartmouth is, both the trustees and President Kim believe its excellence is "a well-kept secret." I will use 50 years of experience in the communications field to help remedy that situation.

I also will use a journalist’s skills—investigation and analysis—to help President Kim eliminate unnecessary costs. Some poor fiscal decisions were made in the past. It’s not a trustee’s role to micromanage policy or try to act as an administrator, but I will both question expenditures and contribute experience as an advocate of increased federal research funding, a need for the nation and a possible source of income for the College.

I support a robust athletic program and our tradition of concentration on undergraduate education. I support Dartmouth’s Greek letter organizations while working to see that they bring out the best in their members and the Dartmouth community. In 1957, I purposely joined a non-discriminatory fraternity and I support diversity and inclusiveness in all aspects of Dartmouth life. I opposed suing the College to restore parity between “charter” and alumni-elected trustees, but I will work to maximize alumni involvement in College governance.

I support John Replogle ’88 for the other alumni vacancy on the board this year.

I love Dartmouth. We all had unique, life-changing experiences there. One of mine was Great Issues, a course required of seniors to acquaint them with national and international problems. I’m excited that President Kim plans to bring it back—for sophomores, when it can influence the direction of their college careers.

As rich as the Dartmouth experience was for me 50 years ago, the College has become more diverse, more globally-minded, its standards higher. I hope to preserve what’s best about the College and make it even better for future students. I ask your support in this endeavor.

•  View Morton Kondracke's Web Site
•  

« Back to Candidates Gallery