No Lux at Yale By John W. Childs
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2021/05/26/no_lux_145831.html
The fathers of Yale University, founded more than three centuries ago, chose as their motto Lux et Veritas – “Light and Truth.” Well, it looks like the Lux just went out at Yale. And Veritas? We’ll come back to that later.
It seems that the Yale Corporation has just learned what successful communist regimes have always known: free speech and free elections are dangerous to the establishment.
In recent years, the board of this venerable institution has been governed largely by . . . Yale University. Typically, Yale handpicks its slate of candidates. However, a token exception in the rules has permitted alumni to petition the university to nominate a candidate for the slate. It’s a rigorous process, requiring so many alumni signatures – more than 4,000 this round – that few made it onto the ballot.
In the 2021 elections, such a candidate was Victor Ashe, Class of 1967. Ashe, a former mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee, and ambassador to Poland, is something of a conservative – and, horrors, a known donor to Republican political campaigns. He was supported by alumni committed not only to him but also to fielding independent candidates in future years. Ambassador Ashe managed to win enough support to make it onto the official slate.
No mean achievement – and apparently enough to panic Yale’s leadership. The ink (or the electronic signal) was hardly dry on the ballots when the board of trustees announced that it would change the rules governing board elections and close what will be known ever after as the Ashe Loophole. No longer may the mass of alumni – many harboring dangerous conspiracy theories and a bizarre allegiance to American history as it occurred – have even the semblance of a voice in the selection of their representatives. Too much anarchy!
In place of this archaic system – one Yale graduate, one vote – the corporation has adopted a more streamlined and controversy-free system. It will review candidates for election slates and select those representing the best interests of Yale, which thinking men and women will recognize is synonymous with the interests of the Yale Corporation. Having made this selection, Yale will present its candidates to the alumni at large and let the alumni go through the motions of voting. We predict the corporation candidates will win by overwhelming majorities.
No more cliffhangers. We will have a welcome return to soothing predictability.
As for Veritas, we have been informed that Ambassador Ashe lost the recent election. However, despite requests, the Yale Corporation has failed thus far to release all the details of the vote totals. Inquiring minds might wonder. But of course that would be conspiracy theory.
Mr. Childs is a member of the Yale Class of 1965.
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