The 2025 Alumni Trustee Candidates

Paul Hayre ’91 and Karen E. Stewart ’85 were elected after more than 20,000 alumni in an online election that took place between February 1st and 28th, 2025. They will serve for a term that begins on July 1st, 2025 and ends on June 30th, 2029.

In most years, the Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations (CATN) endorses four candidates in an election that fills two seats each year. The membership of CATN includes representatives from alumni groups that focus upon separate identity groups, and in recent decades CATN has nominated candidates from a wide array of identity groups.The Board of Trustees itself fills 43 seats and generally appoints wealthy donors to those seats. It would make more sense to use Board-elected seats to serve any diversity goals than to somehow repurpose the eight alumni-elected representatives for that goal. Yet, one of the CATN criteria for judging candidates is “Broad compositional diversity.”

This year two additional candidates filed petitions with at least 400 signatures to also appear on the ballot, Cindy Crawford MBA ’90 and J. Kennerly (Ken) Davis, Jr. ’68 These candidates ran on a platform of promoting free expression and viewpoint diversity on campus.

Under the rules, the four unsuccessful candidates must sit out at least a year before trying again.

Cornell does not release the final vote totals, so alumni cannot learn how close the two free speech candidates came to being elected. While Cornell keeps the vote totals secret, the CATN releases a statistical report on the demographic breakdown of the election. The 2025 data has not yet been released, but the 2024 data shows that the elections are very competitive.

Percentage and numeric difference between the highest and lowest voted for candidates:

Cornell will not release the “margin of victory”, i.e., the vote difference between the lowest elected candidate and the highest unsuccessful candidate.

A major factor in why there is such a small difference in the vote gap is that if a voter supports only one candidate without marking a second choice on the ballot, the ballot will not be counted. Alumni who wish to support only one candidate must write in the name of a friend to receive a second vote in order to have their ballots counted. Cornell does not release the number of ballots disqualified or the number of write-in votes cast.

The last time a petition candidate who appeared on the ballot without the endorsement of CATN got elected was 1977. Robert J, Kane ‘34, who had just retired as the Dean of Athletics, ran and won in order to demonstrate alumni support for Cornell’s athletic programs. Since then, in 2017, a pair of candidates ran on a platform of favoring carbon neutrality.

Voter Turnout

Critics of the Student Assembly elections note its low 10.5% voter turnout and conclude that those elected may not legitimately represent their student constituents. Here are the voter turnout data for the alumni trustee elections based upon comparing the number ballots issued to alumni with those that are returned. (Alumni with no known address or email are not sent ballots.)

Note tha turnout spiked in 2017, the last year with unendorsed candidates.

No Campaigning Allowed

The CATN, and the Cornell staff that supports that committee, work very hard to prevent alumni trustee elections from being decided based upon the issues. Alumni trustee candidates sign agreements that prohibit any campaigning as a condition of appearing on the ballot. While serving as a Trustee, a non-disclosure agreement prevents communications with the alumni about issues brought before the Board.  However, by a long tradition, each Alumni-elected trustee has a farewell column published outlining their work at the end of their four year term. These columns used to be printed in the Cornell magazine, and now appear on the Cornellians website.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) wrote a blog post in February 2024 about the campaign rules.

“Unfortunately, under the existing election rules, it is unlikely that those whose views do not align with the Cornell administration will have a chance to do so. Like elections conducted under authoritarian regimes, Cornell’s trustee elections are mere pageantry. The current process gives the illusion of objectivity while hindering independent candidates from having any real chance at success. The result of this unfair process will be a complacent and ineffective governing board.”

In 2024, the Cornell Free Speech Alliance sent out emails to many alumni endorsing Paul M. Cashman ’73 for election. Even though Cashman did not ask for the endorsement, the CATN and Cornell staff then pressured Cashman to ask CFSA to withdraw its endorsement under penalty of his being removed from the election.

The CATN election rules allow for alumni organizations to print messages from the candidates in their newsletters so long as equal space is allowed for each candidate. Recently, the Alumni Interfraternity Council asked all four candidates about their views on Greek Life with the responses to be printed in a newsletter during the voting period. Yet, the CATN and staff ruled that such a specific question violated the campaign rules.

The ACTA blog post concludes, “The campaigning ban serves as a mechanism for the Cornell administration to quiet the voices of those who could rock the boat, ironically revealing why leaders who are committed to free expression are so urgently needed on the board.”

Perhaps allowing the candidates to engage in substantive issues might increase voter turnout.