Why Vote in the Cornell Alumni Trustee Election
We know, you receive a lot of emails from Cornell. And itâs really easy to just glance at them and not think any further. But thereâs one email thatâs very important:Â Vote in the 2016 Cornell Alumni Trustee Election. Itâs possible that you just looked at it and thought âwhy should I care?â and promptly archived it. Â Well go back to your email and dig up that message (we gave you the subject line) and go vote! Hereâs why you should vote:
1. The Board of Trustees runs the University. According to the Cornell bylaws, the Board of Trustees has âsupreme control over the University, including every college, school, and academic department, division and center thereof.â Yup, these 64 people (eight of whom are elected by alumni) have a say in everything. They elect the president, oversee the Universityâs finances, and decide what degrees Cornell will offer, to name a few things. We all have opinions about how things at Cornell are done. This is our chance to choose the people who actually decide how things are done.Â
2. Cornell is one of the few major universities that allow alumni to vote for Trustees. A lot of other universities donât even offer alumni the chance to have this much say in who runs the university. So exercise your right to vote! If youâre invested in the future of Cornell (which you should be!), this is your chance to influence the future of the University.Â
3. Your vote actually makes a big difference. You may think that since there are so many alumni, your vote wonât really affect the outcome. However, according to the Cornell Alumni-Elected Trustees website, last year less than 2.5 percentage points separated the first and last place candidates. Thatâs not that much. A few votes here or there could have really made a difference.
And if youâre not really satisfied with any of the candidates, you can even nominate candidates for next year starting on April 25th.
4. It only takes a few minutes to vote. Being too busy is not an excuse. Weâre all busy. Each candidate (and there are only four) answered a few questions about important issues at Cornell. Go to this link and enter the code form your email. Spend a few minutes reading over their responses to see who you most identify with. Then pick two people to vote for. Itâs really that easy.
How to vote You should have already received an email from the beginning of March that included instructions and your unique validation number for online voting. The voting deadline is noon on April 21, 2016.
If you didnât receive a ballot, contact the help desk at [email protected].