Untitled - eCommons@Cornell - Cornell University

THE ALUMNI
THE ALUMNI REPRESENTATIVE
The central office of the alumni at Cornell University is that of the
Alumni Representative. That office was created by the Board of
Trustees of the University on June 22, 1920, in confirmation of a re
quest contained in identical resolutions presented by the Associate
Alumni of Cornell University (now the Cornell Alumni Corporation),
the Cornell Association of Class Secretaries, and the Cornellian Coun
cil. The Alumni Representative is appointed by the Board of Trus
tees on the nomination of the presidents of those three organizations
of alumni. He reports to and is under the direction of a committee of
five, composed of three persons representing the three organizations
respectively
and two members of the Board of Trustees who are
alumni. His primary duty is the development of the relations be
tween the University and its alumni. The present Alumni Repre
sentative is Foster M. Coffin '12. His office is in Room 31, Morrill
Hall, Ithaca. The directing committee is Romeyn Berry '04, for the
Alumni Corporation; Walter P. Cooke '91, for the Cornellian Coun
cil; J. H. Comstock '74, for the Association of Class Secretaries, and
Ira A. Place '81 and J. DuPratt White '90, for the Board of Trustees.
CORNELL ALUMNI CORPORATION
The Charter of the University gives the alumni the right to elect
two members of the Board of Trustees every year. All graduates of
the first degree in any of the departments of the University and all
persons who have been admitted to any degree higher than the first
are alumni within the definition of the Statutes.
in the University
At a meeting called for the purpose, and held on June 26, 1872, repre
sentatives of all the classes that had graduated being present, an
organization was effected to be known as the Associate Alumni of
Cornell University. The object of this association was declared to be
"to promote in every proper way the interest of the University, and
to foster among the graduates a sentiment of regard for each other and
attachment to their Alma Mater."
The by-laws contained a pro
vision for the election of trustees by the alumni in accordance with the
Charter, which then permitted such an election to take place pro
vided forty-five alumni met at the University on the day before the
annual Commencement. An amendment to the Charter in 1883 in
augurated a new method of election by which members of the alumni,
not present in person at the annual meeting, are permitted to vote for
trustees by written ballot mailed to the Treasurer of the University,
and that method has virtually superseded the primitive procedure.
An election of trustees may take place at the annual meeting only if
the vote by written ballot has been indecisive.
As the alumni increased in number and formed local clubs and
associations throughout the United States and even in foreign coun-
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