The Alumni Association recently elected Sharon Halverson (LA '65) and William O'Reilly, Jr. (LA '77) as the newest members of the University's Board of Trustees.
The two were selected by alumni voters from a pool of four chosen by the Alumni Council's nominating committee.
The winners were contacted by Alumni Association President Alan MacDougall last weekend after President Larry Bacow and Board Chair James Stern were notified of the results.
The nominating committee chose the four candidates last fall, and voting from the 80,000 members of the Alumni Association closed early this month.
According to the chair of the nominating committee, Caryn Pawliger, nominations are based on alumni's service to the University and their professional and volunteer experience.
Halverson was most recently the executive director of the Council of Community Services in Port Chester/Rye, N.Y..
O'Reilly is the vice chair of the real estate department of the law firm Hale and Dorr in Boston.
Both have served on the Alumni Council for several years, and O'Reilly was the president prior to MacDougall.
The vote totals for the winners and the other two candidates, Gloria White Hammond and John de Jong, are confidential.
Out of the 40 spots on the Board of Trustees, ten are reserved for alumni. According to MacDougall, it is rare for universities to reserves spots for alumni.
Halverson and O'Reilly will each serve five-year terms on the Board, replacing Joyce Barsam and Monte Haymon at November's meeting.
Barsam and Haymon have each served for ten years -- terms were limited to five years in 1999. Haymon was the chair of the School of Engineering's Board of overseers.
According to Trustees Secretary Linda Dixon, the two new trustees will be invited to the May Board meeting "as a courtesy" before they are installed in November.
Halverson said one of her priorities on the Board will be improving the University's financial aid capability, as she was able to attend school because of loans and scholarships. "As close as we can come to need blind, it would certainly improve the quality of students who are able to come to Tufts," she said.
Unlike charter trustees -- trustees who are nominated by a Board committee and are not told they are being considered until they are approved by the whole Board -- alumni trustees have the option of campaigning.
"Traditionally, alumni have not campaigned," MacDougall said. However, "in recent years, because the alumni body is so widely spread, there has been an effort made," he said.
Halverson said a classmate sent e-mails to other class members asking for them to support her . "For years I've been on the Alumni Council, and we've been trying to increase the number of people who vote for alumni trustees," she said. "This year, I had a personal interest."
Alumni trustees do not have to be approved by the Board after they are elected by the Alumni Association, and charter trustees are not put before an alumni vote prior to their approval by the Board.
Once the alumni trustees are elected, however, they have the same status as charter trustees. "Alumni trustees have all the same responsibilities," MacDougall said. "Nobody on the board remembers how they got there."
