One year after the most controversial Yale Corporation race in University history, Yale officials said they expect this year’s race — between two health care officials and one lawyer — will be a traditional, low-key election.
The Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee selected Jeffrey Koplan ’66, Angela Barron McBride NUR ’64, and Pauline Schneider LAW ’77 as candidates for the six-year term on the Corporation, Yale’s highest governing body. Officials will send ballots and biographical sketches of each candidate to alumni next week, University Secretary Linda Lorimer said. The elected alumnus will replace Benjamin Carson ’73, who has served on the Corporation since 1997.
Koplan is Vice President for Academic Health Affairs at Emory University and was director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation’s chief disease prevention agency.
McBride serves as a professor and dean at Indiana University School of Nursing. She is also Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs-Nursing within Clarian Health Partners, where she addresses changes in health care delivery.
Schneider is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Hunton & Williams. She has been a national leader of the American Bar Association since 1988.
Yale President Richard Levin said this year’s group of candidates is “excellent.”
“All three of the candidates would bring experience, wisdom and insight to the Corporation,” Levin said.
Levin said that the reason behind nominating two health care officials may be the departure of Carson, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins.
Last year, the Corporation race provoked controversy, with the Rev. W. David Lee DIV ’93 running as a petition candidate against the only nominated candidate, Maya Lin ’81 ARC ’86. Alumni elected Lin over Lee by a large margin after a contentious campaign that included competing mailings from Yale’s unions, which backed Lee, and alumni groups backing Lin.
Levin said this year’s election will be more traditional, and he does not expect that any of the candidates will campaign.
“There were no nominations by petition [this year],” Levin said. “Candidates were nominated by the alumni nominating committee.”
Lorimer, who is an ex officio member of the nominating committee, said the committee was pleased by the strength of the candidates they ultimately chose to endorse.
“[The candidates] are three outstanding individuals, all of whom who have had illustrious careers and all of whom are demonstrated leaders in their field,” Lorimer said.
Emeritus history professor Gaddis Smith said the Corporation has become more diverse in the past century — what used to be a “homogenous group of 10 clergymen” has become a more diverse association in which people of various ages, sexes and professions play a role.
According to Corporation bylaws, the nominating committee is charged with soliciting suggestions for possible candidates from members of the Association of Yale Alumni Assembly, leaders of various clubs, the Graduate School and professional schools’ alumni associations and the senior class of Yale College, as well as other groups the Committee deems appropriate.