Welcome to the 2025 Alumni Trustee Election toolkit for Cornell volunteers

Cornell’s alumni volunteer organizations and volunteer-driven activities play an important role in helping Cornell reach alumni where they are. For the annual Alumni Trustee Election, we invite our alumni volunteers to support the efforts to increase alumni awareness—about the role of trustees and the candidates—and drive voting participation among alumni in their communities. If you have questions or need help finding a resource, please reach out to Cornell Volunteer Programs at ovp@cornell.edu. 

Help us “Get Out the Trustee Vote!”

Alumni Trustee Election basics

Campaigning policy

Please note that campaigning is strictly prohibited by the candidates or on behalf of the candidates.  As a volunteer, it’s extremely important that you know what this means!

  • Any organization newsletters, e-mails, social media posts, etc. containing candidate information must mention all candidates, provide the same information for each candidate, and not single out or highlight specific affiliations or qualifications. This applies to schools and colleges as well as all volunteer organizations at Cornell (classes, regional clubs, diversity alumni programs, and more).
  • Encouraging alumni to vote (or not vote) for any particular candidate, or to vote for someone representing a specific constituency (i.e. college, class year, region, volunteer organization) or broad category (i.e. Greek Life, Athletics, etc.) is prohibited.
  • Candidates are also prohibited from engaging in written or oral contact with alumni about one’s candidacy. Please do not directly contact candidates at any point to ask for written statements or seek their stance on a particular issue.
  • Our full statement about campaigning is available online: click here.  Please direct any questions to Alumni Affairs at electalumtrustee@cornell.edu.

About the election / FAQ 

  • How do the candidates achieve a spot on the ballot?
    • The Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations (CATN) is composed of 28 alumni members, one representing each college and the rest from a broad range of alumni organizations. The committee is charged by the Cornell Alumni Association with screening and endorsing four qualified alumni to stand as candidates in the annual election for alumni trustees. Alumni, staff, students, and friends of the university submit the nominations received by the committee. While administratively supported by staff, the review of candidates and selection of nominees are wholly the responsibility of CATN.  CATN takes into consideration the nomination criteria and broad and specific needs of the board.
    • Alumni may also achieve a spot on the ballot through self-nomination and petitioning Cornell alumni for signatures. Unendorsed candidates do not go through the CATN review process .
  • What do trustees do?
    • Each year, two alumni are elected to join the full 64-member Cornell University Board of Trustees, which is vested with “supreme control” over the university, including all of its colleges and other units. Trustees have a fiduciary responsibility to the university as a whole. Among other responsibilities, the board elects the president, adopts an annual plan of financial operation, and establishes degrees to be awarded. 
    • Read: Board of Trustees 101 on Cornellians
    • Watch: “In Trustees We Trust”, a 2021 event recording with Corey Ryan Earle ’07 to learn more about the history of the board and what they do.
    • Interested in seeing what they talk about in meetings? Open session meeting minutes from the past year are available on the Board of Trustees’ calendar site.
  • Who are the current trustees?
    • Click here to see the past and current alumni-elected trustees. Alumni-elected trustees serve one four-year term and the trustees elected in 2021 are currently in the fourth and final year of their term.
    • Click here to see the full 64-member board roster.
    • Click here for information about additional constituent-elected trustees (faculty, staff, and students).
  • Why should alumni vote? 
    • Cornell is one of the few major universities that offer its alumni an opportunity to vote for alumni board members. By voting, you are helping to select members of the Cornell University Board of Trustees who guide the future of our alma mater. 
    • Voting in the Alumni Trustee Election counts as engagement with Cornell – and with more than 20,000 voters last year,  it’s our single biggest opportunity for engaging the most alumni across one “event”!
    • View our Recent election data (scroll to list of reports at the bottom of the page) for more insight on the data: How many alumni voted? How close was the election? What is the breakdown of voters by college, region, and decade?
  • All of the candidates are amazing; how can alumni decide who to vote for without knowing them?
    • Review their formal candidate statement and bios on each candidate’s webpage on the AAD election site.
    • Read this year’s “Meet the Candidates” article for a deeper Q&A about why they chose Cornell, their time as a student, their experience as a Cornell volunteer, and more.
    • Candidate videos are available on each candidate’s page on the Alumni Trustee Election website.
    • Tune in to the Trustee Talk event on Tuesday, February 4 at 7 p.m. EST to hear more from the candidates as well as current alumni-elected trustees, hosted by Corey Ryan Earle ’07. (Post-event recording is available here).
  • Why must alumni vote for two candidates?
    • This has been revisited many times over the years, and a few years ago the Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations created a subcommittee where this policy was reviewed. Following an Election Science based decision, it was decided that the vote for two policy was the best choice to prevent bullet voting. This is described on the election website and also copied below. Voters may submit names for one or two write-in candidates, if there are not two on the ballot they wish to vote for.
      • In order to prevent bullet voting, which could be perceived as benefitting one candidate over another, all voters are required to vote for two of the candidates on the ballot. Voters also have the option of adding a “write-in” candidate to the ballot in place of voting for a candidate already listed. (NOTE: Bullet voting is the practice of choosing just one candidate despite the ability to choose or rank more. The practice of bullet voting leads to the same outcome as plurality voting, since plurality voting restricts voters to choosing one candidate. – The Center for Election Science 
  • How can alumni vote? 
    • Email – Alumni will receive an email with a personalized link to vote from our election vendor on February 1, as well as several email reminders throughout the month. This is the easiest and preferred method of voting as the voting link will be personalized for each recipient.
    • Website (https://alumni.cornell.edu/volunteer/leadership/trustees/voting) – Alumni who arrive at the election website through any other means will be required to log in with their Cornell NetID or an election code (available by request at Help+Cornell@YesElections.com).  
    • Paper Ballots – Alumni will be mailed a paper ballot if they have voted via paper ballot in the past five years, have donated or paid class dues by mail during the last two years, or have requested to always receive a paper ballot. Any alumnus can also request that a paper ballot be sent to them by contacting Help+Cornell@YesElections.com. Paper ballot requests must be received by February 14.
    • Phone – The toll-free number to vote is: (877) 318-8665.  A numeric election code is required, available on mailed paper ballots or by request from the election vendor at Help+Cornell@YesElections.com.
    • Who can alumni contact if they have questions or need help? 
      • For general questions related to the election or candidates, alumni may contact Cornell at: electalumtrustee@cornell.edu 
      • For customer service related to voting (i.e. to request an election code or paper ballot), alumni should contact the help desk of our our third-party election vendor, YesElections:
      • Alumni who need technical assistance with their NetID can contact the IT Service Desk during business hours: 
  • Are votes confidential and secure?
    • Yes! Cornell uses a full-service election management agency, YesElections, who offers state-of-the-art election security and data privacy protection.  YesElections administers all internet and phone voting, the mailing and processing of paper ballots, and secure and accurate tabulation. YesElections offers single-vote verification, guaranteed protection of voter files, and a system that ensures ballots remain secret.

 

Measuring success
If you are interested in measuring the results of your outreach efforts, we encourage you to work with your Cornell Alumni Affairs staff contact and consider some of the following methods:

  • Benchmarking – Your Cornell staff contact can provide data, upon request, letting you know how many alumni from your organization have voted in the past. During and after the election, we can provide progress checks and results of this year for comparison/to measure growth.
  • Measuring traffic from your organization’s communications – You are welcome to set up bit.ly (or other trackable) links to track the traffic generated from your organization’s communications.