The text of the petition, with 1,121 signatures at 3:00PM PDT July 14, 2018 was sent electronically to Tania Deng, Secretary, Board of Trustees of Earlham College. Hard copies in the mail Monday, July 16th to the registered address. A cover letter, signed by the five organizers of the petition, accompanies the full text, and is copied here: To: Board of Trustees, Earlham College From: Stefan Einarson, Stephen Gasteyer, Ian Jipp, Catherine Kemp, Loren Lybarger, alumni Re: Petition for the Reinstatement of Alan Price, Additional Reforms Date: July 14, 2018 Attn: Tania Deng, Secretary Dear Ms. Deng: Enclosed please find the text of an open letter addressed to the Board of Trustees of Earlham College on the subject of the departure of President Alan Price. This text, in the form of a petition on the site Change-dot-org, has received 1,121 signatures as of 12:00PM PDT Saturday, July 14, 2018. The petition may be found at https://chn.ge/2KVSGot. We ask that this cover letter and the enclosure be conveyed immediately to every member of the current Board. The letter’s call for Alan’s reinstatement expresses the reservations about the viability and the desirability of the Board’s action in this regard that have emerged in the days since the resignation was announced. In addition, it expresses the alarm and the shock that the alumni community feels at the revelations about the college’s financial and governance situation over the last several years. In conveying this letter to you today, the five of us would note the following: Alumni asking for reassurance that the Board’s decision with respect to Alan’s tenure as president was taken either by consensus, under the College’s traditional decision-making process, or lawfully under the current Bylaws of the Board of Trustees dated October 18, 2013, have been unable to ascertain that the action satisfies the requirements of either. We are genuinely alarmed at the erosion, perhaps the entire loss, of traditional governance at the college at every level. In addition, we are deeply concerned that the current Bylaws concentrate too much discretionary power in the Board, and in a small subset of trustees on the Board, even as we worry that the Board’s action with respect to Alan’s presidency may not have been carried out in accordance with those Bylaws. Finally, we worry that the erosion of Earlham’s traditional consensus governance over the last two decades has left a vacuum of norms for decisions and actions in all spheres of College operation, including and especially expenditure and investment, that may have contributed to the current financial straits. It is in light of these concerns that the five of us forward to you this plea from 1,121 alumni and friends that the full Board take under consideration the following: (a) review of the Board’s action in requesting and accepting Alan’s resignation, (b) suspension of the terms of that resignation pending further deliberation, (c) repeal of the current Bylaws and the development of a more open process of review to draft and ratify new ones, (d) faculty review and recommendation of any cuts to faculty remuneration or employment with recommendations advisory to the full board, (e) disclosure and review by the community of the history and structure of the current debt, and (f) review and reconsideration of the use and management of Earlham’s endowment during this time of crisis. In sum, we request that consideration of Alan’s resignation be put before the full Board in a timely fashion, and that the Board put repeal of the current Bylaws, a measure for return to shared faculty governance, and issuance of full public disclosure of the college’s debt and endowment position before the full Board of Trustees at its next meeting. The alumni response to the revelation of the College’s dire straits and to the news of Alan Price’s departure has been overwhelming. It is impossible to overstate the love the alumni feel for their college and for their community, or their fear for its future. We are confident that Alan took the job out of the same feeling for the place and its people, and the people who signed the open letter trust him to serve as steward of the recovery. Everyone has these last two weeks begun to contemplate the loss of something terribly important to us, and, we believe, vital in the world. An Earlham education produces a passionate, talented, and deeply committed alumni community that is now intensely focused on starting a conversation with the Board and the College to begin the process of recovery. Please read the open letter in this spirit, and consider well its plea for Board action on these matters. We look forward to hearing from you and to sharing your response with our fellow alumni in a timely fashion. Sincerely, Stefan Einarson, ’82-’85, Union College ‘87 Stephen Gasteyer, ‘87 Ian Jipp, ‘87 Catherine Kemp, ‘87 Loren Lybarger, ‘86