Alumnus Files Petition to Seek Trustee Seat

Anthony A. DelGreco ’82 is seeking to run in the Alumni Trustee election that is scheduled for February 2027. Candidates for that position can be added to the ballot either by filing a nominating petition with 800 validated signatures or by selection by the Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations (CATN). DelGreco opted to file a petition, and on July 30 he crossed the 800-signature mark. A Cornell spokesperson reported, “We had one alumnus seek nomination by petition this year, and he successfully collected the required 800 signatures.” So DelGreco will appear on the ballot.

The Process

Cornell provides online petitions from June 2 through July 31, 2026. During that time, DelGreco built a campaign website and circulated his online petition largely through emails sent by Cornell-related organizations. By the July 31 deadline, DelGreco had gathered 826 online signatures. Cornell employees in the Development Office have just completed verifying those signatures. The number of signatures required is at least 0.25 percent of the contactable population of Cornell alumni (rounded to the nearest 50).

Meanwhile, the CATN is evaluating people who have submitted their names to be among the four candidates it will place on the ballot this year. In the past, CATN has been criticized for allegedly using identity groups as a major criterion for selecting its nominees. People have also noted that the CATN has nominated their former members. The rules do not prevent CATN from including DelGreco as one of its four endorsed candidates this year.

The next step is for CATN to announce its four nominees and the top four candidates who filed the most petition signatures (at least 800 valid signatures). Ballots will then be mailed to all alumni, or individual ballot links will be sent to alumni by email. The voting takes place during February 2027.

Write-in votes are allowed and occur every year. Under the CATN rules, voters must vote for two people, and ballots with only one vote are discarded. So, voters seeking to support only one candidate write in a second vote to preserve their ballot.

The last petition candidate successfully elected alumni trustee was Robert J. Kane ‘34 who won in 1977.

Campaigning

The CATN has adopted very strict rules against campaigning, and the Development Office staff has taken an even more restricted interpretation of the rules to prevent campaigning. Candidates are forced to agree to the rules as a condition of having their names appear on the ballot. The rule reads:

“Candidates may share general information about the election, encourage voting within their personal networks, participate in election-related forums and events that feature all candidates, and share their perspective about Cornell in private conversations. Candidates may not solicit or agree to endorsements of one’s candidacy, statements to the media or organizations, advertise, speak negatively about other candidates, or participate in broad-based outreach to alumni without their consent promoting one’s candidacy (i.e., via email or posting in Cornell-related social media groups). Candidates nominated by petition are expected to comply with the campaigning policy upon petition closing date through closing of the election.”

So, DelGreco is not allowed to announce that he passed the 800-signature test. In past years, the Cornell Free Speech Alliance endorsed a CATN-nominated candidate on an unsolicited basis, yet the CATN forced the candidate to request that the endorsement be rescinded as a violation of campaign rules. 

A few years ago, the Cornell Alumni Interfraternity Council sent an email to all nominated candidates asking them to write a short statement about their views on Greek Life. Although equal coverage of all candidates in an organizational newsletter is expressly allowed by the rules, the Development Staff ordered the candidates not to respond to the request.

As a result of the campaign rules and nominating structure, it is hard for alumni voters to select trustee candidates based upon their position on the issues.