On June 30, in a classroom in the Herman B Wells Library, employees of the IU Libraries will tally the votes for Indiana University's newest alumni-elected trustee. The process is a familiar one: we've counted votes each year for more than a century.

A groundswell of alumni support led to the present system in which IU alumni elect three members to the Trustees of Indiana University. The Indiana Daily Student reported in January 1891 that all IU alumni in the state received a letter calling them to a meeting to discuss the issue of elected trustees. "Those in attendance," the IDS reported, "numbered fully one hundred, who almost unanimously expressed themselves as heartily in favor of present action."

A bill introduced by Representative James R. McCullough (IU class of 1871) passed two months later--and placed the IU Libraries squarely in the center of the election when it named the university librarian as the overseer of the election.

Read about the candidates.