Jesse Welty | Nov. 3, 2026
On April 21, 2026, Warren Wilson College’s (WWC) alumni offices sent out an email announcing the largest changes to the structure of alumni relations in decades.
“I am delighted to share Warren Wilson College's refreshed alumni engagement model,” the email reads. “Using your feedback, we have designed a distinctively Warren Wilson model that prioritizes engagement opportunities that are time-bound, purpose-driven, and responsive to your individual capacity, geography, and interests.”
Adam “Pinky” Stegall, a former Alumni Board member from 2013-2024, as well as Alumni Board president from 2020-2022, says that after having served on the board for 11 years, he was able to read between the lines to see that there was a much more substantial change being implemented.
“I could see that they were replacing the Alumni Board,” Stegall said. “The college was not being transparent to the alumni base about what those changes really meant, and that bothered me big time. They were hiding the fact that these new structures are significantly weaker.”
In WWC’s leadership structure, a number of bodies contribute to the college’s decision-making procedures, however, all final decisions are carried out via a vote by the Board of Trustees. The Alumni Board had existed as a body and held a seat as a voting member of the Board of Trustees for decades. It was aimed at not only increasing engagement between alumni and current college initiatives, but also served as a branch in the community governance system that was designed to ensure a balanced decision-making process.
Following the announcement, it was quickly understood that the Alumni Board was being dissolved in favor of a new model, currently labeled as the Alumni Leadership Council. While this model is not yet entirely fleshed out, one clarification made on the updated WWC alumni page stated that with these changes, there will no longer be an alumni representative with voting power on the Board of Trustees.
“We’ll no longer be in the room for sensitive discussions about things like personnel changes or land sales,” Stegall said. “Alumni input will now be reduced to just a one-page report we hope people will read, instead of actually participating. And since the student and staff reps do not have voting power, and were not present for [executive] sessions, we often advocated for their interests, too. I think that's important for students and staff to understand as well.”
After ongoing requests for an explanation, Marley Fischer, the Director of Alumni and Donor Engagement at the time, posted a response in the WWC alumni Facebook group stating that the changes were designed in alignment with an alumni preferences survey that was sent out in August of 2025, and that the program updates would actually make alumni involvement more accessible. For many, this explanation was not entirely satisfactory, prompting Fischer to later post a clarifying document identifying one of the reasons for the restructuring, in fact, being due to North Carolina nonprofit law and the legality of ex-officio voting capabilities.
An ex-officio position on the Board of Trustees refers to a member of the board that has acquired that position through another office. Under North Carolina nonprofit law, any persons not considered a “director” may not serve as a voting member on a nonprofit governing board. The director role is largely defined by a legal fiduciary duty to their institution requiring them to act in their institution's best interests. The college states that, due to the potential for conflicts of interest in the alumni ex-officio position, they are legally unable to serve as fiduciaries, and thus as directors on the Board of Trustees.
What is not explicitly stated is the distinction between North Carolina nonprofit law and an institution's bylaws. Under state law, the duties and powers of ex-officio roles are to be defined by the institution's bylaws, therefore leaving the fact of conflict of interest up to the institution's jurisdiction. While clarification may very well have been necessary, the resulting delineation of ex-officio abilities is the school’s prerogative. The contention that remains, then, and what many alumni are requesting answers for, is why that particular verdict was made, and why the entire Alumni Board would be eradicated along with it.
Able Allen, WWC’s Major Gifts Officer and current Alumni Relations Manager, corroborated Fischer’s explanation of this legal question being a large reason why the Alumni Board structure was revisited. He also said that even before the recent bylaw revisions, nobody on the Alumni Board, including the Alumni Board president, held the title of fiduciary to the college, and therefore could not technically act as a voting member of the Board. Stegall contradicts this claim.
“I had signed those legal documents myself,” Stegall said. “When I was a trustee, I was a fiduciary of the college. So was every other Alumni Board president that served in that role. We were all fiduciaries. I [know] that reasoning [is] false because I signed those documents myself because the college asked me to.”
In response, all of the living Alumni Board presidents over the past 20 years wrote a letter to the Board of Trustees once again seeking transparency from the college regarding the reasoning behind the restructuring.
“They did nothing,” Stegall said, approximately six months after the letter had been sent. “Not a thing. No response whatsoever. We want to know why. They’ve avoided any explanations, conversations or accountability, and now they’re throwing homecomings all over the country. To me personally, it feels like they DOGE’d the entire alumni governance system, and now they’re throwing pizza parties.”
Allen did offer an additional reason, regarding the college’s financial objectives concerning alumni, as to why the board structure was revisited. He emphasized that one of the main ways the Alumni Board was meant to contribute to WWC’s mission was through increasing alumni engagement, largely through donations. The administration reportedly felt that this goal was not being met. It was also said that the board appeared to have become stagnant and did not see eye-to-eye with the administration on a lot of potential solutions for how to help the college, so they felt it would be beneficial to reset things and start fresh.
“What a successful alumni board can do is engage people in such a way that they are inspired to give something,” Allen said. “Any small amount. And if that's not happening, unfortunately that's not a successful group…There’s a lot of ways to engage, and I don't want to lessen those, but it's one of the really crucial ones. You know, put your money where your mouth is. Even when I was working landscaping and making $13 an hour, I was trying to give 20 bucks a year to Warren Wilson. I posit that anybody can give $20 a year, and so if you actually care, you would do that.”
Allen stated that what alumni are supposed to do (that Warren Wilson alumni purportedly do a poor job of) is to provide resources back to the institution that they benefited from.
“So we ultimately need to get our giving percentage up,” Allen said. “It doesn't have to be total dollars from alumni. There are a lot of sources for money, but if alumni want to be part of the mission here, they got to give a little.”
Yet, every year WWC receives less money from even less alumni, as represented by the alumni participation data provided by the advancement office from over the past six years. This raises the question of whether declining alumni donations may be associated with increased conflict with the college, or if the conflict arose as a result of the declining donations.
After months of contention, WWC alumni offices announced a State of the College Address to be held on Wednesday, Nov. 4 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., where President Damián Fernández will elaborate on the college's priorities and direction regarding alumni relations. Alumni are encouraged to submit questions prior to the event, and there will be time held for live questions as well.
Excluding the enduring question of why these changes took place, what many are hoping to have clarified in this address is what the new alumni leadership structure will look like in action, and how exactly alumni will now be represented in decision-making processes.
Institutions such as WWC are constantly adjusting to the needs of the current day, especially in regards to financial stability. However, it is important to remember that when transparency is lost, individuals lose their ability to willingly engage with and support their university’s mission to its fullest extent.