PAUL SMITHS — The Alumni Board of Directors at Paul Smith’s College voted over the weekend to remove so-called activist member Michael Heller, a vocal opponent of a 2015 proposal to rename the college partly for Joan Weill.

Heller, a 2003 graduate of the college, was elected to the board last July, along with two other staunch objectors to the name change, Tara Butcher (2001) and Scott van Laer (1993). At the time, they ran under a ticket named Legacy and said they stood for election to balance the interests of the board.

Of the three, only van Laer remains nine months later. Butcher has resigned, partly, she said, because of another board member’s hostility to her.

Alumni Board President Allyson Bennett (1981) said Heller’s removal “was an involuntary dismissal under Article 12, Section 2” of the board’s bylaws. She wouldn’t elaborate on why the board voted for removal.

“I can’t go into that,” she said. “It happened in executive session.”

Under the heading “Involuntary Resignations” Article 2, Section 2 of the Alumni Board bylaws states, “Board members may be dismissed by a majority vote if they fail to attend at least 50 percent of the board meetings without satisfactory excuses.

“Board members may be dismissed by a majority vote, if by their actions, they demonstrate an attitude detrimental to the Board.”

Dan Richards (1989) made the motion to dismiss Heller. The vote to enforce the involuntary resignation succeeded by a vote of 17-1. The lone “nay” came from board member Patti Pastella (1983).

“Honestly, they’re criminal over there,” Heller said. “Anytime I questioned or pointed out that they may be doing something unethical or illegal, they’d see that as obstruction.”

Heller sees the board’s attempts to revise current bylaws governing independent nominations as unethical.

“For decades, the independent nomination clause has allowed members at large to petition for a spot on the board,” he said, “and they want to eliminate that.”

Heller also claims that Bennett was elected president illegally, circumventing bylaws.

“Allyson held an illegal election, and she didn’t follow procedure,” he said. “There should be a special election in July.”

In summer 2015, the college administration and Board of Trustees announced that Weill, a longtime trustee and wife of former Citigroup Chairman-CEO Sanford “Sandy” Weill, would donate $20 million to the school, which would be renamed Joan Weill-Paul Smith’s College. While some supported the move, there was also a great deal of outrage among alumni, students and nearby residents. The decision had to go before a state judge because the school’s founding document — the will of Phelps Smith, son of 19th-century Adirondack hotelier and guide Apollos “Paul” Smith — specified that it would be “forever known as ‘Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Sciences.'” That October, Judge John Ellis ruled that the reasons for changing the name were not compelling enough to overturn Phelps Smith’s will. Weill retracted her donation, and some alumni critics of the name change promised to get more involved in college affairs.

A Facebook group called “Alumni and Friends for Paul Smith’s College FOREVER,” created by Jeff Fountain in 2015 and at one point co-administered by Butcher, has offered a platform for much of the rancor swirling around the name change and, subsequently, the alumni board.

Van Laer, a Ray Brook resident and a state forest ranger, first posted news of Heller’s dismissal on the group’s page Monday. As criticism of the college mounted there, he pleaded for balance and increased involvement.

“Many are dismayed and have said they want to disassociate and stop supporting the school financially,” he wrote. “Please remember this was not a college action. This action was taken by YOUR alumni association not the college. If you feel it was wrong please do not take it out on the college. The association is what we make it. Board members are elected by you. Bylaws revisions are voted on by you. Get involved.”

Ray Agnew, vice president of college advancement at Paul Smith’s, echoed van Laer.

“It’s really alumni association business,” he said. “They were set up in 1971 as a support organization in the college to further goodwill and fellowship. For the most part over the years, that’s exactly what they’ve done.”

Though the association continues to support the college, recruit new students and spread goodwill, the latter has been strained within the board itself. Much of the strife has involved allegedly hostile emails between Butcher and current board member John Stephens (1987), who is also a Herkimer County legislator.

“When I went to the Troy meeting, there was a serious email war,” Butcher said, referring to a meeting last winter. “I went prepared to ask for John Stephens’ removal because I felt like he had gone over the top in his emails. He always replied with a lot of venom.”

Stephens had no comment on Butcher’s claims. When asked why people in the community should be concerned with the activities of the alumni board, he said, “People of the area don’t need to be concerned with it.”

This is not Stephens’ first encounter with claims of verbal abuse. In 2010, during a mayoral campaign in the village of Ilion, the Utica Observer-Dispatch reported that he sent village Trustee Joanne Moore a message on Facebook stating that people “need punches in the face.” Stephens says he didn’t write those words or send them to Moore; rather, he says, they were in a meme created by someone else which he posted on his Facebook page. (Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article did not contain the prior sentence in which Stephens described the Facebook post.)

“It’s quite disturbing that they’d allow Stephens to remain on the board but they feel like they need to remove me,” Heller said.

“I don’t think that’s how that was,” Bennett said. “I think (Butcher and Stephens) both had personality conflicts. It was definitely mutual.”

The alumni board typically raises around $30,000 a year for the school, Bennett said, but she sounded a pessimistic note on that front. Since a judge struck down the Joan Weill name change in October 2015, much of the alumni engagement that decision spurred has quieted down, she said.

“The percentage of alumni giving has dropped, and interest has dropped off again,” Bennett said.

Paul Smith’s alumni will receive election ballots in their reunion brochures, set to be sent out in early May. Election results will be announced at the reunion on July 29.