Legal Proceedings

THE ASSOCIATION OF Alumni (AoA) lawsuit seeking to prevent the board of trustees from adding charter seats without an equivalent number of alumni-nominated trustees will be allowed to move forward in New Hampshire's Grafton Superior Court.

In a decision handed down February 1, less than a month after the matter was aired in a January 10 hearing, Superior Court Judge Timothy Vaughan denied the Colleges motion to dismiss the filing, which alleges that the College entered into a binding contract with the AoA via the agreement of 1891.

At this point in the proceedings the court is permitting the AoA's case to go forward on its merits.

Lawyers for the AoA argued in January that further discovery is necessary for them to make their case, even as the College countered that all pertinent documents are readily available in Rauner.

In the instance where the court did examine evidencedocuments from the Tell v. Trustees of Dartmouth College suit of 1995-Vaughan agreed with the College's contention that it did not at that time say there was a contract in existence between the College and its alumni.

Richard Pepperman '87, of New York City-based Sullivan & Cromwell, is defending the College along with Bruce Felmley of Concord-based McLane Graf Raulerson & Middleton. Representing the AoA from Washington-based Williams & Connolly are Robert Cary '86, Patrick Donovan '86, Charles Davant '98 and Jonathan Kravis.

While both parties to the suit have agreed that no new trustees would be seated prior to February 22, it remains to be seen if any new board members will be seated prior to this case being resolvedand when the next court date will be set.

Meanwhile, the commerce committee of the state legislature held a public hearing January 17 regarding a bill that would restore the states oversight of changes to Dartmouth's charter, an approval process that was repealed in 2003. During the two-hour session alumni proponents of the bill argued that recent changes to the board might not have passed muster in the legislature if the 2003 bill hadn't been passed. They included John Mac Govern '80, head of the Hanover Institute, blogger Joe Malchow 'OB Jeff Newman '82 and Alex Mooney '93, a Republican state senator from Maryland and one of six AoA executive committee members behind the lawsuit.

Eight people spoke in opposition to the bill, including four Democrats: former New Hampshire Gov. Walter Peterson '47, his son, Rep. Andrew Peterson '78, State Senator Peter Burling (whose district includes Hanover) and Rep. Timothy Butterworth '66. Alumni Council president Rick Silverman '81 and president-elect John Daukas '84 also spoke. They suggested that the family feud playing out at Dartmouth would be best resolved within the family—not in the statehouse—and asked that the legislature treat Dartmouth as it treats any other private nonprofit, with no charter oversight.

A subcommittee that includes Democratic Rep. Matthew Houde '91 was expected to make its recommendation by mid-February.

OVERHEARD

"American libraries act as bastions against censorship andtyranny. Information from all points of view...must be availableto all, without surveillance or exposure." -ELIZABETH E. KIRK, DARTMOUTH ASSOCIATE LIBRARIAN FOR INFORMATION RESOURCES