I. The 2010 Amendment. The “official” online version of Dartmouth’s charter used to be an html version provided by the Government Documents office. Recently, the Trustees have made available a June 2010 revision (pdf) with helpful side- and footnotes. (Some indication of authorship for the notations would be nice, since most are many decades old.)

The reason for the revision is found in footnote 8 on page 9:

By vote taken June 11, 2010, the charter was amended to add the following provision required by the Internal Revenue Service’s regulations concerning tax-exempt organizations: “Upon the dissolution of the Corporation, its assets shall be distributed for one or more exempt purposes within the meaning of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code, or shall be distributed to the federal government, or to a state or local government for a public purpose. Any such assets not disposed of shall be disposed of by the Superior Court of the county in which the principal office of the Corporation is then located, exclusively for such purposes or to such organization or organizations, as said Court shall determine, which are organized and operated exclusively for such purposes.”

II. The description of the 2007 amendment. The notes do not quote the 2007 amendment that expanded the board, and the description of that amendment remains a curiosity. The October 2007 version of the Charter explained the amendment this way:

By vote taken September 8, 2007, the charter was amended to increase the number of Trustees to twenty-six, provided that the number of Trustees to be elected upon nomination by the alumni shall be eight, and that the Governor ex-officio and the President during his or her term of service shall continue to be Trustees.

As pointed out here, that note suggested that the Charter itself (rather than the board’s resolutions or bylaws) had been amended to describe the system of nominations. If that is what happened, it would be notable as probably the first time that nominations (or for that matter alumni) were ever mentioned in the Charter. One would assume that the traditional practice up to this time was to amend the Charter to increase the number of Trustees and, at the same time, to amend the bylaws to increase the number of nominations.

The explanatory note has changed in the latest version of the Charter. On page 4 (the continuation of footnote 2), the 2010 Charter states:

By vote taken September 8, 2007, the charter was amended to increase the number of Trustees to twenty-six, provided that the number of Trustees to be elected by the Board upon nomination by the Board shall be sixteen, that the number of Trustees to be elected upon nomination by the alumni shall be eight, and that the Governor ex-officio and the President during his or her term of service shall continue to be Trustees.

(Emphasis added). The amendment has not changed, only the board’s description of it. Things would be clearer if the board put the text of the amendment itself into the footnotes. Or, if the speculation is correct that “alumni” is not in the Charter, the board could clarify matters by describing its actions with somewhat more precision.