An Act Amending and Restating the Charter of The President and Trustees of Colby College (AFTER DEADLINE)
Maine Legislature, Session 122, LD 2012
Committee: Education and Cultural Affairs
Sponsors: GAGNON, CANAVAN, MITCHELL, MARRACHE, NUTTING

Legislative Document 
No. 2012 
S.P.774 
In Senate, February 8, 2006 
An Act Amending and Restating the Charter of The President and 
Trustees of Colby College 
(AFTER DEADLINE) 
Approved for introduction by a majority of the Legislative Council pursuant to Joint Rule 
205. 
Reference to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs suggested and ordered 
printed. 
Presented by Senator GAGNON of Kennebec. 
Cosponsored by Representative CANAVAN of Waterville and 
JOY J. O'BRIEN 
Secretary of the Senate 
Senator: MITCHELL of Kennebec, Representatives: MARRACHE of Waterville, NUTTING 
of Oakland. 
Printed on recycled paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
PART A 
Sec. A-I. Name. The corporation created by Chapter CXXXI, enacted by the 
Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts and approved by the Governor February 27, 1813, entitled "An Act to 
Establish a Literary Institution in the District of Maine, within this Commonwealth," and 
now known as "The President and Trustees of Colby College," is hereby continued as a 
body politic and corporate by that name forever. 
Sec. A-2. Purposes. The purposes and objects of the corporation are to educate 
persons of all ages both within and without the State of Maine and to promote education 
generally; to compile, present and disseminate knowledge and information through any 
means of communication; and to establish and maintain in the State of Maine an 
l3 
institution for the purpose of educating youth and others, to be called and known by the 
name of Colby College. 
Sec. A-3. Powers of corporation. The corporation has all powers necessary and 
proper to carry out the foregoing purposes. 
Without limiting the generality of the 
foregoing, the corporation has the following powers: 
1. To have one common seal, which it may change, break or renew at its pleasure, 
and all deeds signed and delivered by any officer or other employee of the corporation 
and sealed with its seal by order of the corporation, when in its corporate name, are 
considered in law as deeds of the corporation; 
2. To have, hold and take in fee simple or any less estate by gift, grant, devise or 
otherwise any lands, tenements or other estates, real or personal, in an unlimited amount; 
to act as trustee of real and personal estate; to borrow money and to mortgage and pledge 
its interest in any property to secure its borrowings; and to purchase, sell, manage, 
operate, control and otherwise deal in real and personal property of any name or nature; 
3. To sue and be sued in all actions real, personal and mixed and to prosecute and 
defend the same to final judgment and execution by the name of The President and 
Trustees of Colby College; 
4. To determine at what times and places within or without the State of Maine the 
meetings of the corporation are held and on the manner of calling and of fixing the time 
and place and notifying the members to convene at such meetings; 
5. To elect or appoint a Chair of the Board of Trustees, a President, one or more Vice 
Presidents, a Treasurer, a Secretary, professors of various grades, tutors, instructors, 
lecturers and other officers or employees as necessary to fill offices or positions the 
corporation from time to time may create; to determine the duties, salaries, emoluments 
and tenures of such offices and positions; and to remove any person from any such office 
or position; 
6. 
To purchase, construct, erect, maintain, operate, repair, demolish or replace 
houses, buildings or other structures or scientific or other equipment of any nature as the 
Page I - 122LR3125(1)-1 
corporation detennines desirable.. or necessary for carrying out the purposes of the 
corporation; 
7. To make and ordain, as occasion may require, reasonable rules, orders and bylaws, 
not inconsistent with the laws of this State, with reasonable penalties, for the good 
government of the corporation or institution and to detennine and prescribe the mode of 
ascertaining the qualifications of the students requisite to their admission; 
8. To carry on research and experimentation in all fields of knowledge; 
9. To confer such degrees as are usually conferred by universities, colleges or other 
institutions of learning, including honorary degrees, and to issue or confer such other 
diplomas, certificates or evidence of progress or accomplishment in any field of 
II 
education as the corporation may see fit; 
10. To receive and hold bequests, gifts and endowments and to invest and reinvest 
the same and to create and carry out annuity contracts or other arrangements or 
agreements for the payment of sums of money to or for the support of the donor or other 
persons in connection with any gift or endowment to be received by the corporation, and 
all money held by the corporation in all fonns of securities or real or personal property 
and the net income from such investments must be used for the furtherance of the 
purposes of the corporation; and 
11. To delegate to any officer, committee or other person or persons connected with 
the corporation any of the foregoing powers except the election or removal of trustees, 
the President, Vice Presidents, Secretary or Treasurer and the making or amending of 
bylaws or such powers as the bylaws place exclusively in the hands ofthe corporation. 
Sec. A-4. Members. The members of the corporation consist of the trustees. The 
President, for the time being in office, is a trustee ex officio, but no other officer may be 
an ex officio trustee unless so designated by the bylaws. 
The number of trustees, 
exclusive of any ex officio member, may never be greater than 35 nor less than 24. The 
corporation has full power and authority, from time to time as the corporation detennines, 
to remove any trustee when in its judgment the trustee is rendered incapable of 
discharging the duties of the trustee's office and to fill all vacancies in the corporation by 
electing such persons for such tenns, except as provided in this Act, as the corporation 
determines best. The Colby College Alumni Association is entitled to elect not fewer 
than 6 nor more than 9 of the trustees in such manner, with such conditions of eligibility 
and for such terms not exceeding 6 years, as the association may detennine. 
Sec. A-S. Restrictions. The corporation may not make or have any rule or bylaw 
requiring that any member of the trustees be of any particular religious denomination. A 
student belonging or who may hereafter belong to the institution, sustaining a fair moral 
character, may not be deprived of any privileges of the institution, be subjected to the 
forfeiture of any aid that has been granted by the institution for the purpose of enabling 
the student to prosecute that student's studies, be denied the usual testimonials on that 
student's closing studies or be denied admission to the institution on the ground that the 
student's interpretations of the Scriptures differ from those contained in the articles of 
faith adopted or to be adopted by the institution. 
I 
' Sec. A-6. Reserved powers. The Legislature of this State has the right to grant 
any further powers to the corporation or to alter, limit or restrain any of the powers by 
this Act vested in the corporation as determined necessary to promote the best interests of 
the corporation. The corporation shall render an account to the Legislature, whenever the 
Legislature requires, of all the corporation's proceedings and the manner of disposing of 
the funds ofthe institution. 
PARTB 
Sec. B-1. P&SL 1959, c. 42, as amended, is repealed. 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends the charter of The President and Trustees of Colby College to 
increase the maximum number of trustees from 31 to 35 and to increase the minimum 
number of trustees from 21 to 24. The bill clarifies that the President of Colby College is 
a trustee ex officio. The bill also updates the language concerning removal of trustees in 
a manner consistent with Maine law and repeals Private and Special Law 1959, chapter 
42.