ACTS RELATING TO THE COLLEGE.

AN ACT FOR APPROPRIATING THE MONIES RAISED BY DIVERSE LOTTERIES FOR ERECTING OR FOUNDING A COLLEGE IN THIS COLONY. PASSED DECEMBER 1, 1756. LAWS OF 1756, CHAP. 116.

Provides for the payment of one moiety or half part of the moneys raised by the Lotteries held under the preceding acts to the Governors of the College of the Province of New York, and the other moiety or half part to the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of New York, and provides for the payment to the Governors of £500 per annum for seven years. this act the College received £3,282.

Under

CHARTER OF 1784.

AN ACT FOR GRANTING CERTAIN PRIVILEGES TO THE COLLEGE HERETOFORE CALLED KINGS COLLEGE, FOR ALTERING THE NAME AND CHARTER THEREOF, AND ERECTING AN UNIVERSITY WITHIN THIS STATE. PASSED MAY 1, 1784.

LAWS OF 1784, CHAP. 51.

Whereas by letters patent under the great seal of the late colony of New York, bearing date the thirty-first day of October in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of George the second the king of Great Britain, a certain body politic and corporate, was created by the name of the Governors of the College of the Province of New York in the city of New York in America, with divers privileges, capacities and immunities, as in and by the said patent will more fully appear.

And whereas there are many vacancies in the said corporation, occasioned by the death or absence of a great number of the governors of the said college, whereby the succession is so greatly broke in upon as to require the interposition of the Legislature.

And whereas the remaining governors of the said college, desireous to render the same extensively useful, have prayed, that the said college may be erected into an university, and that such other alterations may be made in the charter or letters of incorporation above recited, as may render them more conformable to the liberal principles of the Constitution of this State.

Be it therefore enacted by the People of the State of New York represented in Senate and Assembly and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That all the rights priviledges and immunities heretofore vested in the corporation, heretofore known by the name of the Governors of the College of the Province of New York, in the city of New York in America, so far as they relate to the capacity of holding, or disposing of property either real or personal, of suing or being sued, of making laws or ordinances for their own government, or that of their servants, pupils and others, under their care and subject to their direction, of appointing, displacing and paying stewards and other inferior servants, of making, holding and having a common seal, of altering and changing the same at pleasure, be and they hereby are vested in the regents of the university of the State of New York, who are hereby erected into a corporation or body corporate and politic, and enabled to hold possess and enjoy the above mentioned rights, franchises, priviledges and immunities, together with such others as are contained in this act, by the name and stile of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, of whom the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the President of the Senate for the time being, the Speaker of the Assembly, the mayor of the city of New York, and the mayor of the city of Albany, the Attorney General and the Secretary of the State respectively for the time being, be and they hereby are severally constituted perpetual regents, in virtue of their several and respective offices, places and stations, and together with other persons herein after named to the number of twenty-four, to wit, Henry Brockholst Livingston and Robert Harpur of the city of New York, Walter Livingston and Christopher Yates of the county of Albany, Anthony Hoffman and Cornelius Humfrey of the county of Dutchess, Lewis Morris and Philip Pell Junior of the county of Westchester, Henry

Wisner and John Haring of the county of Orange, Christopher Tappen and James Clinton of the county of Ulster, Christopher P. Yates and James Livingston of the county of Montgomery, Abraham Bancker and John C. Dongan of the county of Richmond, Mathew Clarkson and Rutger Van Brunt of the county of Kings, James Townsend and Thomas Lawrence of the county of Queens, Ezra L'Hommedieu and Caleb Smith of the county of Suffolk, and John Williams and John McCrea of the county of Washington, be and they hereby are appointed regents of the said University and it shall and may be lawful to and for the clergy of the respective religious denominations in this State, to meet at such time and place, as they shall deem proper after the passing of this act, and being so met shall by a majority of voices of those who shall so meet, chuse and appoint one of their body to be a regent in the said university and in case of death or resignation to chose and appoint another in the same manner and the regent so chosen and appointed shall have the like powers as any other regent appointed or to be appointed by virtue of this act. And to the end that a succession of regents be perpetually kept up.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That whenever and so often as one or more of the regents of the said university, not being such in virtue of his or their office, place or station, shall remove his or their place of residence from within this State, shall resign or die, that the place or places of such regent or regents, so removing, resigning or dying shall be filled up by the governor or person administering the government of the State for the time being, by and with the advice and consent of the council of appointment, so that such appointments be of persons resident in the counties respectively wherein the former regents did reside, other than where such vacancy may happen of a regent appointed by the clergy as aforesaid.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That as soon as may be after the passing of this act, the regents of the said university, shall by plurality of voices, chuse a chancellor a vice chancellor a treasurer and a secretary, from among the said regents, the said chancellor or in his absence the vice chancellor to preside at all elections and other meetings to be held by the said regents, and to have the casting vote upon every division.

And for the well ordering and directing of the said corpora

tion.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the regents of the said university, or a majority of them shall be and hereby are vested with full power and authority to ordain and make ordinances and bye laws for the government of the several colleges, which may or shall compose the said university, and the several presidents, professors, tutors, fellows, pupils and servants thereof and for the management of such estate as they may and shall be invested with; that they shall have full power and authority to determine the salaries of the officers and servants of the said college to remove from office any such president professor tutor fellow or servant, as they conceive, after a full hearing to have abused their trust, or to be incompetent thereto, provided nevertheless, that no fine to be levied by virtue of the said laws or ordinances, shall exceed the value of one bushel of wheat for any one offence, and that no pupil or student shall be suspended for a longer term than twenty days, or be rusticated or expelled, but upon a fair and full hearing of the parties, by the chancellor or vice chancellor of the said university, and at least ten of the regents not being president or professors of the college to which the person accused belongs, or under whose immediate direction the same may be, and the said regents are hereby further impowered and directed as soon as may be, to elect a president and professors for the college heretofore called Kings College, which president shall continue in place during the pleasure of the regents of the university. And that from and after the first election, the said president and all future presidents shall be elected, from out of the professors of the several colleges, that may or shall compose the said university, and that no professor shall in any wise whatsoever be accounted inelligible, for or by reason of an religious tenet or tenets, that he may or shall profess, or be compelled by any bye law or otherwise, to take any religious test-oath whatsoever. And to the end that the intention of the donors and benefactors of the said beforementioned college be not defeated.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all the estate whether real or personal, which the said governor of the corporation of Kings College held by virtue of the said beforementioned

charter, be held and possessed by the said regents and applied solely to the use of the said college and that the said regents may and there hereby are empowered to receive and hold for the use of the said college, an estate of the annual value of three thousand five hundred pounds, in manner specified in the first above recited charter or letters patent of incorporation. And for the further promotion of learning and the exten

sion of literature.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said regents may hold, and possess estates, real and personal to the annual amount of forty thousand bushels of wheat, over and above all profits arising from room rent or tuition money, and that whenever any lands tenements or hereditaments, or other estate real or personal, shall be given, granted or conveyed to the regents of the university of the State without expressing any designation thereof, such estate shall be applied in such manner as to the said regents shall seem most advantageous to the said university provided always, that whenever any gift, grant, bequest, devise or conveyance shall express the particular use to which the same is to be applied if adequate thereto, it shall be so applied and not otherwise.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said regents be and they hereby are impowered, to found schools and colleges in any such part of this State as may seem expedient to them, and to endow the same, vesting such colleges so endowed with full and ample powers to confer the degrees of batchelor of arts, and directing the manner in which such colleges are to be governed, always reserving to the chancellor and vice chancellor of the university, and a certain number of the regents, to be appointed by a majority of the said regents, a right to visit and examine into the state of literature in such college, and to report to the regents at large any deficiency in the laws of such college or neglect in the execution thereof, every such school or college being at all times to be deemed a part of the university, and as such, subject to the controul and direction of the said regents; and if it should so happen, that any person or persons, or any body politic or corporate, should at his or their expense found any college or school, and endow the same with an estate, real or personal of the yearly value of one thousand bushels of wheat,