Founded in 1769, Dartmouth College is one of the nation's oldest institutions of undergraduate education. Between 2004 and 2008, I was involved in a broad-based effort among alumni and students to examine the challenges facing American higher education at large—the decline of standards and the curtailment of freedom of speech, among others—and then to do something about them in Hanover, New Hampshire.
I wrote this article, which combines the history of the petition trustee movement with a legal analysis, with noted First Amendment lawyer, author, and Chairman of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) Harvey Silverglate.