Because of concerns about Phillips's health, the trustees declined his returning.

The trustees of the State University of New York declined yesterday to reverse a February decision to shut down a Harlem charter school.

The trustees of the British Museum declined to issue it, chiefly on account of several paragraphs in which Hawkins expressed his strong Protestant and Tory views.

In the 1980's, when a management consultant suggested that the annual donation expected from trustees be doubled to $10,000, Mr. Wattenmaker said, "the trustees declined to raise it."

She tried to leave the collection to the British Museum but the trustees declined the bequest and it was sold.

More than a dozen trustees and officers declined to comment or did not return calls.

Lawrence J. Tamburri, the former executive director and a past trustee of the orchestra - who was the principle broker of the deal - declined to comment on the controversy.

Earlier in the 20th century many considered the Baroque to be beyond the pale: in 1945 the Gallery's trustees declined to buy a Guercino from Mahon's collection for £200.

The trustees declined giving him the power he sought, and he resigned from the school that year.

Dockstader says that many quality pieces were systematically stolen by museum employees, whom the trustees declined to prosecute for fear of adverse publicity.