Enrolled SJR 8: Urging the Alaska delegation in Congress, the United States Department of the Interior, and the Governor to facilitate a land grant endowment to the University of Alaska; urging the Alaska delegation in Congress to reintroduce the University of Alaska Fiscal Foundation Act; and urging the Department of Natural Resources to work with the University of Alaska to identify lands suitable for the land endowment.
00Enrolled SJR 8 01 Urging the Alaska delegation in Congress, the United States Department of the Interior, and 02 the Governor to facilitate a land grant endowment to the University of Alaska; urging the 03 Alaska delegation in Congress to reintroduce the University of Alaska Fiscal Foundation Act; 04 and urging the Department of Natural Resources to work with the University of Alaska to 05 identify lands suitable for the land endowment. 06 _______________ 07 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 08 WHEREAS the University of Alaska plays a vital role in educating students from the 09 state and around the world and conducts invaluable research; and 10 WHEREAS the University of Alaska did not receive any of the federal land granted 11 to states for higher education under the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862 and received 12 only a fraction of the reserved land allocated under the 1915 Wickersham land grant; and 13 WHEREAS the Alaska Statehood Act repealed the 1915 Wickersham land grant and 14 removed the state's eligibility for land under the Morrill Land-Grant College Act of 1862, 15 instead granting a 103,000,000-acre entitlement to the new State of Alaska; and 16 WHEREAS various interpretations of the state's obligation to transfer land to the
01 University of Alaska resulted in an extended period during which the university struggled to 02 get its remaining land grant, while much of the land originally reserved for the university has 03 been transferred to other entities; and 04 WHEREAS the Twenty-First Alaska State Legislature passed Senate Bill No. 7 and 05 the Twenty-Fourth Alaska State Legislature passed House Bill No. 130, granting 06 approximately 250,000 acres of state land to the University of Alaska; and 07 WHEREAS the Alaska Supreme Court, in Southeast Alaska Conservation Council v. 08 State, 202 P.3d 1162 (Alaska 2009), ruled that the transfer of land under those enactments 09 violated the prohibition on dedicated funds in art. IX, sec. 7, Constitution of the State of 10 Alaska, and ordered the land to be conveyed from the University of Alaska back to the state; 11 and 12 WHEREAS, among the states that received grants of land for higher education, with 13 the exception of Delaware, the University of Alaska received the smallest amount of land 14 from the federal government, leaving the University of Alaska with an inadequate and 15 deficient land endowment; and 16 WHEREAS fulfilling the intent of the Sixty-Third United States Congress in 1915, 17 the Eighty-Fifth United States Congress in 1958, the Twenty-First Alaska State Legislature in 18 2000, and the Twenty-Fourth Alaska State Legislature in 2005 to provide a permanent land 19 endowment for the University of Alaska will require a joint effort by the federal and state 20 governments to establish a land grant that is "required by the federal government for state 21 participation in federal programs," as specified under art. IX, sec. 7, Constitution of the State 22 of Alaska; and 23 WHEREAS, in September 2020, the Alaska delegation in Congress introduced, with 24 the support of Governor Dunleavy, S. 4696 and H.R. 8398, the University of Alaska Fiscal 25 Foundation Act, to establish a federal program under which up to 360,000 acres of land 26 selected by, but not yet conveyed to, the state could be conveyed from the federal government 27 to the Board of Regents of the University of Alaska to be held in trust for the university, 28 subject to a federally imposed trust obligation; 29 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully urges the Alaska 30 delegation in Congress, the United States Department of the Interior, and the Governor to 31 continue to cooperate in bringing about an ultimate resolution as soon as possible that will
01 address this long-standing land endowment issue, conform to state constitutional 02 requirements, and provide the University of Alaska with an appropriately sized land 03 endowment proportionate to the great natural resources of the state; and be it 04 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully urges the 05 Alaska delegation in Congress to reintroduce the University of Alaska Fiscal Foundation Act; 06 and be it 07 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully urges the 08 Department of Natural Resources to continue to work cooperatively with the University of 09 Alaska to prioritize identification of lands suitable for the land endowment. 10 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Deb Haaland, United States 11 Secretary of the Interior; the Honorable Mike Dunleavy, Governor of Alaska; and the 12 Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the 13 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.