AK HJR13

Urges the Alaska congressional delegation, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Governor to create a joint federal-state strategy for establishing a permanent land endowment for the University of Alaska.

University of Alaska received the smallest land grant among states (except Delaware) and did not receive land under the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant College Act or the 1915 Wickersham land grant.

The Alaska Statehood Act granted the state 103,000,000 acres with congressional intent for the legislature to provide the University of Alaska with a land endowment from this allocation.

Prior attempts by the legislature to grant approximately 250,000 acres to the university in 2000 (Senate Bill 7) and 2005 (House Bill 130) were ruled unconstitutional by the Alaska Supreme Court in 2009 as violating the dedicated funds prohibition.

Any new land grant solution must comply with Alaska's constitutional requirement that dedicated lands be "required by the federal government for state participation in federal programs."