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CWN Presents
Enhancing the University of Alaska’s Land Grant
Thursday, April 25th
Noon-1:00pm
The Petroleum Club of Anchorage
3301 C Street
Click to download PowerPoint presentation
CWN is pleased to host University of Alaska President Jim Johnsen to discuss the University’s land grant and its role in the University’s overall funding. Land grant universities across the United States have been recipients of federal lands in order to enhance their ability to obtain a sustainable funding stream. President Johnsen will explain why the University of Alaska’s land grant is the second-smallest in the United States, and what steps the University is taking to advocate for additional acreage to enhance its ability to support education. Earnings from the University’s Land Grant Trust Fund are used to fund, among other things, the Alaska Scholars Program which awards an $11,000 scholarship to the top ten percent of the graduates from every Alaska high school each year.
University Lands Background
Under federal laws enacted in 1915 and 1929, the University of Alaska was entitled to receive approximately 360,000 acres of public land in Alaska. Due in large part to the inability of the Federal Government to expeditiously survey Alaska, only 3% of the 1915 land grant had been conveyed when the Statehood Act of 1959 repealed the law. As a result, the University never received the remainder of its entitlement. Consequently, the largest state in the U.S. has received a smaller land grant for higher education than any other state except Delaware and Hawaii (which received no federal land at all). Today, the University owns approximately 145,000 acres of land. These lands include federal grant lands, other lands acquired from local, state or federal governments for restricted educational purposes, purchased lands, and lands donated to the University.