October 20, 2002
Sunday - 12:30 am

Anchorage - Saying a vibrant University is a vital vehicle for economic growth in Alaska, Alaska gubernatorial candidate Frank Murkowski unveiled his plans to increase state support for the University of Alaska and its roughly 50,000 students statewide on Wednesday.

"We all consider Alaska's youth our most precious natural resource."... Frank Murkowski

"We all consider Alaska's youth our most precious natural resource," Murkowski said. "Educating Alaska's future leaders and workers will be a top priority in a Murkowski Administration."

"A vibrant university system can be the vehicle for economic growth, development and change. If you have a failing state University system, you have a failing state. The University must be an integral part of Alaska's efforts to realize the promises made at statehood to build a strong and sustainable economy based on our resource wealth," Murkowski said.

In a statement delivered to the University of Alaska's Board of Regents during their fall meeting in Anchorage by his wife Nancy, Murkowski announced that as governor he will fight to find money to provide stable 5 percent annual increases for the University until the institution has a sufficient endowment in place.

Murkowski said he would speed growth of that endowment by pressing for Congressional acceptance, in addition to Legislative acceptance, of his proposal to create a 750,000-acre land grant for the university. Murkowski noted that some of that land can be selected inside the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, so the University will get 100 percent of the royalty revenues from any oil found, instead of the 50 percent that would go to the state at present.

"My vision is to use our state land grant to leverage oil and gas land for the University from NPRA. The royalties generated can be a long-term stable funding source for University programs," said Murkowski, sponsor of legislation pending in the Senate to grant the University 250,000 more acres of federal land and up to an additional 250,000, if matched on an acre-for-acre basis by state government. Murkowski noted that though the Legislature had approved the state land grant, Gov. Tony Knowles vetoed the bill, and the issue remains before the Alaska Supreme Court.

Murkowski added that he also wants to direct some of the revenues from development in his proposed 1-million-acre State Forest in Southeast - money that would be deposited into an Alaska Youth and Education Endowment Fund - to help pay for an expansion of the University's Scholars Program. Currently the university provides scholarships to the University for the top 10 percent of graduating high school seniors. Murkowski proposed that it be expanded by 50 percent.

"The Alaska Scholars program has been an innovative success," Murkowski said. "The University is doing something to stop the 'brain drain' in Alaska where too many of our young people are leaving for higher education elsewhere. The scholars program is a way to combat that loss to Alaska's future."

Murkowski in his University position paper also:

• Pledged his commitment to support university research, noting his long-term support in the Senate of University research in such areas as Arctic energy, engineering, biology, fisheries and ocean management. In the Senate Murkowski recently won approval of federal funding for an Office of Arctic Energy that has been established at the University's Fairbanks campus.
• Repeated his August proposal to work with the University to expand its laboratory facilities to take advantage of available medical research funding and to advance research in the promising field of nanotechnology.
• Repeated another pledge to work with the University to increase funding for medical training for Alaskans at the University of Washington's WWAMI program. Murkowski said there is a clear need to create innovative medical residency options in Alaska so more doctors can be trained and attracted to work in Alaska.
• And he pledged to support university partnership efforts, such as current efforts with Providence Hospital, Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and Alaska Regional Hospital to train more nurses, and with the transportation industry to train more Alaskans in supply chain management.

Murkowski praised the University for its recent efforts to use partnerships to leverage state general fund support - doing more with less. He pointed specifically to the efforts of the University to establish the Hutchison Career Center in Fairbanks as a public-private partnership, and to the use of the abandoned state courthouse in Fairbanks for a community college.

"As a former banker, I appreciate entrepreneurs and the University has exhibited the entrepreneur's skills of creativity and imagination in doing more with fewer resources," said Murkowski.

Source of News Release:

Murkowski For Governor Campaign
Web Site

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