UAPB leader acclaims funding | Pine Bluff Commercial News

Reflecting on a long list of accomplishments as University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff chancellor, Laurence B. Alexander mentioned with pride the receipt of a state contribution matching federal land-grant funds dollar for dollar and exceeding the previous allocation by $2 million.

During a visit to UAPB on May 15, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced the state Legislature approved a land-grant match request and allocated $5.8 million. Sanders also announced at the time the university would receive a $1 million Arkansas Linking Industry to Grow Nurses grant to bolster faculty and help grow nurses.

“We’re very proud we were able to get the governor to move the state contribution to the matching funds that we get from the federal government to 100 percent,” Alexander said Thursday, his last day on campus after 11 years as UAPB’s chief executive. “Governor Sanders did that in the first couple of rounds. She was here to present that. She’s committed to reaching 100 percent match in the years to come. That’s something that was not present here in 2013, and we’ve been fighting for it every year, going to the legislature, asking them to match us at 100 percent. A couple of times they did in the Asa Hutchinson administration, but I’m pleased that every year, Governor Hutchinson gave us some monies to try to get us as close to possible, if he couldn’t get us actually to 100 percent match.”

Sanders succeeded Hutchinson, who was term-limited, after winning the election in November 2022.

The Morrill Act of 1862 granted land to each state to establish an institution for agricultural and mechanical studies. The Morrill Act of 1890 required states to either establish a land-grant institution for Black students or prove that admission to the original land-grant school was not restricted by race.

UAPB was established in 1873 as Branch Normal College and designated as a land-grant institution in 1892.

Alexander was asked if the full land-grant match was the solution to reported underfunding of historically Black land-grant universities by 16 states including Arkansas between 1987-2020 by a combined $12.6 billion. An Integrated Postsecondary Education Survey from the National Center for Education Statistics, citing data from the U.S. departments of Education and Agriculture, showed UAPB had been underfunded in comparison to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, by $330,935,712 between 1987-2020. Secretaries from both departments wrote a letter to Sanders about the reported discrepancy in September 2023.

“I would say this: That’s actually, that’s part of the answer going forward,” Alexander said. “But this does not address the reports and the letter that came from the Department of Agriculture or Department of Education which talked about the underfunding from 1987 through 2020.”

The complete solution to the problem, Alexander suggested, is for the state to send a $330 million check to UAPB. “Problem solved. It goes away,” he remarked.

Asked whether that’s the realistic solution — which Alexander “prays” it is — he pointed to the state’s financial reserves. Arkansas finished fiscal year 2023 last June 30 with a budget surplus of $1.161 billion.”

“The state can, if it chooses, it can rectify some of the underfunding that has come to UAPB,” Alexander said. “Anybody who drives down University Drive can see — and who has traveled through the state of Arkansas to other institutions — can see, hey, this university in Pine Bluff looks different from these other universities they have visited throughout the state. Why is that? The logical conclusion would be that there has not been enough money and resources put into developing the properties at this university as there has at other universities. That, you cannot argue about. There has been some debate about whether, ‘Is it 300 million dollars? Are you really missing that much?’ Some people think it should be more than 300 million dollars because you only went back to 1987.”

Sanders spokeswoman Alexa Henning referred to the governor’s remarks in May when asked about the lack of state funding, although Sanders did not specifically address the $330 million. Sanders said about the $5.8 million for the land-grant program: “Together, these extra funds will help us fulfill (school founder) Joseph Corbin’s vision from so long ago: providing a high-quality education to Arkansans, with a special focus on our state’s Black community. It’s a vision I’m proud to support as governor.”

Sanders sent a letter to the Joint Budget Committee of the state legislature on March 6. She specified the LEARNS Act, an education overhaul she signed into law shortly after taking office in 2023, called for an additional $2 million for UAPB’s land-grant matching program, bringing the state’s total contribution to $5.8 million.

Alexander made a final pitch to the state legislature for assistance to address the shortfall.

“If you want to see the state of Arkansas, if you want to see this university grow and prosper, if you want do the right thing as it relates to history in rectifying the mistakes of the past, here’s an opportunity for you to step up to the plate and do the right thing,” he said. “Fund the university much more fully than it has been funded in the past and bring it up to some level of equity with the other universities across the state of Arkansas.

“What a great story that would be nationally for the state of Arkansas — a state people still remember for bad things that happened at Central High, for the way in which they treated Black citizens in the 1950s. Talk about change and transformation for the state of Arkansas! Come on, Arkansas, legislature! Let’s do it. Let’s change the trajectory and let’s put Arkansas on the map for doing something great for its higher educational institutions and the entire state of Arkansas.”