Join UAF's 100th birthday celebration today
Happy birthday, UAF! On this day 100 years ago, a college in the small mining town of Fairbanks was born. Today we celebrate UAF’s birthday and all the progress since with an event beginning at 1 p.m. in Centennial Square, between Wickersham Hall and the Gruening Building.
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Chancellor Dana Thomas, UA President Jim Johnsen, Professor Terrence Cole, alumni Peter Van Flein and Lorna Shaw, and student Esau Sinnok will share observations about the university’s past and present. A stand-in for Territorial Gov. John Strong will re-enact the signing of the bill creating the college.
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Strong signed the bill to create the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines on May 3, 1917, despite having many reasons not to do so. The Legislature hadn’t provided enough money, he said. Enrollment projections were too rosy. Building materials would be hard to get because the U.S. had just entered World War I. Fairbanks would be too remote until the railroad arrived.
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Nevertheless, Strong wrote in a letter to legislators, he would accept their judgment and approve the law.
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It was the bill’s second close call. In fact, its arrival on Strong’s desk that spring was only due to a last-minute vote switch provoked by an unrelated dispute.
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The Legislature had earlier killed a bill giving Alaska’s mining companies credit for federal taxes they paid on stamp mills. Rep. C.K. Snow, I-Ruby, led the charge to kill the credit. Snow also was a leading opponent of the college.
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Rep. Monte Benson, R-Douglas, who sponsored the mill credit, got mad at Snow for killing his bill, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported on April 26, 1917. So, even though Benson also had opposed the college, he voted for it to spite Snow.
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The House voted 9-7 in favor of the college bill. Had Benson voted “no,” House members might have tied at 8-8, which would have killed the bill.
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"Gosh, but we had a close call!" was the News-Miner's headline.
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