Board of Regents Ex Rel. Murray State College of Agriculture & Applied Science v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

1972 OK 83, 497 P.2d 1062
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 23, 1972
Docket45459
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1972 OK 83 (Board of Regents Ex Rel. Murray State College of Agriculture & Applied Science v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Board of Regents Ex Rel. Murray State College of Agriculture & Applied Science v. Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, 1972 OK 83, 497 P.2d 1062 (Okla. 1972).

Opinions

IRWIN, Justice.

This proceeding was commenced by the Board of Regents for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges, acting for and on behalf of Murray State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, seeking a judicial determination that Senate Bill No. 214 is unconstitutional. The trial court determined it to be constitutional and appellant (plaintiff) challenges that determination in this appeal.

Senate Bill No. 214 (1971 Session Laws, Chapter 128, pgs. 391-392, and codified as 70 O.S.1971, §§ 3407.1 and 3407.2) generally provides that the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education shall make a study to determine the feasibility of changing the functions of Murray State College of Agriculture and Applied Science to give predominate emphasis to technical education; that if the State Regents determine that the change should be made, they shall issue a proclamation declaring the change in the functions of the college and specifying the effective date; that thereafter the official name of the college shall be Murray State College of Technology; and there shall be created a Board of Regents of Murray State College of Technology and all governing control of the property, assets and obligations of the present Murray State College shall be transferred to the Board of Regents of the Murray State College of Technology. The enactment then made provisions for the Board of Regents of Murray State College of Technology and the appointment, tenure and duties of the members of the Board.

Pursuant to' the above enactment, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education conducted a feasibility study and thereafter approved a Statement of Functions for Murray State College. This statement contained seven functions for the college and one of these stated functions (Number 2) was “to provide an educational program which gives predominant emphasis to technical and occupational education.” In a footnote on the Statement of Functions this language was used:.

“The term ‘predominant’ as used in functional statement Number 2 above is interpreted to mean that educational programs of a technical nature be given great emphasis or prominent emphasis in planning the educational program to meet the needs of the people in the area served by the college. The function of technical education is implemented through technical education programs which cut across the several fields of ed[1065]*1065ucation including business, nursing and other health related education, agriculture, engineering and industrial education, computer science, and other such programs with a mathematical or scientific undergirding. * *

On October 27, 1971, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education issued its Proclamation. In this Proclamation the Regents found that the results of the study indicate that the functions of the College should be changed as suggested in Senate Bill 214, and resolved that the functions of the College be changed to provide for a predominant emphasis in technical education, effective November 1, 1971.

The governing control of the property, assets and obligations of Murray State College of Agricultural and Applied Science has been under the Board of Regents for Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges. By virtue of the State Regents’ determination and proclamation, and Senate Bill 214, the official name of the College is to be changed; another Board of Regents is to be created for the College; it becomes the duty of the Governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, to appoint seven members to the Board; and all property, assets and obligations of the College are to be transferred to the new Board.

It should be pointed out that the record discloses that the functions for Murray State College, as approved by the Oklahoma State Regents, were for all practical purposes in effect on November 1, 1971. In other words, this cause was presented on the theory that the Statement of Functions for Murray State College had been implemented and in force and effect on November 1, 1971, when the Oklahoma State Regents’ Proclamation became effective.

We will first consider plaintiff’s contention that Senate Bill 214 contravenes Article VI, § 31a, of the Constitution which creates a “Board of Regents for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College and all Agricultural and Mechanical Schools and Colleges maintained in whole or in part by the State.”

Plaintiff argues that the above Constitutional provision requires that Murray State College be governed by it; that the College has always been and continues to be an Agricultural and Mechanical College within the meaning of the Constitution, notwithstanding Senate Bill 214; and that the Legislature does not have the Constitutional authority to create a new governing board for the College.

Section 31a, supra, was adopted at a special election on July 11, 1944, after the Legislature in March 1943, passed Senate Joint Resolution No. 9, (1943 Session Laws, page 340) proposing an amendment to Article VI, § 31, of the Constitution. Under § 31, as adopted in 1907, the State Board of Agriculture was “the Board of Regents of all State Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges.” This section was amended in 1913, the amendment changing only the membership of the State Board of Agriculture.

At the time of the adoption of § 31, in 1907, two Universities or Colleges in Oklahoma, had the word “Agricultural” included in their names, i. e., the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University) and the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (now Langston University). The Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College was placed under the governing control of the Agricultural and Mechanical College Board of Regents being the State Board of Agriculture, (see Revised Laws of 1910, § 7971); and the Colored Agricultural and Normal University was placed under its own Board of Regents (Revised Laws of 1910, § 8019). The Colored Agricultural and Normal University (name changed to Langston University in 1941; 70 O.S.1941, § 1451a), was not placed under the governing control of the State Board of Agriculture until 1943. See 1943 Session Laws, page 211. Langston University was placed under the Board of Regents of Agricultur[1066]*1066al and Mechanical Colleges in 1945. See 70 O.S.1951, § 1451b. It therefore appears that since Langston University was named the Colored Agricultural and Normal University until 1941, the Legislature did not construe the word “Agricultural” in its name, as necessarily meaning that it was in fact an Agricultural and Mechanical College within the meaning of § 31. Had it been an Agricultural and Mechanical College within the meaning of § 31, it would seem that § 31 of the Constitution would have required it to be governed by the State Board of Agriculture.

Murray State College was first established as a “district agricultural school of secondary grade”, pursuant to Senate Bill No. 109, enacted by the Legislature in 1908. See 1907-08 Session Laws, page 18, § 14, 1910 Revised Session Laws, § 7879. That enactment provided for the establishment “in each of the Supreme Court Judicial Districts a district agricultural school of secondary grade * * Another section of that enactment (§ 7671 of the 1910 Revised Session Laws) also provided for the establishment in each of the state normal schools a department to be known as the department of agriculture and industrial education.

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