Constitution of 1901, Article XIV, Education

Amendment No. 399, Amendment of Section 264

The state university shall be under the control of the board of trustees, which shall consist of two members from the congressional district in the state as constituted on January 1, 2018, an additional member from the congressional district which includes the site of the first campus of the university, and the governor, who shall be ex officio president of the board.

The members of the board of trustees, as now constituted shall hold office until their respective terms expire under existing law, and until their successors shall be elected and confirmed as hereinafter required. The additional trustees provided for by this amendment shall be elected by the existing members of the board, and confirmed by the senate in the manner provided below, for initial terms of not more than six years established by the board so that one term shall expire each three years in each congressional district. Successors to the terms of the existing and additional trustees shall hold office for a term of six years, and shall not serve more than three consecutive full six-year terms on the Board. Election of additional and successor trustees or trustees to fill any vacancy created by the expiration of a term or by the death or resignation of any member or from any other cause shall be by the remaining members of the board by secret ballot; provided, that any trustee so elected shall hold office from the date of election until confirmation or rejection by the senate, and, if confirmed, until the expiration of the term for which elected, and until a successor is elected. At every meeting of the legislature the superintendent of education shall certify to the senate the names of all who shall have been so elected since the last session of the legislature, and the senate shall confirm or reject them, as it shall determine is for the best interest of the university. If it rejects the names of any members, it shall thereupon elect trustees in the stead of those rejected. No trustee shall receive any pay or emolument other than his actual expenses incurred in the discharge of his duties as such. Upon the vacation of office by a trustee, the board, if it desires, may bestow upon a trustee the honorary title of trustee emeritus, but such status shall confer no responsibilities, duties, rights, or privileges as such.

History. -- Proposed by Acts 1981, No. 81-124, p. 145, submitted March 2, 1982, proclaimed ratified March 17, 1982, submitted January 1, 2018, proclaimed ratified December 3, 2018.

After the ratification of this Constitution there shall be paid out of the treasury of this state at the time and in the manner provided by law, the sum of not less than thirty-six thousand dollars per annum as interest on the funds of the University of Alabama, heretofore covered into the treasury, for the maintenance and support of said institution; provided, that the Legislature shall have the power at any time they deem proper for the best interest of said university to abolish the military system at said institution or reduce the said system to a department of instruction, and that such action on the part of the Legislature shall not cause any diminution of the amount of the annual interest payable out of the treasury for the support and maintenance of said university.

The Legislature shall not have power to change the location of the state university, or the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, or the Alabama Schools for the Deaf and Blind, or the Alabama Girls' Industrial School, as now established by law, except upon a vote of two-thirds of the Legislature taken by yeas and nays and entered upon the journal.