0001| SENATE MEMORIAL 13
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0002| 43RD LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - SECOND SESSION, 1998
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0003| INTRODUCED BY
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0004| JOHN PINTO
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0008|
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0009|
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0010| A MEMORIAL
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0011| REQUESTING THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE SECRETARY
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0012| OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO FUND THE
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0013| CONSTRUCTION OF THE DINE COLLEGE CAMPUS IN SHIPROCK, NEW
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0014| MEXICO.
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0015|
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0016| WHEREAS, the Dine community college was established and
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0017| chartered by the Navajo tribal council in 1968 to provide
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0018| educational opportunities to the Navajo people and others in
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0019| areas important to the economic and social development of the
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0020| Navajo Nation; and
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0021| WHEREAS, in Public Law 95-471, the Tribally Controlled
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0022| Community College Assistance Act of 1978, the Dine community
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0023| college was recognized by the United States congress as the
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0024| first Indian college; and
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0025| WHEREAS, the Shiprock Dine community college, established
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0001| in 1974, is one of six satellite campuses and the largest
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0002| branch campus of the Dine community college; and
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0003| WHEREAS, in 1982 the Shiprock Dine community college
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0004| leased the old bureau of Indian affairs elementary school
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0005| facility, which was constructed in the late 1940s and closed
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0006| in the 1970s, and the Dine community college has been housed
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0007| in these facilities on an annual use permit from the bureau of
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0008| Indian affairs; and
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0009| WHEREAS, in 1994, the bureau of Indian affairs conducted
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0010| a life safety code survey and cited more than three hundred
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0011| deficiencies and recommended immediate repair, and some
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0012| deficiencies that posed serious health and safety hazards to
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0013| the students and faculty have been temporarily fixed, but many
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0014| deficiencies still exist; and
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0015| WHEREAS, the Shiprock Dine community college has an
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0016| enrollment of more than five hundred students per semester and
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0017| the Shiprock agency population of forty-eight thousand can
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0018| comfortably supply more than one thousand students if
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0019| facilities were adequate, but the leased facility will not
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0020| allow for the physical expansion that is necessary to address
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0021| the enrollment and academic growth; and
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0022| WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation has withdrawn seventy-seven
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0023| acres of land for the Dine community college campus and a site
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0024| has been selected to be the location for the new college
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0025| campus; and
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0001| WHEREAS, through efforts of the new Shiprock campus
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0002| committee, the New Mexico legislature appropriated one hundred
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0003| thousand dollars ($100,000) in 1996 for the planning and
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0004| designing of the new college campus; and
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0005| WHEREAS, pursuant to Public Law 104-127, the federal
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0006| Agricultural Improvement Reform Act of 1996 and the Equity in
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0007| Educational Land Grant Status Act of 1994, the secretary of
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0008| the United States department of agriculture has discretionary
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0009| authority to transfer or reallocate funds to create a pool of
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0010| community facilities grant funds, and these funds could target
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0011| the needs of the Dine college Shiprock campus; and
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0012| WHEREAS, on October 19, 1998, United States president
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0013| William J. Clinton issued executive order 13021 designed to
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0014| increase access to financial and other resources throughout
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0015| the federal government for tribal colleges, and the executive
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0016| order applies to the tribal colleges authorized under the
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0017| Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act of 1978
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0018| and the Navajo Community College Act, and the executive order
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0019| requires all federal agencies to look for opportunities to
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0020| provide funding and to otherwise involve the colleges in their
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0021| programs;
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0022| NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE
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0023| OF NEW MEXICO that the congress of the United States and the
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0024| secretary of the United States department of agriculture be
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0025| requested to fund the construction of a full college campus
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0001| for the college education programs of the Dine community
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0002| college in Shiprock, San Juan county, New Mexico; and
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0003| BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
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0004| sent to every member of the New Mexico congressional
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0005| delegation and the secretary of the United States department
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0006| of agriculture.
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0007|
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