The Cornerstone: A Symbol

James Wickersham regarded the cornerstone as essential to sustaining the idea of a college, writing in June 1915 that public interest must not be allowed to lag after he secured the land from Congress, two years before the legislature created the school. By 1956, as the university grew, the cornerstone had lost prominence, and after a contractor mistakenly moved it to a debris field, the alumni association director led a campaign to restore it. The cornerstone was reinstalled in 1962 with a plaque explaining its symbolism, and its rededication on July 6, 2015, became the first celebration of the university's centennial. At that ceremony, UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers said that Alaska's leaders had supported the institution one hundred years earlier and that the university remains vital to Alaska's bright future.

College, Alaska · United States