University Lands, under the direction of Office of Business Affairs, The University of Texas System, is responsible for managing the Permanent University Fund lands and the Trust Minerals. Under the supervision of Jim Benson, Executive Director, University Lands is comprised of three divisions: Surface Interests, Mineral Interests, and Accounting.

History of the University Lands

The Permanent University Fund (PUF) lands had their beginning in an address by President Mirabeau B. Lamar> to the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas on December 20, 1838. President Lamar strongly urged the Texas Congress to quickly establish the foundations for a vast system of education. On January 26, 1839, fifty leagues (approximately 220,000 acres) of land were set aside from the public domain by the Republic of Texas for the establishment and endowment of a university.

The State of Texas Constitution of 1876 called for the creation of the University of Texas and appropriated one million acres of land for the establishment of a Permanent University Fund. An additional one million acres were added to the PUF in 1883. These lands constitute the bulk of what is commonly referred to as the University lands or PUF lands. Now totaling approximately 2.1 million acres, most of this land is located in the West Texas counties of Andrews, Crane, Crockett, Culberson, Dawson, Ector, El Paso, Gaines, Hudspeth, Irion, Loving, Martin, Pecos, Reagan, Schleicher, Terrell, Upton, Ward and Winkler.

Since this beginning, a total of $6.44 billion has been deposited into the Permanent University Fund (PUF) from oil and gas royalties, lease bonuses and rentals generated from the exploration and development of the University lands. Investment income from the PUF, which is shared by The University of Texas (UT) System and Texas A&M University System, is used to finance construction, renovations, major library acquisitions, significant educational and research equipment and academic excellence programs.

Oil was first discovered on the University lands in 1923 with the completion of the Santa Rita No. 1 in Reagan County. At that time, the Permanent University Fund and the income available from its investment began a period of rapid growth.

Most of the surface acreage managed by University Lands is leased for grazing purposes. Over the years, the UT System has added the equivalent of over one million acres to its holdings by increasing the productivity of existing land by 50 percent through soil and water conservation programs, innovative range management, and cooperative research.

In 1974, the UT System expanded its use of the University lands to include an experimental vineyard for research. Although this project is no longer in operation, a commercial vineyard of approximately 1,000 acres and a multi-million dollar commercial winery are now located on the University lands near Fort Stockton.

A relatively new activity on the University lands is the commercial generation of electricity from wind power. In 2001, two wind farms, with approximately 100 wind turbines generating a total capacity of 65.3 megawatts, were built on PUF lands in Pecos County. Additional wind power projects on PUF lands are expected in the future as the demand for green power increases.