# Board of Regents *Governing body of the University of Minnesota, created by the territorial charter of 1851.* The Board of Regents is the governing body of the [[University of Minnesota]].[^1] It was created by the university's charter, Territorial Laws 1851, chapter 3, enacted by the territorial [[Legislature]].[^2] The charter set up a twelve-member board elected by the Legislature. It directed the regents to place the institution "at or near the Falls of Saint Anthony" and prohibited sectarian instruction.[^2] The record assembled here does not show the party alignment of the 1851 legislators who enacted the charter, or the later amendments to it. The board gives its own account of itself on its homepage, which presents it as the university's governing body, and in its official *History of the Board of Regents*.[^1][^3] A different account appears in the *TRUTH Project Final Report*, dated April 11, 2023, which the pack attributes to the University of Minnesota and the [[Minnesota Indian Affairs Council]]. That report states that the founding Board of Regents "committed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous peoples for financial gain."[^4] It also describes the founding board as having used a "shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources."[^4] The record contains no filed complaint, court docket or agency finding that names the board. The board appears in two other places. First, it appears in the project's catalogue of legal theories, whose claim rows cite the board's homepage.[^1] Second, it appears in one at-issue pair on university landholding in Carver County.[^5] ## Who The 1851 charter fixed the board at twelve regents, chosen by election in the Legislature.[^2] Wikipedia's general article on university governing boards gives the wider pattern. In most states, members of public university boards are selected by the [[governor]]. Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska and Nevada choose some boards by popular vote. The article also lists the University of Minnesota among institutions governed by a board of regents.[^6] The pack does not document how present-day regents are selected or how many currently serve. The board publishes an official *History of the Board of Regents*. The project's claim rows list it as the board's own account of its origins, but the pack does not reproduce its contents.[^3] ## What Under the charter, the board was the body to which the Legislature gave the institution. The charter assigned the regents the choice of its site, "at or near the Falls of Saint Anthony", and barred sectarian teaching.[^2] Wikipedia's general article explains that many higher-education institutions are legally corporations. In that arrangement, board members such as regents or trustees act as fiduciaries for the corporation, which owns the institution's property.[^6] The 2023 *TRUTH Project Final Report* describes how the founding board used that institutional form, in the "shell corporation" language quoted above.[^4] The report's characterization is the report's own. The record assembled here does not include the land and financial documents on which it rests. ## When - 1851: Territorial Laws 1851, chapter 3, creates the board as part of the university charter.[^2] - April 11, 2023: the *TRUTH Project Final Report* is issued, with its statements about the founding Board of Regents.[^4] ## Where The charter located the institution "at or near the Falls of Saint Anthony."[^2] The project's claim rows describe the board as "in continuous occupation of Morrill Hall."[^1] The board's landholding in Carver County is treated under the at-issue record below.[^5] ## How The board was formed by legislative enactment, and the Legislature itself elected its members under the 1851 charter.[^2] The 2023 report's account of how the founding board operated is its statement that the board used a "shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources."[^4] ## How many The charter provided for twelve regents.[^2] For comparison, Wikipedia's general article reports that in 2016 public university boards averaged twelve members and private boards twenty-nine. These figures are national averages and not specific to Minnesota.[^6] ## In the at-issue record At-issue pair AI-Carver-034 (rank 34) is drawn from the project's Carver County institutional history. It states that the University of Minnesota owns 1,200 acres in Carver County. It places the [[Landscape Arboretum]] there as a unit of the university's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. The pair describes that holding as a major landholder answerable to the Board of Regents and to no Carver County voter. The project pairs this entry with the March 2026 White House action *Establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud* as its federal anchor, under the heading of land inside a jurisdiction governed entirely outside it.[^5] The anchor document is the pair's framing reference. It does not itself establish the acreage figure, which the pair attributes to Wikipedia and Minnesota Historical Society sources not reproduced in the pack. ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - The project's claim:link rows cite the board's homepage under several of its legal theories. These include Title VI, Title IX, Fourteenth Amendment equal protection, the Sherman Act, civil RICO, an "institutional capture" theory, and a "federal triangulation" theory.[^1] - Under the Fourteenth Amendment theory, a row describes the board as "institutional defendant for the EOAA architecture." These are the project's own legal theories, not filed pleadings, and the record carries no docket for any of them.[^1] - The project's claim rows also attribute the 2023 *TRUTH Project Final Report* to the institution. They quote its statement about the founding Board of Regents.[^4] ### Where - The project's claim rows place the board in Morrill Hall.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: University of Minnesota Board of Regents, *Board of Regents* (homepage, undated) — identifies the board as the governing body of the University of Minnesota; the URL cited in the project's claim:link rows for its governance and Morrill Hall descriptions and its legal theories. https://regents.umn.edu/ [^2]: Minnesota Territorial Legislature, *Territorial Laws 1851, ch. 3 (University of Minnesota charter)* (1851) — creates a twelve-member Board of Regents elected by the Legislature, directs siting "at or near the Falls of Saint Anthony", and bars sectarian instruction. https://conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/46ca5f5a-b584-437e-bfcf-59bedf1a3c72/content [^3]: University of Minnesota Board of Regents, *History of the Board of Regents* (official, undated) — the board's own account of its origins. https://regents.umn.edu/history-board-regents [^4]: University of Minnesota / Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, *TRUTH Project Final Report* (April 11, 2023) — states that the founding Board of Regents "committed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous peoples for financial gain" and used a "shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources." https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/assets/full-report_tcm1193-572488.pdf [^5]: The White House, *Establishing the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud* (March 2026) — federal anchor the project pairs with at-issue entry AI-Carver-034 on university landholding in Carver County; does not itself establish the acreage. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/03/establishing-the-task-force-to-eliminate-fraud/ [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Board of Regents* (revision 1350297977, retrieved 2026-10-27) — general description of U.S. university governing boards: corporate form, selection methods, 2016 average board sizes, and listing of the University of Minnesota among boards of regents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Regents