Senators defeated the House resolution 41-3 on Friday. GOP Rep. Rick Becker of Bismarck sponsored the resolution.

Opponents have long argued that removing universities and colleges from the state constitution is a thinly veiled attempt to close some of them.

The Legislature passed a similar resolution in 1997, but state voters the following year resoundingly defeated it, with two-thirds of voters rejecting it.

Another attempted resolution failed to make it out of the Legislature in 2013.