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5. College, Community, and Nation
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153 In a Pennsylvania hall in 1876, adults leafed through examination papers by Lincoln University students. But they were not professors at the African American university. They were not even on the Chester County campus. Nearby, others watched children engaged in a kindergarten lesson . But they were neither teachers nor parents. They were not even in a school building. These viewers were tourists. They were attending the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, at which American institutions of many kinds, including colleges and schools, displayed their accomplishments . Lincoln’s exhibit taught attendees about the work of black college students. A mock kindergarten attended by local orphans showcased the latest methods of early childhood education.1 Educational institutions, in cooperation with the federal government, used the exposition to spread knowledge about recent developments in American education. That joint project reflected the expansion of colleges’ connections with local and national communities and the intensification of their relationship with the federal government after the Civil War. As Reconstruction came to a close, the exposition served as both a demonstration and a culmination of the changes the Civil War had brought to higher education. American colleges always had maintained concrete relationships with communities beyond their student populations. Towns and their churches had founded most antebellum colleges. State governments had founded most of the rest and often retained seats on the governing boards of both denominational and state-founded institutions.2 But few formal programs had involved colleges with their broader communities. Colleges had served the general public only indirectly, by educating public leaders and certain types of professionals. FIVE College, Community, and Nation 154 RECONSTRUCTING THE CAMPUS During and after the war, colleges began to develop strong connections with the federal government. Paradoxically, at the very time when colleges were educating increasingly local student populations, they did so through a curriculum designed in cooperation with national authorities . Through the Morrill Act of 1862, the government agreed to use public funding to support colleges that met certain criteria. Through the legislation of 1866 and 1870 to supply army o∞cers and arms, the government supplied its own personnel and equipment to colleges that o≠ered courses it believed contributed to the national interest. Meanwhile, some state governments gave new money and attention to their state universities. By providing this support, national and state legislators gained the power to define the nature of colleges’ indirect public service. Colleges began to train not only doctors, lawyers, ministers, and teachers but also farmers, engineers, and citizen-soldiers. They introduced curricular and admissions policies that expanded the role of higher education in American life. After the Civil War, colleges also began to operate more explicitly in the public arena. I use the term public in two of its senses: “of or relating to the people as a whole” and “carried out or made on behalf of the community by the government or state.”3 Colleges increased their involvement with both their local communities and the federal government. First, they reached out to the populations of their cities and states, providing services for people besides their enrolled students. In other words, they began to provide direct, as well as indirect, public service. Some Southern colleges began these programs in response to the same wartime and Reconstruction conditions that spurred them to reinvent curricular and admissions policies. Second, the federal government began to collect data on education to a much greater extent than ever before. This new activity came as part of a general expansion of federal authority during and after the war. For the first time, the national government included a large bureaucracy and became involved in many areas of American life. Colleges joined with the new bureaucracy, including at the Centennial Exposition, to disseminate information about themselves and about American education as a whole. In the introduction I mentioned Merle Curti’s 1942 assertion that wars had broken down barriers between intellectuals and the public. That assertion turns out to be true for the Civil War, but in a more fundamental and lasting way than Curti realized. Through local service and federally supported publicity, colleges after the war built permanent links to communities beyond their students. In doing so, they became important [23.20.220.59] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 13:42 GMT) 155 COLLEGE, COMMUNITY, AND NATION cultural and economic resources for their communities and important partners of the federal state. From the Closet to the Field: University Outreach The Civil War stimulated direct public service...