Precipice or Crossroads?: Where America's Great Public Universities Stand and Where They Are Going Midway through Their Second Century

The Modern Public University: Its Land-Grant Heritage, Its Land-Grant Horizon

The Modern Public University Its Land-Grant Heritage, Its Land-Grant Horizon e. gorDon gee The land-grant university is the social conscience of american higher education. as the principled paradigm of what colleges and universities should be in a nation that cherishes equality, democracy, and opportunity for all, the land-grant institution has defined and modeled the values that all of our country’s great public universities hold dear. The storied history of the land-grant is traceable to the tenacity of one individual with a vision of how things should be, and could be. Vermont congressman Justin Morrill believed that america’s colleges were failing to provide the kind of education needed by the nation’s farmers and industrial workers, and he was convinced that their productivity—and so, their lives—could be improved through the teaching of practical subjects that would enhance their skills. When Morrill introduced his land-grant bill into congress in 1857, education in america was a wide open proving ground. at the time of Morrill’s bill, Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, Bronson alcott, and countless other less well-known education reformers were laboring to ensure that, starting with their era, schools would be free and coeducational.They wanted to develop statewide systems of education, to establish laws that would make school attendance compulsory, and to expand the curriculum to include vocational tracks. These efforts to increase opportunities for all children and create bonds among an increasingly diverse population were 51 52 e. GordoN Gee radical notions at the time. But the moment for such innovations was right, and they forever changed the nature of schooling in this country. it was at this point that Justin Morrill introduced his unprecedented legislation to fund educational institutions by granting federally controlled land to the states for the establishment of “land-grant colleges.” These institutions were to offer programs in agriculture, science, engineering, and home economics as well as traditional academic subjects. Morrill’s 1857 bill was passed by congress despite opposition from southern legislators, who viewed it as a violation of states’ rights. in the end, however, these legislators carried the day because the bill was vetoed by President James Buchanan on the grounds that it was contrary to the policy of the federal government, which up to then had left control of education to the states. Undaunted, Morrill resubmitted his bill in 1861. The secession of the southern states from the Union and the advent of a new president guaranteed its success this time. The Morrill act would set in motion the most signal, durable, and far-reaching of the many nineteenth-century reforms in higher education. When President abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill act in 1862, higher education was still very much the exclusive domain of the few, the white, the male, the wealthy, and, by and large, those living in cities. But Lincoln was looking to the future and was determined to make good on the ideals of human equality set forth in the declaration of independence . Born to illiterate parents on the frontier, the president knew that the democratic promise of “We, the People” depended on an educated electorate capable of self-government. and he understood that making higher education available to the so-called industrial classes was his fractured nation’s best choice for peace, democracy, growth, and prosperity. in the years after the civil War, an industrializing america found itself in need of a new kind of workforce. Highly trained professionals—in engineering, agriculture, forestry, public health, home economics—were increasingly required to respond to society’s ordinary but very real needs. if it created a need and a place for these new professionals, however, industrialization at the same time created a considerable class of disadvantaged workers for whom the american dream of unlimited opportunities seemed unrealizable. For such workers—indeed, for all citizens in search of advanced learning—the Morrill act democratized american higher education, effectively re-charting its course. establishing land-grant institutions in every state proved critical in extending educational opportunity beyond The Modern Public University 53 the wealthy, the well-connected, and the urban. as they continue to do today, the land-grant colleges and universities expanded access and opportunity to those whose parents had never considered the possibility of a college education; to those who, earlier, could scarcely imagine a better life; to those of great ability, regardless of means. The Morrill act...