1997 February
February, 1997
Land-grant universities born from radical idea
We Iowa State alums graduated from a land-grant institution. Yet, some of us may be a bit uncertain about just what a land-grant university is. Here's a brief history lesson on the land-grant university and its unique place in American education.
orged in the midst of the Civil War and signed into law by
President Abraham Lincoln, the Land-Grant Act of 1862 introduced
a radical idea to American education -- that higher education
should be practical and available to the masses. Before the land-
grant universities, college was for a select and scholarly few --
who mostly went to school to study Latin, logic and other
classical topics.
The Land-Grant Act (also called the Morrill Act) promoted the
notion that a student might attend college to learn to grow corn,
build a bridge, even raise a child.
Its passage paved the way for many of the country's well-known universities -- Purdue, Rutgers, Cornell, Texas A&M and, Iowa State.
The act called for the federal government to provide each state with a grant of land that could be sold to finance a college, hence the name "land-grant." Iowa was the first state to accept the provisions of the Morrill Act and good money managers parlayed 204,000 acres into an $800,000 endowment for a university.
"The land-grant university is a uniquely American idea, defined
by a commitment to the land-grant values of access and
opportunity, combining practical and liberal education, conducting
basic and applied research, and reaching out to extend the
university to serve the people of the state."
-- ISU President Martin Jischke
One of the driving forces behind the act was Sen. Justin Morrill of Vermont. Although others joined in promoting the idea of land-grant colleges, Morrill is acknowledged as the parliamentary master who engineered its passage. Numerous Morrill Halls on campuses (including ISU's) throughout the United States, honor his efforts.
The Morrill Act quickly caught on and within eight years, 37 states had authorized some type of educational institution.
A second Morrill Act provided direct appropriations to land-grant colleges that could show race and color were not admissions criteria.
In the South, "separate but equal" colleges, called the "1890 land-grants," sprang up.
Today, there are 105 land-grant colleges and universities, including land-grants in U.S. territories such as Guam and the Virgin Islands and 29 Native American land-grant universities.
From the beginning, Iowa State had an open enrollment policy and its first African American student, George Washington Carver, enrolled in 1891.
Two other pieces of legislation further defined land-grant colleges. The Hatch Act of 1887 created the agricultural experiment station program. The act enabled the colleges to conduct agricultural research and uncover scientific knowledge that could be shared with students and farmers. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 extended the concept of service to the community by creating the federal Cooperative Extension Service. Both acts had origins at Iowa State.
It is no surprise that land-grant colleges quickly embraced their mission to improve American agriculture. Half the U.S. population lived on farms and another 10 percent were employed in agriculture. The later success of the colleges was due, in part, to experimental farms, which grew out of the experiment stations.
Among the achievements of these farms have been improvements in fertilizers, seed corn, pesticides, fruits, livestock breeding and disease control.
Today, Iowa State farms are tackling the livestock odor problem, at the request of the state. ISU Extension and College of Agriculture staff are testing new technologies in nearly 50 demonstrations. Iowa farmers not only are sharing in the cost of the program, they are helping to decide which techniques should be tested.
While teaching and research were common to nearly every college at the beginning of the century, the concept of helping the community was unique to land-grant colleges. It is this tradition of service that ISU President Martin Jischke calls the "difference maker."
"The outreach part of our land-grant mission is the truly radical aspect of the land-grant development," he said. "Not only do we teach students on the campus, not only are we engaged in trying to understand the world about us, to answer questions and carry out original investigations, we are institutions of progress for society and are to be engaged in the life of that society."
Iowa State's commitment to community is perhaps most evident in the Extension Service that puts ISU staff in every county in the state. Extension's job, in a nutshell, is to ensure that knowledge and expertise of the university gets off campus and into the hands of Iowans.
Iowa State began its own extension service in 1902 and took responsibility for the newly created state Extension Service in 1906. The national extension program was created in 1914.
Perry G. Holden, the first director of the state Extension Service, was famous for his "Seed Corn Gospel Trains." The corn trains, which traveled throughout Iowa, were one of Iowa State's early efforts to share knowledge with the people.
The role of extension has evolved throughout the years to meet the changing needs of society. Early efforts focused on farming and home economics, but today's ISU Extension staff also are helping small business owners better their business practices, showing manufacturers how to improve production, providing one-on-one consultation to families with limited resources and helping teachers access the Internet, said vice provost for extension Stan Johnson.
ISU Extension staff often connect Iowans with campus experts. For example, when an Iowa custom bicycle maker needed help in developing a stand for servicing tandem bikes, he turned to extension staff at the Center for Industrial Research and Service. A CIRAS engineer helped direct the project, and staff at the Engineering Structure Laboratory on campus tested its durability.
Traditionally, ISU Extension has focused its efforts on Iowa, but with a growing global community, the extension of the future is likely to extend its reach.
"There are no boundaries to science, there are no boundaries to environmental problems," Johnson said.
The first land-grant colleges focused on agriculture. Today's land-grant universities are much more broadly based and likely to sport business, design and education colleges.
"The door is wide open for extension in many ways, when it comes
to new technologies, like virtual classrooms and distance
learning.
-- Vice provost for extension Stan Johnson
Land-grant colleges started out mostly training farmers and their wives. Soon they were moving other occupations into the professional ranks, transforming shopkeepers into CEOs and carpenters into architects. Today, they train future computer gurus and international business persons.
"Society is changing, not only in who is feeding us, but in terms of where people are living, what their needs are, what kind of educational needs they have," Jischke said. "Universities in general, and land-grant universities in particular, are being called on to change, adapt.
"At Iowa State, we have set as our aspiration to become the best land-grant university in the nation. To achieve that aspiration, we must first redefine the land-grant mission for the next century, and that is what we are doing."
-- Linda Charles, Editor
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Revised: February 1997