Land-grant university

Land-grant universities (also called land-grant colleges or land grant institutions) are institutions of higher education in the United States designated by each state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890.

The Morrill Acts funded educational institutions by granting federally controlled land to the states for the states to develop or sell to raise funds to establish and endow "land grant" colleges. The mission of these institutions as set forth in the 1862 Act is to focus on the teaching of agriculture, science and engineering as a response to the industrial revolution and changing social class rather than higher education's historic core of classical studies.^[1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Hatch Act 2 Expansion 3 Nomenclature 4 Relevant legislation 5 See also 6 Notes 7 External links

History

The concept of publicly-funded agricultural and technical educational institutions first rose to national attention through the efforts of Jonathan Baldwin Turner in the late 1840s.^[2] The first land-grant bill was introduced in Congress by Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont in 1857.^[2] The bill passed in 1859, but was vetoed by President James Buchanan.^[2] Morrill resubmitted his bill in 1861, and it was ultimately enacted into law in 1862.

Prior to enactment of the Morrill Act in 1862, Michigan State University was chartered as a state land-grant institution on February 12, 1855, as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, receiving an appropriation of 14,000 acres (57 km²) of state-owned land. The Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, later to become Pennsylvania State University, followed as a state land-grant school on February 22 of that year.

Upon passage of the federal land grant law in 1862, Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) was the first existing school whose state legislature accepted the provisions of the Morrill Act, on September 11, 1862.^[3] The first land-grant institution newly created under the Act was Kansas State University, established on February 16, 1863. The oldest school to hold land-grant status presently is Rutgers University, founded in 1766 and designated the land-grant college of New Jersey in 1864.

West Virginia State University is the only current land-grant university to have surrendered its land-grant status, which happened in 1957, and to later regain this status, which happened in 2001; and is also the smallest land-grant university in the country.^{[citation needed]}

Hatch Act

The mission of the land-grant universities was expanded by the Hatch Act of 1887, which provided federal funds to states to establish a series of agricultural experiment stations under the direction of each state's land-grant college, as well as pass along new information, especially in the areas of soil minerals and plant growth. The outreach mission was further expanded by the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 to include cooperative extension — the sending of agents into rural areas to help bring the results of agricultural research to the end users. Beyond the original land grants, each land-grant college receives annual Federal appropriations for research and extension work on the condition that those funds are matched by state funds.

Expansion

While today's land grant universities were initially known as land-grant colleges, only a small handful of the seventy-some institutions which evolved from the Morrill Acts still retain "College" in their official names.

The University of the District of Columbia received land-grant status and a $7.24 million endowment (USD), in lieu of a land grant, in 1967. In a 1972 Special Education Amendment, American Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, Northern Marianas, and the Virgin Islands each received $3 million.

In 1994, 29 Tribal colleges and universities became land grant institutions under the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act. In 2008, 32 tribal colleges and universities have land grant status. Most of these are two-year degree granting colleges. However, six are four-year institutions, and two offer a master's degree.

Nomenclature

Land-grant universities are not to be confused with sea grant colleges (a program instituted in 1966), space grant colleges (instituted in 1988), urban-grant universities or sun grant colleges (instituted in 2003). In some states, the land-grant missions for agricultural research and extension have been relegated to a statewide agency of the university system rather than the original land-grant campus; an example is the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture.

Relevant legislation

• The Morrill Act of 1862
• The Hatch Act of 1887
• The second Morrill Act of 1890
• The Adams Act - 1906
• The Nelson Act - 1907
• The Smith-Lever Act of 1914
• Chapter 79 - May 8, 1914
• The Smith-Hughes Act - 1917
• The Parnell Act - 1925
• The Copper-Ketcham Act - 1928
• The Bankhead-Jones Act of 1935
• The Bankhead-Flannegan Act - 1945
• The Research Marketing Act - 1946
• Amendment to Smith-Lever Act - 1953, 1955, 1961, 1962, 1968
• Amended Hatch Act - 1955
• The McIntire-Stennis Act - 1962
• The Research Facilities Act - 1965
• Public Law 89-106 - 1965
• The National Sea Grant College and Program Act - 1966
• The Rural Development Act - 1972
• The Food and Agriculture Act - 1977
• The National Agricultural Research Extension and Teaching Act - Title XIV - 1977
• The Resource Extension Act - 1978
• Amendment to Title XIV - 1981
• The Agriculture and Food Act - 1981
• Amendment to Title XIV of Food Security Act - 1985
• Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act. - 1994

See also

• List of land-grant universities
• Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
• Sea Grant Colleges
• Space Grant Colleges
• Sun Grant Colleges
• State university

Notes

External links

• Map of all land-grant universities by the United States Department of Agriculture