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.
History
Michigan State
University
was chartered as the nation’s first land-grant
institution on February 12 1855 as the Agricultural College of the
State of Michigan, receiving a pre-Morrill Act appropriation of
of state-owned land; the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania,
later to become Pennsylvania State University
, followed on February 22
of that year. The charters for these two schools served as a
model for the Morrill Act of 1862.
Iowa State Agricultural College (now
Iowa State
University
) was the first existing school whose state
legislature officially accepted the provisions of the Morrill Act,
on September 11 1862. The first land-grant institution created
under the Act was Kansas State University
, established on February
16 1863. The oldest to earn
land-grant status is Rutgers University
, founded in 1766 and designated the land-grant
college of New Jersey in 1864.
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
See also
Notes
Map
Map of all
Land-grant universities by USDA
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/qlinks/partners/partners_map.pdf
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