"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.....................

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."
Ref: The Iowa Stater February, 1997