Change at Harvard
Harvard names Drew G. Faust
as its 28th president
Transformational Era 1870 -1944
Morrill Land Grant to Serviceman’s Readjustment Act
1850
120 colleges
47 law schools
42 theological seminaries
No ag, manufacturing, practical arts
1856 Congressman Justin Morrill, VT
Purpose: To promote the liberal and practical education of the
industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life.
…to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture
and the mechanical arts…
Land Grant Colleges
Federal government involvement
on HE that changed the direction
of HE in the United States
Land Grant Colleges
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Morrill Act
– Wayland @ Brown 1850: “US has 120 colleges, 47 law schools, 42 theological
seminars and not a single institution designed to furnish the agriculturalist, the
manufacturer, the mechanic, or the merchant w/the education that will prepare
him for the profession to which is life to be devoted.”
– 1860 Pennsylvania had a farmer’s high school
– 1857 Michigan State had a college of agriculture
– Proposed by Justin Morrill of Vermont in 1856 and 1859; vetoed by Buchanan-states rights
– Purpose: “Learning objective shall be, without excluding other scientific or
classical studies, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture
and the mechanical arts.”
– Policy Issues: land grants to support education or build economy, federal gov’t
had land and debts
• Options: Sell land to raise $/donate land to increase prosperity (Homestead Act/RR)
increase agricultural production to increase prosperity
Land Grant Colleges
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Morrill Act cont.
– 1862: Public lands given to each state: 30,000 acres for each senator/rep
• : Public land for each state; approx 17 million acres; average return $1.65; 10% land
purchase; invest remainder…perpetual endowment
– By 1961
69 institutions were being supported by these funds
– Land grant college models:
• Existing schools: :Michigan state, Penn State, Wisconsin
• New Systems: Texas A&M, Oklahoma
– Impact on private colleges
• Ag. Education as tough sell: Philly newspaper “Instead of introducing the student of
agriculture to a lab and chemical and philosophical apparatus, we would introduce him
to a pair of heavy boots and corduroy pants and learn him how to load manure.”
• States invest in public land grant colleges
Land Grant Colleges
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Morrill Act Continued
1863 US Commissioner of Education: These colleges are not to be
agricultural only; the sons of our farmers are not less ambitious of distinction
than others.”
Migration off the farms/better life
Body of knowledge
Univ. of MO brochure on agriculture: He can work better and sleep better
who has well kept lands and beautiful perspective
How did the land grants make it?
– Hatch Act 1887 brings science to farmers
– 1890 land grant course offerings: animal husbandry, veterinary medicine,
agronomy, plant pathology, agricultural botany, agricultural chemistry, farm
management. Where is the classical curriclum?
Land Grant Colleges
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Morrill Act 1890: 2 major components
1. Provided more funding for existing land grant institutions
2. Greater accountability – subjects to be taught were specified
3. Established Black Land-Grant Colleges
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“At a time when many schools barred their doors to Black Americans, these
colleges offered the best, and often the only, opportunity for a higher
education.” – George Bush, 1991
Challenges for Black institutions
–
90% of African Americans lived in the South
• 84% were farmers, overseers, sharecroppers, or employed in domestic jobs
– Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): “Separate but equal”
• Rise in Jim Crow laws
– Funding disparities with their white counterpart institutions
Opposition remains: traditional classical curriculum; denominational interests
• SC legislator: “I have never seen a man who could write a nice essay or
make a good agricultural speech who could make enough corn to feed
himself and a bobtailed mule.”
Land Grant Colleges
• “…no money shall be paid out under this act to any State
or Territory for the support and maintenance of a college
where a distinction of race or color is made in the
admission of student, but the establishments and
maintenance of such colleges separately for white and
colored students shall be held to be a compliance with
the provisions of this act if the funds received in such
State or Territory by equitably divided as hereinafter set
forth”
• Consequences
– Poorer facilities and budgets
– Lacked adequate libraries and scientific and research equipment
and capabilities
Land Grant Colleges
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Institutional Leadership
Charles Eliot (Harvard)
– Graduates 1853, tutor until 1863, math prof. MIT 1869
– President, Harvard 1869-1909
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Reforms
– 1872 abolish required courses for seniors
– 1897 rhetoric only required freshman course
– 3 principles: freedom of choice in studies, all subjects accorded equal
value/standing, individual responsible for conduct
– Why do reforms work—take hold?
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Eliot @ Harvard appoints Ephraim Gurney: history faculty member, dean of
the college; responsible for: instruction, registration, student welfare
– 1890-1891 divide Dean position: Charles Dunbar-dean of the faculty, LeBaron
Briggs-dean of the college w/responsibility for students—Dean of men
– Marion Talbot-Dean of women @ Chicago
Land Grant Colleges
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Eliot Cont.
4 models
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Most of curriculum elective
Half elective half prescribed
Major/minor system
Hopkins group system-Jefferson’s idea @ VA
Expansion of the curriculum, introduces specialization and academic
departments. Competition w/in institutions.
1903 study leads to 1910 reforms
– Concentrations (major/minor) and distributions (groups)
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Results of elective curriculum: Expansion of course offerings, including
vocational, rise of the sciences, equal footing for all offerings, struggle b/w
sciences, need libraries to support courses, need labs to support pure and
applied science, graduate work in academic specialty in Germany &
Scotland/expectations of faculty, student expectations for practical
education
Wisconsin Idea
• People’s university in service to the people of state
• Hatch Act extension centers in every county; bring the expertise of
the lab to the country side
• Faculty as advisors to government officials
Draft legislation
Apply social sciences knowledge to state issues
State Street in Madison: campus on one end facing state capital on the
other end
Land Grant Colleges
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David Starr Jordan IU/Stanford: “BS degree has come to mean bachelor of
surfaces b/c the expansion of the curriculum meant that students only
touched the surface.”
End of intellectual unity/driven by social forces…
Land Grant Colleges
were the pot of gold
for many students