HISTORICAL TIMELINE
1600s: Colonial Era
 Colonial College (i.e. Harvard): liberal education—knowledge of freeman w/ the ability
to lead & conservative institution—knowledge fixed & immutable

1700-1800s: American Revolution/Enlightenment
 Common School Movement (1840-1875): free, universal, local institutions supported by
taxes (Mann)
 Compulsory School Movement (1918): required school attendance in all states  created
pipeline for higher ed

Rise of Modern University
19th c.: Women and Minorities in Higher Education
 Women’s Options: Single Sex, Coordinate Institutions, Co-Educational
 1862: First Morrill Land Grant
1900 – 1920s: World War I
 The Personnel Movement
 Increased federal funding for research: “big science”  atom bomb, radar, decentralized
collaboration btw institutions
1930s – 1950s: Great Depression/New Deal/World War II
 Delivering new programs: agricultural extensions, federal work study, National Youth
Admin
 Federal funds for campus expansions/growth
 GI Bill of Rights (1944)
 National Defense Education Act (??)
1960s – 1980s: Protests/Civil Rights Movement
 Higher Education Act of 1965: grants, loans & work study financial aid package
 Education Amendments of 1972
1990s – Present Day: Privatization of Higher Education
 Bayh Dole Act (1980):
 Taxpayer Relief of 1997:
 Changes to Financing for Higher Ed: decreased subsidies = increased tuition
 Consumerism w/ students, investors
EVENT
1636-1769
1780-1830
1830-1860
1861-1865
1862: The
Morrill Land
Grant Act
18761896
1880-1920
1890
1900-1940
1914-1919
1920-1940
IMPACT
Nine colleges existed pre-American Revolution: Harvard (1636), William and
Mary (1693)
–Yale (1701), Penn (1740), –Princeton (1746), Columbia (1754), –Brown (1764), –
Rutgers (1766), Dartmouth (1769)
Thomas Jefferson, New Democracy, enlightened thought, schools for socialization,
create citizens and preserve social order; educated leadership class; Jefferson’s
plan – publicly financed education pyramid allowing a limited number to continue
to university; artificial vs. natural aristocracy
Common School Era; Horace Mann – Father of the Common Schools; proposed
centralized, free, universal schools funded by local property taxes; goal to create
good citizens, provide moral uplift, address changes of 19th century America;
articulates k12-higher ed connection
Civil War
Increases public higher education options. Presents pragmatism over liberal arts
curriculum. Tightens relationship between higher education and the federal
government.
Role of institutions began to shift from teaching and learning to research with birth
of the research university
Plessy v. Ferguson: upheld racial segregation in public accommodations (specifically
railroads); created doctrine of “separate but equal”
Progressive Era
Marked by Big 3: urbanization (political), immigration (social) and industrialization
(econ)
Purpose: To produce skilled workers – “Taylorism”
Compulsory education is firmly entrenched at this point
Period of anxiety vs optimism
Period of social reform (prohibition, 18th and 19th Amendements)
Efficiency and differentiation of education for the masses
Tracking emerges as a mechanism to sort students for their predestiny as
determined by social class or background
IQ Testing
Schools designed like factories
Second Morrill Land Grant Act: HBCUs
Massive increase in the number of students served (10x)
World War 1
Student personnel movement
 Removes faculty from engagement [Schuster & Martin]
 Introduces socioemotional focus (student services) and more nuanced
admissions process (Loss)
1939-1945
1944
World War 2
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill): Increases access to higher education;
informally defines higher education as a “right” (reciprocity) [Note: There is no
formal right to higher education, only the 10th amendment which defines
education as the state’s responsibility]
-Forges a lasting partnership between citizens and the state [Loss]
- Educated soldiers are better soldiers and better citizens
- Would lead to financial security and psychological readjustment
- Older student body changed emphasis on academic rigor, dismissed Greek Life,
challenged in loco parentis [Loss, p.115]
- Greatly increased AA enrollment (75, 000 students in 1950) But still segregated:
elite schools did not admit, HBCUs did not have capacity, majority went to
vocational schools.
1947
Truman Report: defends higher education as important for psychosocial
development of the individual, for a more robust and informed public sphere, for
international understanding, and creative solutions for world problems
1948
Selective Service Administration: Students could defer going to war. Suggests
that higher education and service are equal. Brain power is added to the
“defense arsenal”.
1954
1958
1965
1960-1970
Brown v. Board of Education: School desegregation—separate does not ensure
equality
National Defense Education Act—in response to Sputnik launch in 1957—
authorized federal funds for math, science, & language at the k-12 level
The NDEA introduced federal loans to American students and their families...the
greatest impact on American higher education, previewing a future in which
college access would increasingly turn on borrowed money (Loss, 2012)
Elementary and Secondary Education Act increased opportunity
Higher Education Act of 1965: Education Opportunity Grants extended college
access to millions of students without reciprocal obligation.
Civil Rights Era: “expansion of identity options available” (Loss)
Theme: Democratic Equality
Women’s movement
college/university political demonstrations
1963- Coleman report
anti-war
special education initiatives
desegregation
1974
1978
Title IX
The student rebellions of 1960s-->a quasi-parental role weakened
FERPA (aka the Buckley Amendment)
Bakke denied admission to UC Medical School @ Davis; he learned that students
had been admitted to the school with far lower MCAT scores that he had; Supreme
Court found unconstitutional because seats had been set aside for minority
applicants
1978
Middle Income Student Assistance Act: Expanded federally subsidized loans for
the middle class reversing the original purpose of the Higher Education Act.
Coupled with growing tuition, this sparked the trend of going into debt for higher
education.
1980
Bayh-Dole Act: Transferred patent rights from the federal government to higher
education thus commercializing research
1980s1990s
Institutionalization of diversity. Ex: mandatory multicultural general education
course.
1983
A Nation at Risk published.
1988
Michigan Mandate: linked pluralism and diversity. Sparked a multifaceted
approach to diversification: affirmative action student and faculty recruitment;
curriculum diversification; personnel services, etc. (Duderstadt)
2002
No Child Left Behind Act: focus on accountability and standards. Cemented the
state’s control over K12.
2003
Grutter v. Bolinger (UM Law School—race in admissions OK)—majority opinion by
Sandra Day O’Connor
Gratz v. Bolinger (UM undergraduate admissions—race not OK); national benefits
of well-educated minority population
Both cases set out that race in admissions must present a compelling interest and
be “narrowly tailored” to meet such interests—expert opinion by Patricia Gurin.
Media’s singular focus on racial diversity did not capture the institutionalization of
diversity in HE. [Loss, p. 233]