What is a Land-grant College or University?

If your child’s college or university has the word “State” or “A&M” in its name chances are good that it is a land-grant institution. Many people attend and graduate from land-grant institutions and never know the unique significance of these institutions so, as a proud graduate of a land-grant I think it’s about time I shared with you what is a land-grant.

The first colleges established in the United States were private institutions that catered exclusively to young men of relative privilege. Harvard and Yale were among the first of these institutions as was William and Mary, which incidentally later became a public university. These colleges taught the classics to the sons of wealthy property owners who would mature to become members of the leisure class, professionals such as lawyers and bankers, government leaders, or members of the clergy. By the early 1800’s it was obvious that there was a great need to conduct research in sciences and agriculture, and in 1857 Senator Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont introduced a bill that would grant land to each state on which a state university would be built.

The bill eventually passed Congress in 1859, but was vetoed by President James Buchanan. Morrill was not dissuaded, and in 1861 he introduced a new land-grant bill that not only raised the acreage of each grant to 30,000 for each senator and representative but also added a requirement that military tactics be taught at the land-grant institutions in addition to agriculture and mechanics. Due to absence of the southern legislators who had opposed the original bill, and the obvious need for military tactics to be taught during the civil war, the bill passed and was signed into law by Abraham Lincoln in 1862.

Upon passage of the bill, some public colleges that were already in existence became land-grants and others were established using the grant of lands. Additional land-grant acts would follow including the 1887 Hatch Act that established in each state, and in cooperation with the land-grant institutions, an agricultural experiment station to conduct agricultural research. The second Morrill act, in 1890 prohibited states that received the grants from using race in admissions criteria, or required them to establish a second land-grant institution for African Americans. Some southern states have what are commonly referred to as “1890 land-grants”. Tuskegee University is one such renowned institution.

All states also have Cooperative Extension Services that share the information learned through research at the university and the experiment stations with the people of the state. This program was established by the Smith-Lever act of 1914. The most recent land-grant bill was passed in 1994 when 29 Native American Colleges achieved land-grant status.

The research conducted at land-grants has helped develop everything from food safety guidelines, to food nutrition labels, to safer pesticides for agriculture and home use. Of course land-grants don’t just teach agricultural and mechanical research. Students can pursue any number of degrees in just about any major field of study and land-grant universities are sought after by international students seeking education from these uniquely American institutions of higher education.