The Morrill Act
Lincoln's Unfinished Work: The Morrill Act and the Future of Higher Education, is planned around the Morrill Act, which President Abraham Lincoln signed into law in 1862, and its relevance to current policy issues in public higher education.
The Morrill Act has made profound contributions to the nation's well-being over the last 140+ years. Implementation of this legislation expanded access to higher education beyond the confines of a privileged few to the nation's citizenry at large. Further, its focus on education in agriculture and the mechanical arts dramatically altered the role of universities. That role shifted from primarily providing education in the classics to a multiple mission of educating students, creating new knowledge, and engaging with the public to address societal needs. Over time, this agenda has become the norm for public universities in the United States.
Today, educational access and the need for institutions of higher learning to respond to the broader issues within society are, at least, as critical to the nation's future success as they were in 1862. However, economic access for a large, diverse global citizenry, including adult learners, presents new challenges and opportunities. Additionally, societal needs are much broader in nature than the economic focus on agriculture and manufacturing of the original Morrill Act. The challenge of enhancing human well-being (food, energy, the environment, health care services, for example) requires both a commitment from the institutions of public higher education and the availability of resources to fulfill that commitment.
Based upon this 140+ year legacy of success, our challenge is to foster educational advances that will best harness the nation's creative energy and spark the innovations needed to respond to the challenges of the 21st century. It is time for the nation's land-grant and public universities to recommit themselves to effectively responding to this challenge today as they have in the past.
