The podcast I did with Jackie Vetrano and Lougan Bishop on Higher Ed Social just posted on https://highered.social as well as on Google Play and Apple Podcasts.
We primarily talked about landgrant universities and my Johns Hopkins University Press book with West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee, but also covered the college rankings and their negative impact on higher education.
Utah’s 1862 Land-Grant Institution: Utah State University
http://www.usu.edu @USUAggies
Founded as the Agricultural College of Utah in 1888. Through the years, there were various attempts to merge operations with the University of Utah, and for a short period of time the curricula of the Agricultural College were limited strictly to agriculture, domestic science, and mechanic arts. Eventually these restrictions were lifted for all areas of study except law and medicine. In 1929, the school was renamed Utah State Agricultural College. In 957, the school was granted university status as Utah State University of Agriculture and Applied Science, but the short name Utah State University is used in official documents to this day.
President: Noelle E. Crockett became the president of Utah State University in 2017. President Crockett has extensive land-grant credentials. Previously, she was the executive vice president and provost at USU, as well as having served as vice president for Extension, dean of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, director of the Utah Agriculture Experiment Station, and faculty member in the Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences. President Crockett also received her master’s and doctoral degrees in animal breeding and genetics from the land-grant institution Oregon State University.
Tennessee’s 1862 Land-Grant Institution: University of Tennessee
https://www.utk.edu @UTKnoxville
Founded in 1794 as Blount College. In 1807, the school was re-chartered as East Tennessee College and then in 1840 was renamed East Tennessee University (ETU). In 1867, Congress passed a special Act making the State of Tennessee eligible to participate in the Morrill Act of 1862 program, and in 1869 ETU was named as Tennessee’s recipient of the Land-Grant designation and funds. The school was renamed the University of Tennessee in 1879 by the state legislature.
President: Wayne T. Davis currently serves as the interim chancellor of the University of Tennessee. A new permanent chancellor is expected to be named and installed in office by July 1, 2019.
Tennessee’s 1890 Land-Grant Institution: Tennessee State University
http://www.tnstate.edu @TSUedu
The university was founded in 1912 as the Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State Normal School for Negroes. The school changed its name to Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State Normal College in 1925, and in 1927 it became known as Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College. In 1968, the college officially changed its name to Tennessee State University.
President: Glenda Glover became president of Tennessee State University in 2013. President Glover’s land-grant credentials include being an alumnus of Tennessee State, where she received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics. @gloverpres
South Dakota’s 1862 Land-Grant Institution: South Dakota State University
https://www.sdstate.edu @SDState
Founded in 1881 as Dakota Agriculture College. The school’s name was changed in 1904 to South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. In 1964, the name again was changed to South Dakota State University.
President: Barry H. Dunn was named president of South Dakota State University in 2016. Dr. Dunn’s land-grant bona fides are extensive. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology and both a master’s and Ph.D. in animal science from SDSU. Professionally, he served as the dean of SDSU’s College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences, and as both the director of SDSU Extension and as a professor of animal science. Dr. Dunn previously also was the executive director of the King Ranch Institute for Range Management for the land-grant institution Texas A&M.
South Dakota’s 1994 Land-Grant Institutions: Oglala Lakota College, Si Tanka/Huron University, Sinte Gleska University, and Sisseton Wahpeton College
Oglala Lakota College
Founded in 1971 by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, Oglala Lakota College (OLC) is a public tribal community college that serves the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
President: Thomas Shortbull became president of Oglala Lakota College for the second time in 1995 (he previously served as president from 1975-79). In addition to his two presidential stints, President Shortbull served three terms as a state senator as well as having held various other local government positions.
Si Tanka/Huron University
Founded by the Sioux Tribe in 1973 as the Cheyenne River Community College. The college then changed its name in July 1999 to Si Tanka College. In May 2001, the small tribal college bought Huron University, a private, accredited four-year university established in 1883. Due to financial difficulties, Si Tanka University was closed in 2006 and its accreditation was withdrawn. In 2010, a group of Si Tanka alumni reopened Si Tanka University as an unaccredited online university.
President: The president of Si Tanka is Harold L. Harris. No information on President Harris is available.
Sinte Gleska University
http://www.sintegleska.edu @sintegleskau
Sinte Gleska University was founded in 1971 and named for the Brulé Lakota chief Sinte Gleska. SGU was designed to serve the Rosebud Indian Reservation.
President: Lionel R. Bordeaux became the president of Sinte Gleska University in 1973. Prior to his presidency, he held various positions in the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Sisseton Wahpeton College
Sisseton Wahpeton College was established in 1979 as an entity of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (formerly the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation).
President: Randy Smith is the President of Sisseton Wahpeton College. He also serves as the president of the largest organization of rural and tribal colleges in the United States, the Rural Community College Alliance. President Smith’s land-grant credentials include his serving on the community college leadership doctoral program advisory committee for the land-grant institution Mississippi State University.
Excellent op-ed in USA Today this morning by Gordon Gee regarding the admissions scandal roiling “elitist” campuses. He says “let’s end the rat-race admissions culture” while noting that land-grant institutions offer purpose over prestige. Right on target! You can be elite without being elitist.
The USA Today op-ed can be found here.
South Carolina’s 1862 Land-Grant Institution: Clemson University
http://www.clemson.edu @ClemsonUniv
Founded in 1889 as the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina. As a result, federal funds for agricultural education from the Morrill Act and the Hatch Act were transferred from South Carolina College (today, the University of South Carolina) to Clemson. In 1964 the school was renamed Clemson University.
President: James P. Clements became the president of Clemson University in 2013. His land-grant bona fides includes his having been president of West Virginia University. @ClemsonPrez
South Carolina’s 1890 Land-Grant Institution: South Carolina State University
http://www.scsu.edu @SCState1896
Founded in 1872 as the South Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical Institute. In 1896, the South Carolina General Assembly established a separate institution known as the Colored Normal Industrial Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina. The school was renamed South Carolina State College in 1954, and then in 1992 became South Carolina State University.
President: James E. Clark became president of South Carolina State University in 2016. His land-grant bona fides includes a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science and a master’s in management and marketing from the land-grant institution MIT. @ScsuPrez
Rhode Island’s 1862 Land-Grant Institution: University of Rhode Island
https://www.uri.edu/ @universityofri
Founded as Rhode Island’s agricultural school and agricultural experiment station in 1888. In 1892, the school was named the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. In 1909, the school’s name was changed to Rhode Island State College. In 1951, the school was given the name University of Rhode Island through an act of the state’s General Assembly.
President: David M. Dooley became president of the University of Rhode Island in 2009. President Dooley’s land-grant credentials include his having served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at the land-grant institution Montana State University, as well as having served as head of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at that same university. Dr. Dooley also earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry through the University of California’s land-grant.
Ohio State University professor Stephen M. Gavazzi and West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee recently co-authored “Land-Grant Universities for the Future: Higher Education for the Public Good.” The book, published in November 2018 by Johns Hopkins University Press, is based largely on interviews they had conducted with 27 presidents and chancellors of land-grant universities, some of the largest and best universities in America.
Land-grant universities were established by the Morrill Act in 1862 and part of their mission is to make the knowledge of the university accessible to their communities. This critical work is championed by Cooperative Extension divisions, who offer an array of services designed to educate and inform citizens across their respective states.
These authors sat down with colleagues from their respective universities—Roger Rennekamp at Ohio State and Steve Bonanno at West Virginia—to discuss the evolving impact of cooperative extension services on the 21st-century mission of our nation’s public land-grant universities.
https://evolllution.com/revenue-streams/extending_lifelong_learning/cooperative-extension-services-and-the-21st-century-land-grant-mission/
Pennsylvania’s 1862 Land-Grant Institution: Penn State University
https://psu.edu @Penn_State
Founded in 1855 as The Farmer’s High School of Pennsylvania. In 1862, the school’s name was changed to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, and with the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act, Pennsylvania selected the school in 1863 to be the state’s sole land-grant college. The school’s name changed to the Pennsylvania State College in 1874. In 1953, President Milton S. Eisenhower, brother of then-U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, won permission to elevate the school to university status as The Pennsylvania State University. In 1967, the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, a college of medicine and hospital, was established in Hershey with a $50 million gift from the Hershey Trust Company.
President: Eric Barron became president of the Pennsylvania State University in 2014 following his presidency at Florida State University. Dr. Barron’s land-grant credentials include his having been both a faculty member and the Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State from 1986 to 2006.
Oregon’s 1862 Land-Grant Institution: Oregon State University
https://oregonstate.edu @OregonState
Founded in 1868 as the Corvallis State Agricultural College, although its earlier roots include ties to the Corvallis Academy (founded in 1856) and Corvallis College (founded in 1858). The school experienced several additional renaming events, including Oregon State Agricultural College (1882), State Agricultural College of Oregon (1886), Oregon Agricultural College (1890), Oregon State Agricultural College (1927), Oregon State College (1937), and then finally Oregon State University in 1961.
President: Ed Ray became president of Oregon State University in 2003. Prior to his presidency, Dr. Ray held various positions at The Ohio State University, including stints as provost (1998-2003), associate provost (1992-1993), economics department chair (1976-1992), and regular faculty member (1970-1976).
