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The mission of land grant colleges of agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

Robert L. Zimdahl
Robert L. Zimdahl
Affiliation:
Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523 (rzimdahl@agsci.colostate.edu)
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Abstract

This paper examines what land grant colleges of agriculture were designed to be and do and, using their published mission statements, discusses what they now claim to be and do. Teaching ‘such branches of learning as are related to the agriculture and the mechanic arts’ and ‘to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes’ is what land grant colleges were designed to do; it is the land grant mission. The paper asks whether these things are what land grant colleges of agriculture do now. The original mission has been amended with new challenges that must be met in a time of declining public support for higher education, societal distrust of science and a negative public perception of agricultural technology, in a culture that wants cheap food. The agricultural community, including colleges of agriculture, has been slow to accept the challenges and opportunities inherent in the questions agriculture now faces. Agriculture remains an essential human activity in our post-industrial, information-age society. Colleges of agriculture are in trouble, and this paper suggests that the sensible thing to do may be to turn away from self-interest in survival to take a leadership role with emphasis on the obligations of service and humanism.

Keywords

agriculture's missionland grant universitymission statementMorrill Act
Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 103 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003

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