

Stephen M. Gavazzi and E. Gordon Gee
foreword by C. Peter Magrath
Land-grant colleges and universities have a storied past. This book looks at their future.
Land-grant colleges and universities occupy a special place in the landscape of American higher education. Publicly funded agricultural and technical educational institutions were first founded in the mid-nineteenth century with the Morrill Act, which established land grants to support these schools. They include such prominent names as Cornell, Maryland, Michigan State, MIT, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Texas A&M, West Virginia University, Wisconsin, and the University of California—in other words...
Land-grant colleges and universities have a storied past. This book looks at their future.
Land-grant colleges and universities occupy a special place in the landscape of American higher education. Publicly funded agricultural and technical educational institutions were first founded in the mid-nineteenth century with the Morrill Act, which established land grants to support these schools. They include such prominent names as Cornell, Maryland, Michigan State, MIT, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Texas A&M, West Virginia University, Wisconsin, and the University of California—in other words, four dozen of the largest and best public universities in America. Add to this a number of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and tribal colleges—in all, almost 300 institutions. Their mission is a democratic and pragmatic one: to bring science, technology, agriculture, and the arts to the American people.
In this book, Stephen M. Gavazzi and E. Gordon Gee discuss present challenges to and future opportunities for these institutions. Drawing on interviews with 27 college presidents and chancellors, Gavazzi and Gee explore the strengths and weaknesses of land-grant universities while examining the changing threats they face. Arguing that the land-grant university of the twenty-first century is responsible to a wide range of constituencies, the authors also pay specific attention to the ways these universities meet the needs of the communities they serve. Ultimately, the book suggests that leaders and supporters should become more fiercely land-grant in their orientation; that is, they should work to more vigorously uphold their community-focused missions through teaching, research, and service-oriented activities.
Combining extensive research with Gee’s own decades of leadership experience, Land-Grant Universities for the Future argues that these schools are the engine of higher education in America—and perhaps democracy’s best hope. This book should be of great interest to faculty members and students, as well as those parents, legislators, policymakers, and other area stakeholders who have a vested interest in the well-being of America’s original public universities.
Stephen Gavazzi, a professor at the Ohio State University, has partnered with West Virginia University president E. Gordon Gee to refocus the college debate. As the volume's title indicates, Gavazzi and Gee mainly discuss the state of land-grant universities, but their suggestions are more generally illuminating... a useful addition to a growing literature on how universities might best be made to serve the changing needs of American society.
In Land-Grant Universities for the Future, authors Gavazzi and Gee explore the role of the modern land-grant university and the perception of land-grant university leaders around the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of these institutions and also offer a vision for how these universities can better serve their communities based on the covenant established in 1862. Readers will appreciate the inclusion of several relevant constituents, such as faculty and students, and will gain a better understanding of the workings of complex land-grant universities that can provide practical insights about how to approach challenges in higher education.
A thoughtful, engaging, and important book that will be of interest to anyone who cares about land-grant institutions and their future. I highly recommend it.
Land-Grant Universities for the Future is a wonderful mixture of wise commentary from its two authors and quotes from in-depth interviews with leaders from many of these schools. It reveals the challenges and opportunities facing our preeminent public universities.
Gavazzi and Gee have written an eloquent history of land-grant universities and their promising future. Institutions with degrees in higher education administration should make this required reading for all students. This book will inspire future leaders to embrace teaching, service learning, civic engagement, and research, all born of a proud history.
Gavazzi and Gee provide important new insights about the need for land-grant universities to develop a renewed community-focused orientation for the twenty-first century. Internal and external stakeholders interested in the unique role of land-grant universities in higher education will find this an engaging read.
With Gavazzi's deep knowledge of university engagement and Gee's vast presidential experience, these authors deliver a tour-de-force that chronicles the present state and future direction of land-grant universities. It is a call to arms to rebuild relationships with a skeptical public to preserve the land-grant idea for future generations.
At a time when public confidence in higher education is on the decline, Gavazzi and Gee offer a critical roadmap for land-grant universities going forward. The reader is reminded of the power of public higher education when land-grant and public universities work to build meaningful partnerships with their communities. Faculty, administrators, and policymakers should take this message to heart and regain the critical support needed for public higher education in America.
Foreword, by C. Peter Magrath
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Whither the Land-Grant?
Chapter 1. The Land-Grant Study, Campus–Community Relationships, and the Servant University
Chapter 2. The Land-Grant
Foreword, by C. Peter Magrath
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Whither the Land-Grant?
Chapter 1. The Land-Grant Study, Campus–Community Relationships, and the Servant University
Chapter 2. The Land-Grant Institution and Mission in Service to Communities
Chapter 3. Land-Grant Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
Chapter 4. The Impact of Governing Boards, Elected Officials, and Accrediting Bodies
Chapter 5. The Critical Role of the Faculty
Chapter 6. Our Students: Vanguard in the Community
Chapter 7. Charting the Future of American Public Education
Appendix A. Syllabus Land-Grant Universities: Mission and Leadership
Appendix B. National Institute of Food and Agriculture Land-Grant Colleges and Universities, 1862, 1890, and 1994
Notes
Index
with Hopkins Press Books