King & Edwards: The Brand of Land-Grant Institutions

In The Ever-Evolving Brand of the Land-Grant Institution: A Historical Overview, Audrey E.H. King and M. Craig Edwards (both of Oklahoma State) seek to describe and analyze the evolution of the brand of land-grant universities established under the 1862 Morrill Act. The authors begin by exploring what constitutes a brand. While different definitions are mentioned and it is acknowledged that brand systems have multiple components, the authors focus on vision, purpose, values, mission, and core concept of land-grand institutions (“LGIs”) over time. The authors rely on the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ definition of land-grant institutions: “[a] land-grant college or university is an institution that has been designated by its state legislature or Congress to receive benefits of the Morrill Acts.”

Relying on primary and secondary resources including legislative acts and records, university webpages, government reports, historical books, and peer-referred journal articles, King and Edwards trace the Congressional legislation that established and shifted the brand of LGIs. After early attempts at establishing land-grant institutions were blocked in Congress or vetoed, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act of 1862 into law. The authors credit this act as establishing the teaching mission of the LGIs. Under the Morrill Act, each state in the Union received 30,000 acres (or an equivalent amount of land scrip) for each member of Congress that state had. The mission of these LGIs was “to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts.” The authors define the vision of these LGIs as “application of learning in the service of the best interests of the people” and “service to the public.”

Later, the authors assert the Hatch Act of 1887 expanded the mission of these LGIs by establishing agricultural experiment stations. This shifted the purpose of the LGI brand from being focused on post-secondary education to also including scientific investigation and experimentation related to agricultural science.

Finally, the Smith-Level Act of 1914 also shifted the brand of LGIs. This act provided for the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service which provided for cooperative agricultural extension work between agricultural colleges and the USDA. The act was part of a “comprehensive attempt to make rural life attractive, comfortable, and profitable.” The authors assert the brand essentially remained the same but the mission of LGIs was extended to even more members of agricultural and rural communities.

The Ever-Evolving Brand of the Land-Grant Institution also examines how the naming conventions of LGIs have shifted over time. King and Edwards found only five LGIs have kept their agricultural colleges named “College of Agriculture” or “College of Agricultural Sciences.” The remainder of LGIs have added some aspect of science or natural resources to the titles of their agricultural colleges. This includes the addition of biotechnology, food, forestry, health, human, or life to the titles of their colleges of agriculture. The authors place these naming changes in the context of changes that have occurred in agricultural science and technology including an emphasis on natural resource protection. The authors ultimately find that while changes have occurred, the original brand mission and vision of LGIs remains intact. King and Edwards suggest this knowledge is important because, among other reasons, having a historical understanding of the land-grant mission may benefit agricultural communications and Extension education students.

Although not the subject of King and Edwards’ article directly, of course land-grant institutions have also come under increased scruitiny of late for their relationship to Indigenous land dispossession. For example, Margaret A. Nash’s (Education, University of California-Riverside) article Entangled Pasts: Land-Grant Colleges and American Indian Dispossession provides some starting discucssion and context for this specific history.