Land-Grant Universities for the Future

by Stephen M. Gavazzi, E. Gordon Gee, C. Peter Magrath

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.

216 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 15, 2018

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was at least 10 years out of date before the pandemic. The argument is partially focused on "the marriage metaphor" regarding the best form of town-gown relations, which is based on the findings of "The Significant Americans: A Study of Sexual Behavior among the Affluent" (1966) (it sets the implicit and sometimes explicit tone of the text in terms of expectations regarding race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, and class). The quantitative research for this work consists of interviews with 27 out of 300 presidents/chancellors of land grant institutions in the US. However, those interviews are limited to those from Historically & Predominantly White land grant institutions established by the Morrill Act of 1862 (thereby excluding all HBCUs and TCUs). The audience is clearly higher administration and it is focused on applied STEM, PPP, and entrepreneurial pursuits with an emphasis on workforce development. It is highly critical of faculty, especially those in the liberal arts.

Moreover, one of the remedies to the issues that these authors see in relation to land grant institutions is a lack of understanding about a land grant institution's mission, which they propose solving by potentially requiring a class on the subject for undergraduates. They helpfully provide a syllabus and required reading list...which features their book "Land-Grant Universities for the Future," as well as other works published by the authors.

It also has not aged well in light of the current political climate.

If you're looking for ways to imagine what universities and higher education of the future might look like, find another work, as you will learn nothing new here.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shines most in its insights into the diverse opinions and views of land-grant institution leaders—perspectives that have seldom been collected together from across the country—it’s coverage of the history of land-grants and their evolving mission, and analysis of the challenges facing land-grants today.

This book struggles the most when trying to extract insights on topics not intentionally probed by their interviews with institution leaders. Sections on governing boards, accrediting bodies, and legislators are perfunctory and not terribly insightful.

Additionally, the book struggles to connect town-gown dynamics and institution-state relationships, which are inherently different, and provides the wrong framework for evaluating the latter based on work by one of the author’s on the former.

Those faults could be overlooked perhaps because the book does stake a position on some of the central challenges facing land-grants, including the struggle between accessibility and rankings, the importance of including engagement in tenure and promotion, and the need for land-grants to be MORE land-granty.

However, this book falters when discussing campus activism in an attempt to claim the middle ground and, in my opinion, veers too far into accepting the rhetoric that college students today don’t value free speech almost at all.

This false dichotomy mindset is also seen in the authors’ discussion of the tension between basic and applied research. What is unacknowledged is that there are other frameworks for thinking about research, like application-inspired research, that straddle those older categories and would seem to fit the narrative of the land-grant.


I like the book. It’s one I’ll keep on my shelf for the specific pages I’ve dog-eared to return to, but it left me wanting a more up-to-date analysis of American higher education instead of a mid-2010s mindset.

[Emily Ancinec · Rating 2 out of 5]

For context, I have worked my entire career in higher education. I am a proud graduate of a land-grant institution. I went into this book knowing much of the material and hoping to gain a better professional understanding of the concerns facing land grants.

This book, while it addressed issues facing land grants, was simply not well written.
It was apparent when the authors had a firm grasp of the information and also when they did not. For example, in one of the weaker chapters, the writing style changed abruptly halfway through.

Overall, the book walks the line and simply states what land grants do and the issues they face. There were barely any tangible action items to improve their existence. If you do not know much about land grants, you may learn something. I think this book could have done the topic justice if they instead took the time to break it down by overview and history, current issues, ways to realistically create change, and moonshot ideas.