Land-grant mission remains focus of MSU

By Mark Luebker

Much has changed since the Michigan Legislature passed “An Act for the Establishment of a State Agricultural School,” that created what would eventually be known as Michigan State University, the nation's pioneer land-grant institution.

In 1855, the 677 acres of land on which MSU stands could be purchased for $15 an acre. Today, a prime location in East Lansing could sell for as much as $10 to $15 per square foot, and an acre of land in a prime location along Grand River Avenue could sell for $1 million or more.

The Michigan Legislature allocated a total of $56,320 from the state treasury for “the purchase of land … the erection of buildings, the purchase of furniture, apparatus, library and implements, payment of professors and teachers, and other necessary expenses” for the establishment and operation of the original college. Michigan State's appropriation from the state Legislature for this year is about $287.5 million for just the university—not including the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station or MSU Extension.

Only $5,000 total was allocated to pay professors' and teachers' salaries in the first year of operation. The average faculty salary today is $81,631. And because offering broad access to the cutting-edge knowledge of the day was among the foremost goals of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, tuition was free to students within the state. Today, tuition and fees total about $7,000 for a typical in-state undergraduate student per academic year.

There was no East Lansing in 1855—it would be some 50 years before the Michigan Legislature chartered the city of East Lansing (although some preferred “Collegeville” or “College Park”). So the first university in the world to teach scientific agriculture was located adjacent to a plank road, in three buildings, among the tree stumps in a hastily cleared field, some three miles from the state capital. But from those modest beginnings emerged a bold experiment and a revolutionary idea that would transform public higher education across the nation.

Since the founding of the nation, an educated public has been understood as the fundamental cornerstone of democracy. But in the mid-19th century, higher education was primarily the province of the elite.

As MSU President Lou Anna Kimsey Simon describes it, “The state of Michigan established this university with the specific intention of democratizing higher education and pledging access to the benefits of the knowledge it would create, then sharing that knowledge to improve the lives of the citizens of Michigan—to be an engine of innovation for economic development.”

By combining a traditional liberal arts education with practical training, graduates would be prepared to participate fully in a rapidly changing society and developing economy.

Seven years later, with Michigan 's “bold experiment” as a model, the U.S. Congress passed the Morrill Act of 1862 to establish the nation's system of land-grant colleges. Upon signing that legislation into law, President Abraham Lincoln said, “The land-grant university system is being built on behalf of the people who have invested in these public institutions their hopes, their support and their confidence.”

Now, 150 years after the creation of this institution, the elite universities of the 19th century look more like MSU than MSU ever looked like them, and the land-grant example has been embraced as a model by universities worldwide.

Here in Michigan, the recent recommendations of Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm's Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth (the Cherry Commission) called for expanded access to higher education, integrating specialized skills and entrepreneurial education into the curriculum; for investing in cutting-edge technology and partnering with stakeholders in society; and for aligning postsecondary education to meet the economic needs of today and to create new opportunities for tomorrow. Michigan State has long been engaged in such efforts.

The commission's recognition of the value of setting out these objectives underscores the continuing relevance of land-grant ideals today and for Michigan 's future.

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