On the importance of public higher education in America

A dawning technological revolution sweeping the globe. Questions about the relevance of higher education to everyday life. A country wracked with division. It is a staggeringly complex backdrop.

I’m writing, of course, about the challenges facing leaders in 1862 when Congress passed and President Lincoln signed the first Morrill Act into law amid the Civil War. The landmark legislation established a public land-grant university in each state for the first time. That inspirational impulse gave birth to a new kind of college and university that, for the first time ever, focused on educating the sons and daughters of the working families, the men and women of toil who could scarcely imagine the potential that a college degree might unlock.

The democratization of higher education for all Americans

It was a powerful revolution that unleashed many others. For the first time in U.S. history, higher education was enacted by, for, and in the people’s interest, laying the foundation for public universities to expand opportunity for tens of millions of across generations. That vision set in motion the democratization of higher education for all Americans.

That tradition expanded with the Morrill Act of 1890, which led to the establishment of historically Black colleges and universities, and the Morrill Act of 1994, which created tribal colleges and universities. It also co-incided with the expansion of higher education to women. Thanks to the passage of the land-grant acts, an untold number of public university-educated doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, public servants, and others have gone on to power our country to new heights with the skills they developed on public and land-grant university campuses. These vital institutions have driven research breakthroughs that save lives and improve our lives while tackling our communities’ most urgent challenges through community engagement and land-grant Extension work.

Survey the challenges facing higher education today and it’s easy to see them as extraordinary. But while they may be new to us in speed or scale, they are hardly insurmountable

Through uncompromising emphasis on education, research, Extension and engagement, public and land-grant universities offer the best and most compelling rejoinder to the criticisms of higher education. Public and land-grant universities are indispensable to the welfare of our nation and the stability of the world.

The huge impact of public universities

Consider the extraordinary technology that underpins our daily lives, such as smartphones and laptops that rely on discoveries like touch screens and lithium-ion batteries enabled by public university-led breakthroughs. Consider the healthcare that has saved us or members of our family, such as antibiotics developed on public university campuses. Consider the Extension and community work that has made essentials for life – clean water and nutritious food – mere afterthoughts of daily life for many of us. All this can be traced to public university campuses.

Consider, too, the opportunities we can seize and the challenges still to overcome. Millions of students arrive on public and land-grant university campuses each year with untapped potential waiting to be unleashed by an education that will change the course of their lives. Think of the debilitating and deadly diseases – cancer, heart disease, diabetes – that sap quality of life and steal precious moments from us or our loved ones. Consider farmers and industries relying on public universities to pave a new way forward, translating discoveries in the lab to game-changing solutions on farms and in industry that help our country be a global leader in much of what we do.

The challenges facing higher education today are real and significant. We must continue to adapt to meet society’s needs, including building a world-class workforce. We must navigate a difficult funding landscape to ensure we continue to drive breakthroughs that save lives and enhance U.S. competitiveness globally. And we must find new ways to build ties with our communities for greater positive impact on community members’ lives no matter whether they ever even step foot on a public university campus.

We have a lot of work yet to do. But as our leaders showed in passing the Morrill Acts in a period of extraordinary turmoil, rising to the challenge can yield benefits that echo across generations.