Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act

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The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges.

The Morrill Act was first proposed by Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, in 1857, and was passed by Congress, in 1859, but it was vetoed by President James Buchanan. In 1861, Morrill resubmitted the act with the amendment that the proposed institutions would teach military tactics as well as engineering and agriculture. Aided by the secession of many states that did not support the plans, this reconfigured Morrill Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862.

Under the act, each eligible state received a total of 30,000 acres (121 km²) of federal land, either within or contiguous to its boundaries, for each member of congress the state had as of the census of 1860. This land, or the proceeds from its sale, was to be used toward establishing and funding the educational institutions described above. Under provision six of the Act, "No State while in a condition of rebellion or insurrection against the government of the United States shall be entitled to the benefit of this act," in reference to the recent American Civil War. After the war, however, the 1862 Act was extended to the former Confederate states; it was eventually extended to every state and territory, including those created after 1862.

A second Morrill Act in 1890 was also aimed at the former Confederate states. This act required each state to show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. Among the seventy colleges and universities which eventually evolved from the Morrill Acts are several of today's Historically Black colleges and universities (indicated below with *). Though the 1890 Act granted cash instead of land, it granted colleges under that act the same legal standing as the 1862 Act colleges; hence the term "land-grant college" properly applies to both groups.

Later on, other colleges such as the University of the District of Columbia and the "1994 land-grant colleges" for Native Americans were also awarded cash by Congress in lieu of land to achieve "land-grant" status.

With a few exceptions, nearly all of the Land-Grant Colleges are public.

[edit] Morrill Land-Grant colleges and universities

Note: of the 106 Land-Grant institutions, all but two (the Community College of Micronesia, and Northern Marianas College) are members of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). The 31 tribal colleges of 1994 are represented as a system by the single membership of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. &herats;

* denotes Historically Black colleges and universities.

Alabama

(Though Alabama A&M is Alabama's official 1890 Morrill Act institution, Tuskegee's mission is so similar to those of the 1890 institutions that it is almost universally regarded as one of them. Tuskegee is a land-grant member of NASULGC, as are Alabama A&M and Auburn; however, only Alabama A&M and Auburn formally participate in the now-combined Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES), with Tuskegee listed as a "cooperating partner" in ACES. [1] [2] Tuskegee is also explicitly granted the same status the as 1890 institutions in a number of U.S. laws.)

Alaska

University of Alaska System

American Samoa

American Samoa Community College

Arizona

University of Arizona

Arkansas

California

University of California (the system is the state's land-grant member of NASULGC; UC Berkeley was its original land-grant college, but UC Davis later assumed much of that role)