Fortunately, there are aspects of our actual history at Ohio State that we can look back on with pride, including the fact that we never restricted admissions to women and minorities. So, the pre-history of land-grant universities is challenging. In addition, the ground under our feet was ceded by Native Americans in the 1795 Treaty of Greeneville and the forced removal of tribes through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. It won’t surprise you to learn that nearly 11 million acres of the federal lands granted by the Morrill Act to endow universities were appropriated from Indigenous tribes.
Of course, like every other institution in this American democracy, our record has its blemishes. And over the years, we have done that many times. Our purpose is to allow individuals from ordinary backgrounds to do extraordinary things. So, it seems appropriate to borrow a phrase from Lincoln in describing Ohio’s first land-grant university: We are a university “of the people, by the people, for the people.” It was signed by President Abraham Lincoln - a bit of optimism in an otherwise dark time.
The bill made it through Congress in 1862 because the Civil War was on - and legislators from Southern states who had objected to federal interference in higher education were not present. So, the Morrill Act granted the states land that they could sell to endow universities. The 1862 Morrill Act that created The Ohio State University was a very radical piece of legislation, in that it put in place a plan to open higher education up to - and I quote - “the industrial classes.” Until then, all over the world, higher education had been almost exclusively reserved for the wealthy and connected.īut the United States was a land-rich young country becoming an industrial power, and we needed highly educated young engineers and farmers in much greater numbers. I would like to thank them for their constant support.ĭuring my first State of the University speech, I promised to do everything within my power to make Ohio State the absolute model of the 21st century land-grant university.Īs we consider what that is, our 19th century history is really instructive. Trustees Brent Porteus and Reginald Wilkinson are also with us today. I would like to acknowledge and thank Jim, a 1964 graduate of the college of agriculture, and his wife, Nancy Wilson Patterson, a 1963 graduate of the college of education, for your fervent dedication to our university.Īlso present is their son Bill, daughter-in-law Kristin and their grandchildren. As you know, this lecture honors former Trustee Jim Patterson, one of many people who have demonstrated over the years how seriously The Ohio State University takes its mission as a land-grant university.
I am so delighted to have been invited to deliver the 2022 James F.
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