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Land Grant Education

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Land grant colleges and universities established from more than 150 years ago through a unique idea in the United States. Today, each state and territory in The United States and the District of Columbia has at least one land-grant institution (Lee and Keys, 2013). Three important components shaped the structure of the land grant institutions, and these components are: teaching, research, and extension. A series of acts passed by the United States Congress led to born these three components. The three Acts are: Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 for teaching, Hatch Act of 1887 for experimental stations, and Smith-Lever Act of 1914 for extension (Sherwood, 2004). In this short paper, I will describe the three important acts that led to create the …show more content…
Hatch Act 1887 is named after the Congressman who introduced it William Henry Hatch. The Hatch Act passed by the United States Congress in 1887, and it authorized $ 15,000 per year of federal funding to each state to start an agricultural experiment station in connection with each land grant university in order to increase agricultural research on March 2, 1887 (Harl, 2003). This act Signed by President Grover Cleveland on March 2, 1887 (Wang, 2009). Only, 1962 land grant institutions are eligible to receive funding provided by the Hatch Act, and 1890 land grant institutions are not. In 1977, the Evans-Allen Act established to support agricultural research at 1890 land grant universities with funds equal to at least 15 percent of the Hatch Act appropriations (Lee and Keys, …show more content…
The Smith-Lever Act had been introduced in September 1913 by Representative A. Frank Lever of South Carolina and Senator Hoke Smith of Georgia. The bill provided for a system of agricultural extension work based on cooperation between the Department of Agriculture and the America’s land-grant colleges, and the United States Congress approved the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 (Grant, 1986). This act signed by President Woodrow Wilson on May 8, 1914 (Wang, 2009). In order to disseminate information gleaned from the experiment stations’ research to the farmers and other industrial workers in the state. An additional importance of the historical significance of the act is that this was the first federal law requiring states to match federal funding on one-to-one basis (Wang, 2009). On the other hand, the 1890 land grant institutions are not eligible to receive funding provided by the Smith Lever Act. The National Agriculture Research, Extension and Teaching Act of 1997 (NARETPA) provides federal funding for agricultural extension programs and activities at 1890 land grant institutions parallel to those of 1862 universities under the Smith-Lever Act. This funding provided directly to 1890 institutions for the first time (Lee and Keys,