# of schools by Conference:

SEC: 10/16 of us are Morrill Act schools, 7 flagships and 3 are #1A in the State
B1G: 10/16, 9 flagships and 1 is #1A in the State
Pac: 4/10, 2 flagships, 2 are a clear #2 in State
ACC: 3/15, all are 1A or clear #2, no flagships
big 12: 4/12, 1 flagship, other 3 are 1A or 2

31/69, 44.9%, of total P5 schools are a direct result of the Morrill Act, including 19 State Flagships. Interestingly, Cornell is a Morrill Act school.

For 20 years prior to the first introduction of the bill in 1857, there was a political movement calling for the creation of agriculture colleges. The movement was led by Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner of Illinois College. For example, the Michigan Constitution of 1850 called for the creation of an "agricultural school",[2] though it was not until February 12, 1855, that Michigan Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed a bill establishing the United States' first agriculture college, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, known today as Michigan State University, which served as a model for the Morrill Act.[3]

On February 8, 1853, the Illinois Legislature adopted a resolution, drafted by Turner, calling for the Illinois congressional delegation to work to enact a land-grant bill to fund a system of industrial colleges, one in each state. Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois believed it was advisable that the bill should be introduced by an eastern congressman,[4] and two months later Representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont introduced his bill.

Unlike the Turner Plan, which provided an equal grant to each state, the Morrill bill allocated land based on the number of senators and representatives each state had in Congress. This was more advantageous to the more populous eastern states.[5]

The Morrill Act was first proposed 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.[6] Aided by the secession of many states that did not support the plans, the reconfigured Morrill Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Land-Grant_Acts

I was confused by the map at first when I saw the northeast, because I've always seen UVM as being founded in 1791. Turns out it was a private college (known as the University of Vermont) founded in 1791, that then later merged with a land grant institution, Vermont Agricultural, and became the university we know today. It is very confusingly described as a "quasi-public land-grant research university."

Are there any other weird ones like that? I know Cornell and MIT are both land grants from the original batch as well.

Interestingly, Samoa, Guam, Micronesia, and the Northern Marinaras all have ones from 1862.

Alaska has an addition from a school in Barrow, Alaska, which is the town with the blue football field on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. You can only get there through flight.

(04-06-2023 01:24 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

Thank you for that, I'll change it in the OP.

(04-06-2023 02:26 PM)e-parade Wrote:  I was confused by the map at first when I saw the northeast, because I've always seen UVM as being founded in 1791. Turns out it was a private college (known as the University of Vermont) founded in 1791, that then later merged with a land grant institution, Vermont Agricultural, and became the university we know today. It is very confusingly described as a "quasi-public land-grant research university."

Are there any other weird ones like that? I know Cornell and MIT are both land grants from the original batch as well.

UMass is listed, but not MIT.

Penn St is a weird hybrid public/private, though I don't know the details.

Is Cincinnati the BigXII’s only pre-land grant university?

The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a Morrill Act school despite not even being around in 1862 (it was founded in 1976) and having no agricultural programs.

The year listed is not when the schools were founded; it just refers to which act they were founded under or given land grant status, even if that happened well after the act passed.

(04-06-2023 05:49 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a Morrill Act school despite not even being around in 1862 (it was founded in 1976) and having no agricultural programs.

There have been 2 updates to the Morrill Act, one in 1890 and one in 1994. I only listed the 1862 schools, but the map shows them all, with different colors coded for year (1862, 1890 or 1994). Looking at it, UDC was part of the 1862 act. Here's the wiki on the school:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University...f_Columbia

The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city.

(04-06-2023 05:45 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  Is Cincinnati the BigXII’s only pre-land grant university?

Yes. UC traces its founding to 1819 as Cincinnati College and the Medical College of Ohio. We were the second oldest state affiliated, municipally funded university in the nation until the 1970s when we joined the state university system.

Cincinnati, Miami and Ohio University all were around long before Ohio State.

[code]Baylor (1845) is also pre land grant.

Surprising how few of the P5 schools are the oldest schools in their respective states
https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/s...2E9F5.webp

Kansas State was the first to be formally established under the Morrill Act which I have always thought was an interesting feather in the institution's cap when it comes to having a historical impact on public higher education.

(04-06-2023 12:32 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  
....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Land-Grant_Acts

Florida State and UF are twin universities, founded by the same act of legislation in 1851.

A red dot on the map you shared suggests a 'University of Florida' launched in 1862 as a land grant. This is misleading, as by 1862 both schools (West Suwannee Seminary>FSU and East Suwannee Seminary>UF) were already holding classes. 2 or perhaps 3 schools were merged over time, though, to create today's UF. One campus was originally located in Lake City.

Florida has no 'flagships' but designates 'preeminent' research universities for funding purposes. It's an open club, metrics-based. Currently three universities hold this status: Florida State, UF, and USF.

(04-06-2023 07:52 PM)Gitanole Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 12:32 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  
....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morrill_Land-Grant_Acts

Florida State and UF are twin universities, founded by the same act of legislation in 1851.

A red dot on the map you shared suggests a 'University of Florida' launched in 1862 as a land grant. This is misleading, as by 1862 both schools (West Suwannee Seminary>FSU and East Suwannee Seminary>UF) were already holding classes. 2 or perhaps 3 schools were merged over time, though, to create today's UF. One campus was originally located in Lake City.

Florida has no 'flagships' but designates 'preeminent' research universities for funding purposes. It's an open club, metrics-based. Currently three universities hold this status: Florida State, UF, and USF.

I'm not trying to insult FSU or A&M here, but neither of us is a "flagship".

https://www.collegeraptor.com/find-colle...niversity/

(04-06-2023 02:26 PM)e-parade Wrote:  I was confused by the map at first when I saw the northeast, because I've always seen UVM as being founded in 1791. Turns out it was a private college (known as the University of Vermont) founded in 1791, that then later merged with a land grant institution, Vermont Agricultural, and became the university we know today. It is very confusingly described as a "quasi-public land-grant research university."

Are there any other weird ones like that? I know Cornell and MIT are both land grants from the original batch as well.

There are a number that at various points have been some sort of private/public hybrid. I couldn’t name all of them. While it does persist in some instances, more schools began that way than remain that way since time has helped clarify their standing somewhat.

And some schools didn’t begin as hybrids, but some were founded on the heels of a private college closing down or the state taking over either just the campus, or sometimes a sort of merger.

Kansas State began that way in fact. It took over a small college that was sort of donated to the a state when the state decided to fund it as a state college. Many of the earlier private colleges were founded before states had well established public universities. Some were specifically to be religious in nature, but others (even those founded under the auspices of a church) simply wanted to help lead frontier towns to being more “civilized” and educated.

The later a state was established after 1862, the more likely it is that state universities there were originally founded as such. The further east you go, the more muddled the origins of many schools IMO. Many aspects of higher ed became more standardized but were fairly chaotic in the early years.

(04-06-2023 08:56 PM)Todor Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 02:26 PM)e-parade Wrote:  I was confused by the map at first when I saw the northeast, because I've always seen UVM as being founded in 1791. Turns out it was a private college (known as the University of Vermont) founded in 1791, that then later merged with a land grant institution, Vermont Agricultural, and became the university we know today. It is very confusingly described as a "quasi-public land-grant research university."

Are there any other weird ones like that? I know Cornell and MIT are both land grants from the original batch as well.

There are a number that at various points have been some sort of private/public hybrid. I couldn’t name all of them. While it does persist in some instances, more schools began that way than remain that way since time has helped clarify their standing somewhat.

And some schools didn’t begin as hybrids, but some were founded on the heels of a private college closing down or the state taking over either just the campus, or sometimes a sort of merger.

Kansas State began that way in fact. It took over a small college that was sort of donated to the a state when the state decided to fund it as a state college. Many of the earlier private colleges were founded before states had well established public universities. Some were specifically to be religious in nature, but others (even those founded under the auspices of a church) simply wanted to help lead frontier towns to being more “civilized” and educated.

The later a state was established after 1862, the more likely it is that state universities there were originally founded as such. The further east you go, the more muddled the origins of many schools IMO. Many aspects of higher ed became more standardized but were fairly chaotic in the early years.

K-State: That is correct regarding the funds from the Morrill Act appropriation being used to absorb another institution, Blue Mont Central College, and then repurpose it to abide but the land-grant parameters.

Penn State evolved from the Farmer's High School of Pennsylvania. Such a name provides plenty of ammo for banter among rival alums in the region. My father is a Lehigh guy, he and other older alums of his private alma mater ilk, always referred for PSU as a "Cow College"; not for "real" engineers/industrialists. That has obviously changed....

Pitt and Temple were private institutions until the mid 20th century. Pitt was considered the "vastly" superior institution to PSU prior to the formation of the Commonwealth System in PA. Temple's strength was, and still is, its graduate/professional programs when the three banded together.

There's symmetry between Pitt and Carnegie Mellon/Temple and Penn in terms of mission relative to local/regional needs over the last 100 years.

(04-06-2023 05:39 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 02:26 PM)e-parade Wrote:  I was confused by the map at first when I saw the northeast, because I've always seen UVM as being founded in 1791. Turns out it was a private college (known as the University of Vermont) founded in 1791, that then later merged with a land grant institution, Vermont Agricultural, and became the university we know today. It is very confusingly described as a "quasi-public land-grant research university."

Are there any other weird ones like that? I know Cornell and MIT are both land grants from the original batch as well.

UMass is listed, but not MIT.

Penn St is a weird hybrid public/private, though I don't know the details.

'The Commonwealth System of Higher Education is a statutory designation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that confers "state-related" status on four universities located within the state: Lincoln University, the Pennsylvania State University, Temple University, and the University of Pittsburgh. The designation establishes the schools as an "instrumentality of the commonwealth" and provides each university with annual, non-preferred financial appropriations in exchange offering tuition discounts to students who are residents of Pennsylvania and a minority state-representation on each school's board of trustees. Legally, the universities remain separate and private entities, operating under their own charters, governed by independent boards of trustees, and with assets under their own ownership and control, thereby retaining much of the freedom and individuality of private institutions, both administratively and academically. It is the only public-private hybrid system of higher education of its particular type in the United States, although some other schools, such as Cornell University, the University of Delaware, and Rutgers University, all also have public-private partnerships of their own kind.' - wikipedia

(04-06-2023 05:49 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a Morrill Act school despite not even being around in 1862 (it was founded in 1976) and having no agricultural programs.

And no agriculture (that I am aware of) in the District of Columbia.

(04-06-2023 05:39 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 02:26 PM)e-parade Wrote:  I was confused by the map at first when I saw the northeast, because I've always seen UVM as being founded in 1791. Turns out it was a private college (known as the University of Vermont) founded in 1791, that then later merged with a land grant institution, Vermont Agricultural, and became the university we know today. It is very confusingly described as a "quasi-public land-grant research university."

Are there any other weird ones like that? I know Cornell and MIT are both land grants from the original batch as well.

UMass is listed, but not MIT.

Penn St is a weird hybrid public/private, though I don't know the details.

Weird that MIT isn't on there. They're definitely on the list as a Land Grant and are even referenced in the wikipedia page in the first post, and it's part of the description on MITs page directly as well.