University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

Page 10 text:

In 1862, U. S. President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, giving every state 30,000 acres of land for each senator and representative to be used to establish a college to give higher education in agriculture and the mechanical arts. Minnesota sold most of the land, and the money was used to establish a trust fund for the stipulated “land grant” college. Rather than establish a new institution, agriculture and the mechanical arts were added to the curriculum of the already-established University. It is the historical combination of the land grant college with the liberal arts college that gives the University its varied program. Its close ties with the state and the community guarantee that its achievement isn’t a product; it is the transformation of the contributions of the same groups who receive its benefits. 6

Page 9 text:

The work of the University is exchange. It is the giving and receiving of ideas and accomplishments in progress toward the ultimate goal of mankind— truth. The vastness of the University's work is not like that of a gigantic corporation turning out a specified product. It is more like a huge telephone switchboard, consisting of millions of minute individual exchanges of ideas. The University is at work from dawn until early the next morning, from the North Shore of Lake Superior to the hills of southern Minnesota. It never rests, but the work is never drudgery, because it thrives on progress.

Page 11 text:

Congress, in the Morrill Act, outlined four responsibilities of the land-grant college: research, service to its state, admission for any high school graduate in the state and teaching. To these, the old University contributed the historical college tradition of promoting cultural activities and classical learning. Through research, the University has world wide influence. Many of the world’s great scientists and scholars work here, and men all over the world benefit from its work. In service to the state, through both extension work and education of young citizens, the University pays back the debt of time, funds and space it owes Minnesota. The Twin Cities’ community gives land for two major campuses, homes for many students and civil servants to serve the University, and gets back a cultural center and a multi-million dollar business in its midst. Students, by investing their time and abilities, find their own private world of academic endeavor, and a chance to discover the focus in which to live the rest of their lives. 7