{"id":3108,"date":"2012-05-29T09:30:01","date_gmt":"2012-05-29T13:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sourcelive.wordpress.com\/?p=3108"},"modified":"2012-05-29T09:30:01","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T13:30:01","slug":"thank-you-justin-morrill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/?p=3108","title":{"rendered":"Thank You, Justin Morrill!"},"content":{"rendered":"

With more than 38,000 enrolled students roaming one of the 10 largest university campuses in the country, it\u2019s difficult to imagine a time when MSU consisted of only two buildings and a barn. Yet in 1857, that\u2019s what MSU was: the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, later to be named Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.), with only 63 enrolled students and five faculty members. The small agricultural college was a forerunner for American universities, and with the signing of the Morrill Act in 1862, it became the first public land-grant college in the United States.\"Morill<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally a state land-grant institution, the college received an appropriation of 14,000 acres of state-owned land to build upon. After the Morrill Act<\/a> was signed by President Abraham Lincoln and Congressman Justin Morrill of Vermont, each state in the Union was given 30,000 acres of public land for every member of its congressional delegation. Most states had two senators and one representative at the time, giving each 90,000 acres.<\/p>\n

With the act in place, M.A.C. was the nation\u2019s pioneer land-grant university and a prototype for the entire system. The college had three goals in mind: to democratize higher education and expand its opportunities based on merit rather than social class, to find practical applications for scientific research and technological innovations, and to make public service an essential part of higher education\u2019s mandate.<\/p>\n

Since then, MSU\u2019s history is filled with milestones, such as admitting female students in 1870, Professor William J. Beal\u2019s achievements in genetic crossing producing hybrid corn in 1877,and Professor Barnett Rosenberg\u2019s discovery of the cancer drug cisplatin in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

So today, we thank Congressman Justin Morrill for his dedication to the passing of the Morrill Act. Without its passage 150 years ago, who knows what MSU would be today!<\/p>\n

How else has MSU changed since 1862?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Name<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then: State Agriculture College\u00a0 Now: Michigan State University<\/p>\n

Buildings on Campus\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Then: 12\u00a0 Now: 642<\/p>\n

Number of Students Enrolled\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Then: 74\u00a0 Now: 38,647<\/p>\n

Current Events<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then: Civil War, construction of First Transcontinental Railway<\/p>\n

Now: Occupy Wall Street, Facebook becomes an IPO<\/p>\n

\"College<\/a>
College Hall, one of the first buildings at M.A.C. Photo courtesy of University Archives and Historical Collections.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With more than 38,000 enrolled students roaming one of the 10 largest university campuses in the country, it\u2019s difficult to imagine a time when MSU consisted of only two buildings and a barn. Yet in… Continue Reading… Thank You, Justin Morrill!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb1fcA-O8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sourcelive.hr.msu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}