Editorial Columns

For 150 Years, Penn State has been Making Life Better

In 2004, Penn State kicks off a year-long celebration of its 150th anniversary. Founded in 1855 as The Farmers' High School, Penn State has grown from a 200-acre campus with four faculty and an enrollment of about 100 students to a world-class research institution, with 24 campuses, more than 5,000 faculty, and nearly 84,000 students.

Its first graduating class of just 11 students, while noteworthy because of Penn State's leadership in awarding the first baccalaureate degrees in agriculture, pales in comparison with well over half a million degrees that have been conferred on graduates. 

Today, one in every 127 U.S. residents with a baccalaureate degree is a graduate of Penn State. 

This commemoration of 150 years of Penn State offers us an opportunity to not only celebrate our rich history, but also to evaluate it and ask questions about our future. 

American colleges and universities are widely recognized as the best in the world, providing millions with a first-rate education and fueling incredible discoveries that have advanced our nation's economic competitiveness and solved some of society's most pressing problems. American higher education has been responsible for shaping the character and conscience of our democratic society and for supporting the values and ideals that have made our nation great. As one of America's top universities, Penn State is a leader in all of these areas. 

As a public institution, Penn State also has helped provide access to higher education for many students who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to attend college. But Penn State has an even broader agenda, because it is Pennsylvania's land-grant institution--a term that is often misunderstood and does not adequately describe the institutions across the nation that hold this important designation.

Land-grant institutions came into being with the signing by Abraham Lincoln of the Morrill Land-Grant Act in 1862, which aimed to provide a diverse program of studies to a broad segment of the population. In essence, it charged institutions with a three-part mission of teaching, research, and service. It is a mission that we proudly follow today.

Before the establishment of land-grant schools, a college education was out of reach to all but the children of the well-heeled. The exchange of useful, practical knowledge was limited not only by distance in our then sparsely populated nation, but also by the inability of the educated elite to connect with the everyday American, who was most likely to need practical information. Land-grant institutions helped build a bridge between those who controlled the knowledge and those who needed to use it. Without a knowledge source backed by research, trial and error in nearly every endeavor was par for the course in early America.

From its very beginnings as a land-grant institution, Penn State began providing the public with research-based information. Just months after Penn State earned designation as a land-grant college, its first president, Evan Pugh, began analyzing fertilizer so that farmers would know what they were buying. Pugh's creation of a laboratory where students could observe, test, analyze and synthesize information distinguished Penn State from nearly every other institution of higher learning in the country.

As Pugh wrote at the time, no true teacher "contents himself with merely attending to his classes, and sitting down at ease after he has got them at work. He is studying constantly himself; making original investigations and publishing them to the world." 

This is the legacy of Penn State and its people. Our faculty and students have followed in the pioneering path of Evan Pugh to discover planets, design heart-assist devices, develop longer lasting bridges, map the human genetic code, create new polymers, help secure our nation, and improve teaching and child care. 

Today, our research enterprise is approaching $600 million annually and our public service mission permeates every area of the University. One in every two households in Pennsylvania has at least one person connected to a Penn State program. 

Land-grant universities, like Penn State, are a critical part of public higher education and essential to our nation's economy, intellectual capacity, entrepreneurial spirit, and ability to create new knowledge.

In 1855, we answered the call of a struggling nation that needed us to help jump start its industries and educate its people for a democratic society. Our nation still needs us today. New areas of knowledge continue to open to us -- nanotechnology, genetics, information technology, smart materials. Penn State will remain on the leading edge of these advancements, preparing students for a rapidly changing world. 

Public colleges and universities are still economic engines for their states, still create research of value to people and communities, and still advance the common good. 

In the words of Abraham Lincoln, we are still very much one of the "public's universities" and we invite you to celebrate with us on July 8 and throughout this coming year our partnership with the people of Pennsylvania, our contributions to the state and nation, our extraordinary 150-year history, and our promising future.