By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia
and Jennifer Whittaker
Georgia Farm Bureau
Georgia Farm Bureau President Wayne Dollar Monday presented a
$100,000 donation to the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to endow the Georgia Farm
Bureau Land Grant University Lecture Series.
Income from the endowment will support an annual lecture on or
near the July 2 signing anniversary of the 1862 Morrill Act. This
federal law provided public land to each state that could be sold
to create funds to establish at least one university in each
state to teach agriculture and mechanic arts.
Dollar made the presentation on behalf of the Georgia Farm Bureau
Federation during the general session of the organization’s 66th
annual convention Dec. 6 on Jekyll Island.
‘Common history’
“Georgia Farm Bureau and the University of Georgia share a great
deal of common history,” Dollar said. “The Georgia Farm Bureau
Board of Directors and I believe it is important we not lose
sight of the purpose of our land grant universities and the
concept and premise on which they were built.”
The lectures will be planned by a standing committee that will
include the CAES dean and director, Georgia Farm Bureau president
and Georgia agriculture commissioner. The committee will plan
other projects, too, to spotlight the role land grant
institutions play in the economy and their importance to the
nation’s future.
“This gift reflects what the Georgia Farm Bureau thinks about the
nation’s land grant universities in general and the University of
Georgia in particular,” said Gale Buchanan, CAES dean and
director. “Their contributions will help in our effort to ensure
that these remain viable institutions for future generations of
Americans.”
‘Crucial for the future’
“I am firmly convinced that science and technology are crucial
for the future success of agriculture,” Dollar said. “We must
maintain the strength of our land grant university, the
University of Georgia.”
The Morrill Act, also known as the Land Grant College Act, was
introduced by Rep. Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont. Morrill
wanted to make sure education was available to all social
classes.
The act changed the course of higher education by broadening its
focus from strictly classical studies to include classes that
would prepare students for the world they would face after they
left the classroom.
Besides agriculture and engineering, the schools established by
the grant were intended to teach military tactics, home economics
and other professions practical at the time.
Under the Morrill Act, each state received 30,000 acres of public
land for every member of its U.S. Congressional delegation, based
on the 1860 census. More than 70 land grant colleges were
established under the original act.
The 1890 Morrill Act established more of these schools in 16
Southeastern states to provide the same educational opportunities
to black students there. Fort Valley State University was
established by this act.
Georgia beginnings
Georgia received and sold its Morrill Act lands in 1873 after it
was readmitted to the United States following Reconstruction.
Gov. James M. Smith made an executive contract on March 30, 1872,
that UGA was the only institution in the state authorized to
establish a college such as that described in the 1862 act.
The UGA Board of Trustees then established the Georgia State
College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. A forerunner to
this college was the UGA Terrell Professorship of Agriculture,
first filled by Dr. Daniel Lee in 1855.
Now the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,
the college offers more than 20 areas of study through 11
departments. It operates three agricultural experiment stations,
four extension educational centers and the Rural Development
Center in Tifton.
The CAES also oversees the Cooperative Extension Service, which
provides agricultural and family and consumer science agents for
each of Georgia’s 159 counties.
Founded in 1937, the Georgia Farm Bureau Federation is the
state’s largest general farm organization, with more than 400,000
member families statewide.
(Faith Peppers is a news editor with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Jennifer
Whittaker the editor of the Georgia Farm Bureau News.)
