The Anachronisms and Paradoxes of the Land-Grant College Saga in an Era of Privatization

• In Event: Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Networks and Organizations: Interactions and Integration

Abstract

Over 150 years, higher education leaders, policymakers, and scholars have crafted a saga of the American land-grant colleges and universities. This land-grant saga unites stakeholders behind a shared vision, which is rooted in historical commitments to access for the underserved, service to the public, academics and original research, and a vibrant collegiate life. This historio-sociological paper explores three ideal type cases to assess how shifts in financing from public to private sources, decreasing budgets for extension and outreach, and increased selectivity (with concurrent implications for access) have produced discontinuities and paradoxes between institutional practices and the traditional land-grant idea, and how stakeholders are reconceptualizing, repurposing, and rewriting the land-grant saga to fit an era of privatization.

Author

• Nathan Masters Sorber, West Virginia University