At the Corps of Campus: Examining the shared Military History of America's Land-Grant Universities

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Historical Perspectives on Teachers Unions, Financial Aid, and Military Training on University Campuses (Table 8)

Abstract

My research centers on the reexamination of the history of compulsory military training on the Land-Grant campus. This history, largely unconsidered in the current literature, will be a boon to the field as it offers opportunities to recontextualize the history of public higher education in the United States. This research will discuss the Morrill Act, the compulsory military education programs that were ubiquitous at Land-Grant campuses from 1862-1964, and the tenuous relationship between the War Department/Department of Defense and the University administration. The driving question behind this research is to what extent has this shared history of compulsory military training on campus shaped the modern Land-Grant university?

Author

• Jordan Kuneyl, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign