Agent of Democracy - Society for College and University Planning

Reconstructing a Democratic Tradition
The story of the origins and development of a democratic tradition
of public scholarship during the early history of land-grant
colleges and their affiliated experiment station and extension systems
has never been told. It has been
obscured (in part) by the prevailing
view of the historical nature and significance
of the land-grant mission.
The prevailing view in academic literatures,
official institutional rhetoric,
and informal culture characterizes
the land-grant mission (in both historical
and contemporary contexts)
as “public service.” It positions the
“Public science, as we
envision it, is a form of
public scholarship.”
(“Toward a Public Science:
Building a New Social Contract
between Science and
Society,”HEX, 1999.)
land-grant system as the historical exemplar of the so-called “service
ideal” in American higher education. 3
As it is reproduced in academic literatures, official institutional
rhetoric, and informal culture, there are four main problems with
the prevailing view of the historical nature and significance of the
land-grant mission:
• First, it is entirely responsive and one-directional. It characterizes
the land-grant system’s engagement with the world beyond
the campus as consisting only of one-way transfers and applications
of technical knowledge and expertise that are
made in response to the demands for help by external
clients and constituencies.
• Second, it is too narrow and instrumental. It casts the history of
the land-grant system’s public purposes and work as being
about only technical, material, and economic matters.
3 For a comprehensive review of the way academic public service has been conceptualized
and pursued in American history, see P. Crosson, Public Service in
Higher Education: Practices and Priorities (Washington, DC: Association for the
Study of Higher Education, 1983). In her book, Crosson writes that the land-grant
system provides the “most celebrated and successful example of the articulation
and fulfillment of the service ideal” (p. 22). For a rare philosophical discussion of
the land-grant mission, see J. T. Bonnen, “The Land-Grant Idea and the Evolving
Outreach University,” in University-Community Collaborations for the Twenty-First
Century: Outreach Scholarship for Youth and Families, eds. R. M. Lerner and L. K.
Simon (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998).
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