Unlike Pugh, Allen showed little interest in broadening the curriculum, and instead focused on the political challenges the university faced at the time: specifically, a debt of $50,000 (stemming, in part, from the university's inability to dispose of the 780,000 acres of land scrip granted by the Morrill Act) and lobbying efforts from other Pennsylvania colleges challenging university's designation as the commonwealth's sole land-grant institution. The lobbying efforts (and resulting redistribution bill) were defeated in 1865, but left the university in such a dire state financially that mortgage bonds of $80,000 were issued, both to pay off debt and to establish a working fund.