October 13, 2011 Higher education once enjoyed the highest
levels of support and respect from the American public. Indeed,
from the earliest days of the colonization of this country,
higher education was recognized as integrally important in our
society. For example, Harvard College was established in 1636,
just 16 years after the Mayflower had landed in Plymouth, and
only six years after the founding of Boston. The Universities of
North Carolina and Vermont, both of which claim to be the first
public university in this country, were established around 1790.
In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act that granted
each state 30,000 acres of federal land for each senator and
representative it had in Congress. The intent was that the land
would be sold, and the proceeds invested to support colleges of
agriculture and the “mechanical arts”—what we would now call
“engineering”—in order to bolster economic development through
education in these applied fields. Following World War II, the
GI Bill allowed hund