Every so often in history, there is a pivotal moment that changes everything, and there is no turning back. For higher education in the United States there is no larger moment than the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862.

Every so often in history, there is a pivotal moment that changes everything, and there is no turning back. For higher education in the United States there is no larger moment than the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862. This led to an innovation in higher education that existed nowhere else in the world.

The Morrill Act led to the establishment of a nationwide network of colleges and universities dedicated to education in agriculture, military and the mechanical arts. At the time, many elitists teased the father if this idea (Justin Morrill) when they contemplated the thought of "unwashed rubes" coming to college to learn from professors and to read from books on topics that were not worthy of academic study. For us in New Jersey, this gave rise to our state institution, Rutgers University, via the Rutgers Scientific School created in 1864.

Another pivotal moment in higher education history came when Joliet Junior College was formed in Illinois in 1901. Joliet emerged in much the same way that Sussex County Community College did. Joliet began with six students taking classes at the local high school's facilities. It did not take even two years before this Joliot experiment's value was affirmed; Joliet Junior College earned prompt accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission in 1903.

The success and logical appeal of this experiment was then adopted throughout much of the country over the next 30 years, but in those early years was particularly prevalent in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Washington and Mississippi.

The need for higher education, and the need for access to higher education, became powerfully clear in the Depression and then even more so following World War II. The Truman Commission of 1946 resulted in a seven-volume report on the status of higher education in the United States. This landmark report articulated some of the most important virtues of having a country fortified by a citizenry that can think, calculate and reason.

The report averred that "It is a commonplace of the democratic faith that education is indispensable to the maintenance and growth of freedom of thought, faith, enterprise, and association." So strong was the case made that, in concert with the GI Bill of 1944, a national network of community colleges was proposed and undertaken.

The report emphasized the priority of ensuring that the community colleges were both relevant to and responsive to the communities they served. The Truman report averred that "Its (community colleges') dominant feature is its intimate relationship to the life of the community it serves."

Sussex County Community College shares its roots in this tradition. Born from a physical partnership with Sussex County Technical School (at that time known as the Vo-Tech School), Sussex County Community College was intended to fill this role as a responsive partner to serve Sussex County. Today, that goal must be fortified, and advanced in the modern context of higher education.

In Part 2 of this article, I will explore in more specific terms what it means for colleges to be responsive to and partner with its community.

���

Jon Connolly is president of Sussex County Community College.