From a Cornell Perspectives column by Scott Peters (right), associate professor in the Department of Horticulture, Cornell Chronicle, Jan. 10, 2012:
As the land-grant university of New York, Cornell has shown its commitment to a civic mission most recently through the new Center for Community Engaged Learning and Research and a new Provost’s Fellow for Public Engagement. Associate professor of education Scott Peters is now helping to lead a national effort to deepen the civic identities of all American educational institutions as a member of the American Commonwealth Partnership, which launched a yearlong campaign at the White House Jan. 10. The event was live streamed at whitehouse.gov.
On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the first Morrill Act into law. Also referred to as the Land Grant Act, it offered states grants of federal land to establish a new kind of college that would, in the language of the act, “promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life.” It was the first of several federal acts that built and supported what became known as the “land-grant system.” Today this system includes 109 institutions located in all 50 states and several U.S. territories.