December 31, 2015 at 3:34 p.m.
What is the University of Wisconsin-Extension?
Oneida County Educator explains the story behind the name
What is the University of Wisconsin-Extension?
By Myles Alexander-
The story begins in the 1830s with a political movement for the creation of agriculture colleges in each state. Representatives and educators in Michigan and Illinois led the effort. U.S. representative Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont first introduced a bill in 1857. President Abraham Lincoln signed the final Morrill Act on July 2, 1862. You can read the complete text online at https://www.law.cornell .edu/uscode/text/7/301.
The act provided for sale of land to fund the endowment, support, and maintenance of the colleges. The mission of the colleges is to teach subjects related to agriculture and the mechanic art, plus scientific and classical studies and military tactics. The greater purpose was to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes, or what we now call the "blue collar" part of the workforce.
State legislatures used Morrill Act money to create the land grant universities. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the Wisconsin land grant university.
The next national development was the Hatch Act of 1887. This federal legislation funded experiment stations in cooperation with the land-grant colleges. The purpose of experiment stations is to conduct research for science-based agriculture and home economics.
The last major federal legislation was in 1914. The Smith-Lever Act provided federal funding for the three partner partnership still in place: state, county and the federal government.
This history reminds me:
My job is to bring research-based knowledge to bear on the needs and aspirations of people in Oneida County.
We have numerous colleagues in Wisconsin and all other Extension systems in the nation.
We do this work together.
Next month I will look at the history of the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, should we meet, be ready to tell me what the best thing going in Oneida County is. Where is it? And, who is behind it?
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