The 2012 sesquicentennial of the signing of the Morrill Act provided an occasion to celebrate the enduring power of the land-grant vision of higher education as an instrument of individual, social, and economic transformation in this nation. The Morrill Act created a new type of higher education institution in the 19th century. Now, according to the president of Michigan State University, the most pressing need in higher education is to encourage universities to evolve in ways that align them more effectively to advance the public good—to affirm the ideals of the Morrill Act and its core values through each institution’s commitments and actions, regardless of its roots.
Simon, Lou Anna K. (2009). Embracing the world grant ideal: Affirming the Morrill Act for a twenty-first century global society. A monograph.