The land-grant universities, through Cooperative Extension Services, have performed the most important university outreach function in America. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 stated that the function of Cooperative Extension was to provide practical instruction in subjects related to agriculture and home economics. Subsequent amendments to the Act…

Home to 65 million people, rural America is no longer insulated from national and international events. Once dependent entirely upon agriculture and natural resource industries, today rural America relies upon manufacturing and service industries. Jobs and other income opportunities in rural America must respond to global business cycles and…

The authors examine the historical context and current implications of four questions: (1) What is the relationship of land grant universities to agrarian discontent? (2) What was the Wisconsin Idea? (3) What is "public service"? and (4) What views of knowledge predominated in the early days? The land grant university was central as a cause/effect…

For the university to be of service, it must be attuned to urban life. Some educators have suggested that a special chain of urban grant universities could reproduce in the cities the success of the landgrant colleges with rural society. The question is: Is the rural precedent really pertinent to contemporary urban needs? Analogies from urban…

The relationship of the Land Grant College Complex to agribusiness is discussed in this book. Major areas include an overview of the Land Grant College Complex research and policy; the agribusiness-agrigovernment relationship; and the Extension Service. The recommendations of the Task Force called for: (1) a full-scale public inquiry into the land…

The extension role of Tuskegee Institute and the 16 black land grant colleges established by the Morrill Act of 1890 has been to diffuse among the non-university citizens of America useful and practical information on agriculture, home economics, and related areas. Tuskegee's extension efforts began in 1880 and flourished under the leadership of…

The paper identifies the basic factors affecting rural development and the social consequences of rural policies and structural changes in agriculture; it also suggests research areas relating some of these factors to what is happening in America's rural communities. Data sources such as congressional hearings, rural sociologists' critiques,…

Traces the development of extension education from 1887 to the Smith-Lever Act of 1914. Focuses on the roles of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry and the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations in fostering federal legislation that established the Cooperative Extension System. (SV)

Describes general development assistance available to rural areas through federal programs that fund housing, extension education and research, rural community development, rural business development, resource conservation, and development activities in American Indian reservations and disadvantaged rural areas. (SV)

The work and composition of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, the oldest higher education association in the United States, are described in this brochure. It includes a listing of the universities and colleges holding membership in the association. It also reviews the association's history and the way it…

Recommendations for maintaining relevant programs which resulted from this meeting of college and university presidents and administrators are applicable to all colleges and universities offering programs of agriculture in the region. Given in this report are two major presentations entitled "The Integration of Knowledge in a Specialized Society"…

The Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) is one of four regional rural development centers in the nation. SRDC coordinates rural development research and extension education programs cooperatively with the 29 land-grant institutions in 13 Southern states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. This annual report outlines activities undertaken by…

The Professional Agricultural Workers Conference (PAWC) provides a forum for participants to articulate strategies to improve the quality of life for rural people. The PAWC is designed to provide a forum for people involved with university programs to exchange ideas and information; encourage development of action-oriented activities directed at…

Agriculture and the rural economic bases in mining, fisheries, forestry, and natural resource extraction are experiencing major social and economic changes. The farm and rural crises of the 1980s are not short-term aberrations, but symptoms of long-term trends that were partially hidden by the relatively good times for agriculture and rural areas…

On June 19, 1972, the subcommittee heard testimony on land-grant colleges and their role in rural America. The hearing's purpose was to determine whether this system of education, research, and extension is working for or against the cause--livable communities in rural America. Among the candid questions asked about the land-grant college system…