Editor's Note: Dr. Harl is a Distinguished Professor in Agriculture; Professor of Economics, Iowa State University and is the Director of the Center for International Agriculture Finance. He also serves as a member of the Research Advisory Committee for the Cattlemen's Competitive Market Project (CCMP). This is Part III of a continuing series examining our Land Grant Universities. In the February edition, Dr. Harl's article will conclude with a look at the influence on land grants by funding providers and solutions to the crisis affecting the institutions. 

So what has caused the dramatic decline in public support of institutions of higher education? Is it just the recession of 2001-2003 that’s responsible for cuts in support? Or the recent recession in tandem with the rattling of financial markets and the breakdown of
ethical standards in the private sector world?

I think not. While those forces have some degree of responsibility, a more fundamental shift in the politico-economic world appears also to bear part of the blame. In a very subtle but clearly perceptible move, governments at all levels have been bent on reducing taxes, narrowing the tax base and reducing the capacity of governments to support services traditionally provided by the public sector, including higher education. The economy of this country is still functioning at near record levels but priorities as to what that economy is to support have changed. The result is that tax cuts disproportionately benefiting the wealthy enable the sons and daughters of the wealthy to matriculate at about any institution they choose, particularly in light of the much criticized legacy admissions programs. In the meantime, the sons and daughters of middle class and lower class families scramble for access to a university education.

Similarly, diminished resources for extension pose little problem for upper income families. Those families can access those services from private sector sources. But those services are an essential link to a rapidly advancing world for middle income and lower income families. The land grant university traditionally has provided the "gold standard" of objective evaluation of information coming at an ever-increasing pace to farmers and others in rural America.

It is a puzzle as to why this politico-economic shift, of seismic proportions, is occurring at this stage in the development of this, the wealthiest and most powerful country in the history of the human family. A casual observer might say it relates to threats to our security and the need to devote resources in that direction. But this mindset was evident long before September 11, 2001. Others might say that it relates to the misguided belief that we as individuals are solely responsible for generating the income and wealth that came our way (when in fact we stand as pygmies on the shoulders of the generations that have gone before who created the basic elements for the productivity we now enjoy). Still others see in this trend a pernicious turn toward selfishness – as a country and as individuals. One can see that phenomenon emerging perhaps for those who already have achieved economic success but it’s not limited just to those who have climbed to the top rungs of the economic ladder.

Whatever the reason, this shift in our thinking deserves careful study and thought.

So what fate awaits us if we continue down the present path of reduced public funding, a decline in extension activity and even less emphasis in the teaching function as land grant universities attempt to emulate the most highly ranked private institutions? Certainly we can expect even further declines in public support as taxpayers come to view the land grant institutions as indistinguishable from the private universities. Even heavier reliance on tuition, gifts and grants will further diminish the extension function. Complete extinction within just a few decades may well occur. That will further estrange the general population from the leavening and regenerative forces of higher education. The charge levied against the private universities of a century and a half ago as elitist will resonate once again throughout the land, leaving the land grant idea as a curious anomaly of the 19th and 20th centuries.NH