Democracy's College

this is the campus Iowa State University can grant colleges and university in the United States today these institutions testify to the enduring power of an idea expressing the determination of the people to achieve the American ideal of equal opportunity Iowa State is proud to have made a significant contribution to the growth of the land grant system proud that the efforts of the people of Iowa have helped make a reality of Democracies college 16:07 at Jamestown 16:20 at Plymouth Rock by the late 1700s the colonists were established in the new country and it won their struggle for independence but listen to what Jefferson was saying about their hard-won freedom the only safe guardians of Liberty are a free press and an intelligent and reading people an intelligent and reading people this meant education for all the people not just the rich ones are the best ones but all the people during the 1830s the era of jacksonian democracy a movement began for the establishment of a new kind of education a movement to put the farmer and mechanic on an educational level with the professional man this was the beginning of the land-grant idea it was steadily spreading as settlers opened up new lands from the farmer of the Prairie to the rancher of the Far West and the skilled craftsmen to the day laborer all wanted to learn more the first legislative body convened in Iowa sought to establish such a college that attended failed but ten years later in 1858 I hadn't seen him on the floor before that's that farmer from Scott County name's Benjamin Gill happen about that farmers college of his again for one of the so called learning professionals and a young man cannot go to one of these colleges and prepare himself for his chosen career if it happens to be farming it is not alone the farmer who will be benefited by this bill but all laboring classes the mechanic the day laborer the inventor the manufacturer all are provided for and are equally interested with the farmer and the success of this bill the bill to charter the Iowa Agricultural College was signed in March 1858 the college was still far from being a reality times were hard and the state could not finance so ambitious a project four years later on July 2nd 1862 a bill submitted to Congress by Justin Morrill of Vermont as being laid on the desk of the President of the United States be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled that there be granted to the several states an amount of public land in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life that fall Iowa became the first state to accept the terms of the Morrill land-grant Act the following March the Iowa General Assembly voted to award Iowa's grant to the Iowa Agricultural College in March 1869 the College on the Prairie established by the state and endowed by the nation was finally ready to open at first the college offer degrees in two fields agriculture and mechanics I began to tell the students what I knew about farming it didn't take me long to run short of material so I fell in the habit of taking students to feel good in poor farms because the original curriculum did not provide for the interests of young women the general ladies course was introduced ladies by means both of weekly lectures and actual practice in a well furnished kitchen the lectures embrace such topics as furnishing and care of a home the work in agriculture led to the development of another area and by sending forth each year a band of thoroughly equipped scientific veterinarians to supplant the College offered no degree in the sciences the strength of the supporting work it offered in the sciences was largely responsible for Iowa State's early recognition as one of the leading institutions in the land grant system at an early date the importance of laboratory study was recognized ask the grasshopper how many legs he has don't just go to the book the book may be wrong grasshopper will come as a land-grant institution Iowa State had responsibilities not only in teaching but in research and service research developed early and continued each experiment as may be deemed best until they arrived at full maturity there were early beginnings and engineering these courses are being identified more and more specifically with the industries of the state outside the classroom the college's name was growing to play football with an Iowa cyclone is with the Iowa team had met yesterday at the end of 50 minutes play the big husky farmers from Iowa's agricultural College had rolled up 36 points qualification extension to had early beginnings short courses held throughout the state several hundred thousand have been reached by special train instruction and through County agents responding to the needs of the state the college steadily brought its several programs into a healthy balance by the turn of the century it had come of age it could now turn to the task of organizing its resources and activities for fully effective management in 1913 undergraduate instruction was organized in five divisions agriculture engineering home economics science and veterinary medicine thus by the end of World War one the framework was in place for the ultimate development of this democracies college on the Prairie into one of the nation's major universities at first the college had offered degrees in two fields agriculture and mechanic arts however emphasis was moving from the tactical arts to the underlying sciences research flourish hybrid seed corn is one of the most fascinating stories of this century the pioneer agronomist who produced hybrid dent corn played the largest role of all in the American agricultural revolution and I would say that the experiments with the breeding of corn are credited among several genuinely important contributions to genetics in the past half-century this research not only gained nationwide recognition and prestige for the college the new recognition of the importance of research and the scientific approach even while hybrid seed corn was still in the research stages the other divisions were stressing the scientific viewpoint both in education and research beginning with World War two the campus environment was to become a home for a major Laboratory of the Atomic Energy Commission so I told dr. Compton that they had to have a lot of chemical and metallurgical work done on uranium immediately and we couldn't do it at Chicago until we build a building until we got some staff together we had high priorities we could get people from any University if we asked for them but this takes time and we had all the necessary equipment to start here in Ames the result was the development of a method for the quantity production of uranium metal an outstanding contribution to the success of the atomic bomb project the way the laboratory and research is progressed here I think it's a very great benefit to be on the campus because our laboratory has developed into a basic and pioneering type of laboratory graduate students play a big part in research but the last two years Iowa State has ranked in the top 10 universities for total doctorates given and in the top 15 for the last 10 years in total volume of research in the area of Agriculture Iowa State University 6 Purdue University 7 University of Missouri 8 in total volume of research in the physical sciences MIT for Iowa State University fifth Illinois Institute of Technology state and sole Iowa State University ranks well in its areas of research across the nation and it's prestige continues to grow this is good for both the University and the student this growth has brought us to the here and now to the students who are now going to class these students what are their impressions usually about 4 o'clock when students are through for the day they come and gather over coffee and bridge and Frosty's the union also provides bowling alleys some different forms of recreation for students a lot of people say that it's a big campus but so what it's pretty the architectural pattern or should I say style seems to be well maintained throughout the campus it's a very uniform campus the whole campus is built around one central area this central campus area is highlighted by the Campanile which is really a beautiful spot I had a visiting professor who told our class that Iowa State University was one of the few universities in the nation that had continued to grow and at the same time had retained its beauty I think everyone has an idea of what a campus should be in their mind and Iowa State certainly fulfills this in my own image the university is being forced to expand there's a lot of building going on this is all being done to handle the greater amount of students that are coming in academically a lot of times I probably have complained as as have other students that you get tired of having a lecture of 200 or 300 students but not all your lectures are that way it may seem that way as a freshman because you do take some general courses but after spending a quarter or two quarters or three quarters here or a year whatever the case may be when you start having a lot greater choices of wind to take what course then you can avoid things like this and you can get into groups of 25 or 30 my last year year I would say the biggest lecture I've had was probably of 65 or 70 down to a class of 8 students which was tremendous I think probably the first year most students do tend to feel lost this is probably because of the large number of students that are in required courses as soon as you start specializing in your major field I think classes become smaller and you know your instructors as well as your fellow students much better I find this very true in my own major because the ratio of teachers to students is so small right away the chances for knowing your instructors personally are much greater the university offers enough courses that from different departments you can find any number of courses in your field of interest courses that you just wouldn't think of because they're outside your major department and yet apply to what you're interested in I've always felt free to go see my adviser if he's in his office just walk in and start talking tell him what you want maybe what you're having a problem with and you'll do his best to help you out I've I've never had any problems as far as having to keep an appointment or having to be there at a specified time to make sure I find him he's generally around the office enough there's never any problem any student here at Iowa State has tremendous freedom in how and where he'll live and there he's got the opportunity of identifying with a much smaller group of making closer and firmer relationships while he's here in the midst of the very large school community and this carries over as well into the residence system which is broken down into houses which are much smaller groups allowing the student again to associate and identify with people people of his own tastes people with which he can so she ate as closely as he chooses of course the fraternity system here in Iowa State is one of the strongest in the nation and here again the student has tremendous freedom first and choosing the house in which he wishes to live and then his closest friends within that house nearly every campus Church organization provides many opportunities for students to get together they have a study room for students and on weekends there's usually a recreational activities planned and Sunday nights are set aside for group meetings and discussions there's no limit to the to the events that you can see and this is something else I think you'll learn a lot with Steven every night of the week there were five or six or seven or eight or nine or ten things you could do besides study now you're never going to be able to take these in but they'll range all the way from classical music to handball tournaments or something and within this area there's bound to be something that you would like this is becoming more and more true I think as the years go by in fact there are weekends when it's a painful choice to decide what to do there are so many things going on and often so many very different kinds of things you may have a concert and a lecture and a dance and a party and several other things happening all and a short period of time and so they're really often more than enough to do considering the responsibilities one has also to worry about in the way of not only day-to-day assignments but long-term projects and papers that's something that seems to go on forever and ever sports seem to go on year-round at Iowa State being a member of the big eight the intercollegiate picture is one of many different sports besides seeing just teams from Iowa State you get a chance to see many of the finest teams from across the nation facility wise it's it's an excellent campus I think yeah places like Baier hall where you have fine facilities for swimming and gymnastics the football stadium has just had on addition and now there's room for quite a few more people as far as adequate facilities for sports to be played in or for people to watch in the intramural program probably has some of the finest facilities of of any school that I've seen it's a tremendous place to meet people and do a enlarge your area of friendships so what's one of the biggest advantages of intramurals is that it's just a simple release of tension after long hours of studying you can get together with a group of guys and go bowling or play softball or do something that's house maybe in Baier hall or the old men's gym in the area of basketball or something like this and the facilities are quite adequate to handle the vast number of students who do participate one big advantage in clubs is that you meet students who have interests similar to your own and outside of the club work you can get together with these students and share your special interests this can be singing or dance or just getting together and maybe expressing ideas there are committees which students can work on together or there's just the opportunity to attend the activity I think the biggest advantage of Visha is that after working together during the year preparing for Visha students develop a sense of pride in showing off their university during this particular weekend working together with other students is the best way to come to know them and this causes a strong feeling of unity students spend much time planning and building the floats that the admires from all over the state come to see not only is there a strong feeling of competition in winning and having the winning visa float but just to have a float completed and in the parade gives you a strong sense of satisfaction he's in my estimation well I wish I'd have done it sooner I dabble in her for two years working a little bit on the stars overview performances also at the same time then I was head of the department displays which was good and yet in building the department displays you work only with your own people I think the good point of it was the fact that the two and a half days of isha then that I spent in my building I met people from all over Iowa and from many many other states this was the rewarding part of it this was the part that was tremendously enjoyable but the activities give you a chance to come out to meet people to get to know people on the university to get to know the faculty or the administration and if you want a personal relationship you can achieve it while you're at school but you meet people of other majors of people who live in different residences you meet people of all kinds all over the campus who are interested in things that you're interested in when you join different groups and you it takes your mind off of your studies at times which we all need well I would imagine also the money that is given here in grants and fellowships and things comes in bigger quantities again leading to a little better building or a little better test tube or a little better microscope or a little better instructor a little more background which in the long run should lead to a better education a better education you and your future how does the university president view the role that Iowa State must play if it is to continue to move ahead for a large student body form its diversification and enrichment of program and curricula but because many other universities will also be large size can no longer be the distinguishing quality which makes for a strong and dominant you know versity in other words the distinguishing characteristic which marks out the strong dominant universities of the nation will be excellent for the prime purpose of a university indeed a university is very reason for being is the education of the individual for the fullest use of his capacities this is not only morally right and proper in a free democratic society such as ours but it is also this is Iowa State proud of its contributions to the land-grant idea proud of its record as a pioneer in extension proud of its position of leadership and research yet Iowa State continues to have uppermost in its philosophy a genuine concern for you the student