MIZZOU NEWS

MU Defined

Grounded in teaching, research and service, MU stands at the peak of the national higher education landscape.

The landscape of higher learning in America is vast and varied. A topography of small, large, public, private, professional, technical, theological, military, liberal arts and research institutions awaits every student seeking a college degree, every professor in search of a faculty position and every grant agency awaiting a deserving beneficiary. Distinct missions add color and texture to the terrain. Levels of access give it depth. Each institution — from community colleges to the highly selective Ivy League — plays a role in educating the public. Where does MU fit into this picture? It’s a land-grant institution, a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a public research university and a school classified as Doctoral/Research University-Extensive by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. These indicators identify Mizzou as one of the summits in the landscape of higher learning, but what do they actually mean? To answer that question, here’s a view from the top.

Built to Serve: The Land-grant Tradition

Today’s students would barely recognize the university of the early 19th century. Following the English model of education, isolated institutions staffed with clergy members taught philosophy, religion, law, medicine and literature to well-heeled young men who learned through memorization and recitation. At that time, the University of Missouri, established in 1839, consisted only of what would later become the College of Arts and Science.

By the Civil War, an expanding population and rapidly developing agriculture and industry inspired a change. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, providing for the donation of public land to the individual states. Funds from the sale of these “land grants” were to be used to create institutions to teach agriculture and the mechanic arts to the American masses.

“A major goal of the Morrill Act was to enhance the curriculum to help farmers with their crops,” says Vicki Rosser, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy analysis. “It established a social commitment to our surrounding communities.”

Some states that already had universities built new schools to carry out the land-grant mission, such as Kansas State and Michigan State universities. Missourians chose instead to apply the funds to the existing state university by establishing the College of Agriculture on the Columbia campus and a new School of Mines and Metallurgy in Rolla. At MU, this decision effectively created two universities in one: a land-grant institution for all citizens of the state and an intellectual center to advance liberal arts scholarship. The land-grant ideal is still central to MU’s mission, which emphasizes teaching, research and service to the entire state.

“We are an elite institution, but we are not a school only for the elite,” says Ann Korschgen, vice provost for enrollment management. “Providing access is a key part of our mission, and we do that in many different ways, including targeted scholarships and recruitment.”

After the Morrill Act, subsequent legislation in the early 20th century provided more support for land-grant universities and mandated that they share their knowledge with the public — the underpinnings of University of Missouri Extension, headquartered at MU.

Today, through a statewide network of offices, an array of publications and Web-based services, extension faculty still help farmers, but they also teach families about nutrition, educate youth through 4-H programs, guide entrepreneurs as they start new businesses and help the state’s growing Hispanic population through community programs.

“We respond as the needs of the state change, and we respond with education,” says Tom Henderson, interim vice provost and director of extension.

In Good Company: AAU Membership

In the late 19th century, the modern university as we know it today was born. Higher education in America had begun to follow the German model, which emphasized basic research and advanced study. At Mizzou, the scope of academic programs continued to broaden with new, specialized schools and colleges, including the Graduate Interdisciplinary School. Because there was no regulating body or system of accreditation in place at the time, standards of graduate education varied drastically. To solve this problem, leaders of some of the nation’s best universities established the AAU in 1900.

Member institutions combined a commitment to first-rate undergraduate education with the goals of pioneering research and outstanding graduate programs to create a uniquely American model of higher education. MU joined the organization in 1908 and is the only public AAU member in the state. The only other member school in Missouri is Washington University, a private school in St. Louis.

Today, the AAU includes 62 members, 34 of which are public universities. Membership is by invitation only and can be revoked if the organization’s monitoring committee finds that a member institution has fallen behind in generating federal research funding or attracting nationally recognized faculty members. In recent years, MU has led all AAU public universities in federal grant growth.

Lori Franz, interim provost, says AAU status attracts accomplished faculty and adds value to an MU degree. “There is a bond among those universities,” she says. “When one of our undergraduates applies to graduate school at another university, that school knows the student had rigorous courses with the best professors. They know what our transcript means.”

A National Resource: The Public Research University

As scientific and technological discoveries began to transform life in the 20th
century, the federal government began to recognize the potential of the nation’s universities for innovation. Far from the isolated ivory towers of pre-Civil War days, American research universities such as Mizzou became the primary research and development centers for the federal government, which created agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund research.

In 2003, research funding at MU increased by 17 percent to $166 million, making it one of the fastest-growing research programs in the country. James Coleman, vice provost for research, attributes MU’s leap forward in funding to strategic investments in specific programs. By focusing on existing strengths, MU has been able to attract nationally and internationally known faculty who have then catapulted their programs to the next level.

Coleman points to the Food for the 21st Century program as an example. By directing funds to enhance Mizzou’s reputation for leading research in plant biology and animal sciences, the University was able to recruit professors such as Douglas Randall, a biochemistry researcher who was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Science Board, NSF’s governing body; Randall Prather, whose groundbreaking genetic research helped attract $10 million in NIH grants for a National Swine Research Center on the MU campus; and Michael Roberts, a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences and the new director of MU’s Life Sciences Center.

“By creating pockets of excellence, we set the bar higher for everyone across campus,” Coleman says.

Federal funding gives graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to think outside of the textbook by engaging in professional experiences and conducting hands-on research. It also makes the University a strong economic engine for the state. From 2000 to 2003, MU researchers brought in $59.7 million in NSF research funds — more than any other institution in Missouri. As those funds make their way into Missouri’s economy, Coleman says the research translates to $100 million for the state and nearly 4,000 jobs.

A Spot at the Top: The Carnegie Classification

In 1973, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, a leading center for research and policy studies, published its first Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, a resource that groups like institutions into useful categories for research purposes. With this framework, researchers can compare individual schools with others that have similar characteristics.

The Carnegie classification is not a ranking system, but like membership in the AAU, it does characterize individual institutions by the company they keep. MU is classified as a Doctoral/Research University-Extensive, which means it offers a wide range of undergraduate programs and demonstrates a commitment to graduate education at the highest level, granting at least 50 doctoral degrees per year in at least 15 disciplines. Schools in this category include Harvard, Princeton, the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan and Northwestern University.

U.S. News & World Report uses the Carnegie classification to organize its annual college rankings, and some grant agencies, both governmental and philanthropic, use the classification to guide funding decisions. But for a university, the most important role of the classification is in recruiting and retaining new faculty.

“It means that we have an environment in which faculty can spend a great deal of their time creating new knowledge and still fulfill a desire to teach in the classroom,” Coleman says.

Rosser says the classification is also important to prospective graduate students who choose master’s and doctoral programs for the promise of research experience and the scholarly reputation that comes along with the Doctoral/Research University-Extensive label.

“Designations like this indicate that we have a critical mass of excellence here,” Coleman says. “They paint a picture of the kind of university we are.”

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Last Update: November 15, 2007