American colleges and universities during the 1840-1900 era

¶ … chronicle of higher education in the United States reveals a significant development that has taken place in higher educational systems between 1840 and 1900. The Land Grant Act is one of the major steps for the development of higher education that encourages the development of fields such as engineering and agriculture. The period also recorded a sweeping development of the curriculum to match the education system. Many higher institutions were established in 1890 and the period was the time women were encouraged to receive higher education. (Geiger, 2014).

Objective of this paper is to explore the chronicle of higher education between 1840 and 1900.

Chronicle of Higher Education 1840-1900

1862 - The U.S. government promulgated the Land-Grant Act to form land grant colleges that specialized in engineering and agriculture

1890- The Morrill Act was promulgated to provide federal funding for the Land Act program and land grant colleges

1867- The government established the Howard University in Washington

1880 -1890 only handful of higher institutions in the U.S. had a legitimate claim of being a real university

1890 This was the time that opened the floodgate for the establishments of new colleges and universities

1870-1897 the number of universities in the United States reached 821

1870s The University of Carolina enrolled both colored and white students for the first time

1880-1890 higher educational institutions were unregulated industry

1890-1899. several private universities were established

1887-1900 The Congress passed a legislation to expand the field of Engineering, Agriculture and military training in higher institutions

1890-1900. The number of specializations and disciplines in the universities increased greatly

1890-1900 the era of the university building and golden age of college

1897 Median private university had 128 students and median private student in a university reached 505 students

1897 Publicly controlled sector controlled 43% of all universities in the United States

1862 -- 1900, lays the foundation for the pre-eminent higher educational infrastructure, which is able to support the U.S. economy

1900 Fourteen universities in the United States agreed to form the AAU (Association of American Universities) (Goldin, and Lawrence 1999).

College Founded between 1840 and 1900

1841-Fordham University

1842-Ohio Wesleyan University

1843-University of Delaware

1846-University of Buffalo

1847-State University of Iowa

1848-University of Mississippi

1859-University of Wisconsin

1850-University of Dayton

1850-University of Utah

1855-Pennsylvania State University

1855-Bates College

1865-Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1869-University of California

1876-Johns Hopkins University

1883-University of Texas

Prediction of Future Trend at University of California

The University of California was established in 1869 with only 38 students and 10 faculty members. At present, the university can boast of 233,000 students with more than 190,000 faculty member as well as 1.7 million alumni members working and living around the globe. For more than 150 years, the University of California has expanded its horizons and become one of the best universities in the world. The university attracts people from all backgrounds and more than 40% of the university undergraduates are from California City, who comes from low-income families.

Women Education

In 1840s, women were discouraged from pursuing education because the community considered that it was not natural for women to pursue higher education. At that period, women were considered men property. However, in 1848s, the Seneca Falls Convention was organized to improve women education. The convention had a little impact because majority of men in the convention still believe that women were men property rather a unique individual in the society. (Thelin, 2011). However, the convention still had a symbolic effect because it created a foundation for the women education in the United States. In 1862, the Congress passed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act aimed to establish universities that would educate both women and men. Despite the promulgation of this law, women education was solely in the field of home economics. By 1870s, 13% of higher institutions in the United States accepted the women enrollment. In 1841, there was a first American woman who earned a Bachelor degree. In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to earn a degree in medicine from Geneva Medical College. In 1858, Mary Fellows was the first woman to receive a baccalaureate degree. However, Mary Peterson was the first African-American woman to earn a Bachelor of Art in 1862 from Oberlin College. In 1862, Rebecca Crumpler was the African-American woman to earn a medical degree from Ohio College of Dental Surgery. In 1866, Sarah Jane was the first African-American woman to become a professor at Ohio Wilberforce University. In 1869, Fanny Jason became the first woman to head an American higher institution. In 1870, Kepley Adaeas was the first woman to earn a law degree from the Northwestern School of Law. (Snyder, 1993).

Article Summary

Nguyen, Samayoa, Commodore, et al. (2013) in their research article titled "The Changing Face of Historically Black Colleges and Universities" reveal that as the country moves very close to a minority-majority, several opportunities are opening for the HBCUs ("Historically Black Colleges and Universities") ( p 5), which are the only institutions in the United States created for the purpose of educating Black citizens. The institutions were established after the civil war and the federal government started many of these institutions with the assistance of Northern philanthropists and abolitionist missionaries. In 1950s, the HBCUs composed of 100% Black Americans. However, the total number of Black enrollment dropped to 80% in 1980. Within the last 30 years, the number of Latinos enrolling in the HBCUs increased. The enrollment of Asians also increased by 60% starting from 2001 until date. In the HBCUs, the number of female undergraduate outnumbered male undergraduate by 3%. However, some HBCUs have female undergraduate as high as 76%.

Similar to other higher educational institutions in the country, the HBCUs also plays a crucial role in making their students participating in the globalized world. Typically, these institutions offer the opportunities of studying abroad for their students especially students studying the foreign languages minors and majors. In essence, the study abroad program assists students to diversify their learning. The program also deepens students' cultural understanding. While 50% of the HBCUs offer study abroad programs, unfortunately, Black students and low-income students who take the advantages of the program is significant lower compared to the White students, who belong to the upper class families. In essence, the results are rather disturbing since HBCUs' study abroad program is designed to increase the Black student participations. However, financing is the best option to improve the Black students' participation in the program.

Critique

Despite the focus of the HBCUs for the Black students, the number of Black students graduating is only 30%. This is a disturbing statistics because the percentages of Black students graduating from HBCUs are very low. The major factor leading to this problem is that majority of the Black students are from lower income families. Moreover, many of them rely on Pell-Grant. The shortcoming of the article is that it does not provide an effective strategy to stop dropout rate of the Black students. Although, the article suggests that the fundraising should be an effective method of achieve sustainability of the universities, nevertheless, the fundraising is not enough, the article does not discuss the method the HBCU's should employ to achieve high level of academic excellence in order to attract grants and funding from private and public organizations.