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The University of Minnesota has run off the rails again. Some legislators complain that the president was poor at communicating reasons for supporting the U. That complaint alone reveals how difficult it is for Minnesotans to see and feel how the university helps Minnesota flourish.
History illuminates.
In 1851, seven years before becoming a state, Minnesota Territory created the U to provide Minnesotans with a thorough knowledge of "Literature, Science and the Arts." That wasn't convincing. In 1854, the debt-ridden U closed its one building.
In 1857, South Carolina's former governor, William Aiken, visited the popular tourist spot, St. Anthony Falls. When he saw the U, he saved it with a huge gift of cash that came from his plantation of 900 slaves.
In 1863, flour baron John Pillsbury joined the Board of Regents, made a huge donation and led a commission to put the U on a sound footing.
In 1867, the U became a "land grant" university under President Abraham Lincoln's program. The mission of land grant universities was to teach agriculture, science, engineering and other fields to enable states to flourish through the economic and social changes of America's industrial revolution. The university was not envisioned as a trade school but was intended to provide Minnesota and Minnesotans with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world. In the fractured country after the Civil War and the fractured world after World War I, the U also helped Minnesotans understand complex tragic and heroic truths about our culture, our nation and our experience in the broader world. That is not indoctrination; it is education to enable citizens to build from a broken society to a better future.
