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Land-Grant Universities for the Future: Higher Education for the Public Good by Stephen M. Gavazzi and E. Gordon Gee Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. 216 pp. $34.95 (cloth).
At a time when the value of a degree in higher education is being challenged and the role that universities play in promoting an equitable society is being questioned, Stephen M. Gavazzi and E. Gordon Gee make an argument about the "covenant" that exists between public and land-grant universities and the ways it can shed light on how land-grant universities can strengthen themselves and better serve their communities. While the authors cite a number of sources that provide historical accounts of land-grant universities, from their legislative founding to how these institutions have evolved (e.g., Sorber 8c Geiger, 2014), Gavazzi and Gee spend less time defining the covenant from a historical or legislative perspective and instead borrow from Robert Greenleaf's (2002) concept of servant leadership to clarify how "a bilateral bond that exists between land-grant institutions and the communities they were designed to serve" (p. 36) can be used by land-grant institutions to focus their academic efforts to benefit their respective communities.
Gavazzi, professor of human development and family science, and Gee, president of West Virginia University, construct a vision for the role of landgrant universities built around strong "campus-community" relationships. This vision is supported in part by compelling personal narratives and by an analysis of their interviews with twenty-seven presidents and chancellors from the nation's land-grant universities, which were established in 1862 with the first of two Morrill Acts. The authors provide a synthesis of the interviews, with illustrative quotes, to substantiate the main themes that form the basis of their recommendations for administrators, faculty, and students for fostering the commitment land-grant institutions have to a range of constituents in the communities they serve. Among many actionable recommendations for both administrators and faculty that emerge from the analysis of the interview data, the most noteworthy is the inclusion of a full syllabus for those interested in offering a course that centers land-grant universities in the US higher education system.
First, Gavazzi and Gee motivate their argument about land-grant universities and the public good through their own land-grant narratives. Their compelling personal accounts are a platform to...