On July 2, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed Justin Morrill's second agriculture-school bill into law. Along with another measure he championed, in 1890, it created a system of land-grant colleges that rooted agriculture firmly in university research and helped democratize American higher education, creating institutions not for the sons and daughters…

A record number of people are depending on federally financed food assistance. Food-stamp use increased from an average monthly caseload of 17 million in 2000 to 44 million people in 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Web site. Last year, one in six people--almost 50 million Americans, or 15 percent of the population--received…

Pests, population growth, and depleted soil have wreaked havoc on agriculture in Africa, so universities across the continent are rethinking how they teach the topic. Some African universities have been building their own networks and pooling their limited resources to train more agricultural scientists and improve their responsiveness to the…

Many college leaders are coming to understand that, in a global economy, they need to produce graduates and develop faculty members with strong international skills. The recognition has led them to take new, more deliberate approaches to work abroad. In the past, individual faculty members have had connections with colleagues overseas, but those…

With many professors approaching retirement. a shortage of qualified academics has reached crisis proportions at a number of African universities. The shortfall is a consequence of decades of neglect of African higher education, as donors and governments concentrated limited resources on primary and secondary schools, and young scholars who manage…

Nationally, students have pushed hard for local-food programs, and the amount of local produce in the dining hall is sometimes used as a litmus test for a college's overall commitment to sustainability. Local food has been a hot topic in popular culture in recent years, thanks in part to books by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver, movies like…

As the Obama administration takes office, educators involved in development work abroad look to the future with hope. Although the economic downturn may constrain the new president's ability to make financial commitments abroad, Barack Obama has said he wants to double the amount of foreign assistance provided by the United States to fight poverty…

Election results are reported for members of Senate committees and subcommittees (Human Resources; Appropriations; Agriculture; Budget; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Finance; and Veterans' Affairs), and House committees/subcommittees (Education and Labor; Appropriations; Agriculture; Budget; Energy and Commerce; Science and Technology;…

This article reports on new programs that focus on training skilled scientists and mathematicians who will help solve Africa's myriad problems. The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, in Cape Town, South Africa, offers one of the first working examples of a growing effort to develop a cadre of highly trained, practically minded scientists…

A federal court decision overturning federal regulations requiring research institutions to present plans for care and use of laboratory animals has renewed debate over laboratory animal welfare. University scientists fear new, stricter Department of Agriculture regulations will result. (MSE)

Fiscal 1986 and fiscal 1987 federal budget allocations for Department of Education programs, arts and humanities, the Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Energy, and Health and Human Services, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other miscellaneous agencies are tabulated. (MSE)

Increasingly, institutions are seeking money directly from Congress for new research facilities and other science projects, stirring criticism of "pork-barrel science" and special advantages given to land-grant colleges. (MSE)

As of August 14, 1991, the Agriculture Department will require institutions to have written plans for providing exercise for laboratory dogs and for improving the psychological well-being of nonhuman primates. The plans will dictate the way universities approach animal research. However, the costs and requirements of universities are still…

Over the last two years, University of Georgia students and faculty members have worked with community leaders in Sandersville and surrounding Washington County to tackle some of the area's most pressing problems, among them, reversing a doctor shortage and improving air quality to meet federal standards. Their work is part of an effort, now in…

Of all animal-rights issues, medical research is perhaps the thorniest. The human use of animals--for companionship, entertainment, food, clothing--always assumes a hierarchy, one that puts humans at the top or the center of either the evolutionary order, God's creation, or the food chain. Although most people can come to terms with the use of…