October 25, 2012 — Preserving an important industry like fishing while also developing strategies for protecting our natural resources represents the ultimate reflection of Congressman Morrill's vision for a public university — and the mission of the University of Massachusetts.
It was 150 years ago this year that President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act, the landmark legislation that led to the creation of most of our top public universities and to the birth of the University of Massachusetts only a year later.
The Morrill Act, signed during the darkest days of the Civil War, opened the door to higher education for all in this country, directing us permanently away from a system where only those with great means could follow their dream to higher education.
The goal of Congressman Justin Morrill's bill was to create a national system of public colleges that would transform individual lives and also make our communities, our states and our nation smarter and more competitive. The bill was about innovation, impact and change. A year later, it led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Agriculture College, the academic seed that has grown into the five-campus University of Massachusetts system.
All of that — the noble goal of the bill, the hopes its supporters must surely have harbored — came back to me this month as I traveled the state on a 500-mile bus tour to see exactly what that landmark bill had accomplished in a century-and-a-half. It is no stretch at all to say that what Congressman Morrill started led directly to the innovations I saw at the UMass Cranberry Research Station in Wareham, at the UMass Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford and, most strikingly, in a packed auditorium in Dartmouth where nearly 300 students put Morrill's vision for full-participation democracy into action as they watched and dissected a presidential debate.
The century-old University of Massachusetts Cranberry Research Station has been a key to keeping Massachusetts' most important agricultural crop competitive and profitable — a source of jobs and revenues for thousands of people in the southeastern part of the state. Senate President Therese Murray, UMass Chairman Henry M. Thomas III and I saw firsthand the work being done by entomologists, hydrologists and botanists. The Research Station has done exactly what Morrill envisioned: It has worked tirelessly on innovations to grow more crops, preserve water, fight disease, create a valuable food source and help ensure the industry remains a vital source of quality jobs.
While the cranberry is at the heart of Massachusetts agriculture, fishing is tied to the very soul of the state. Where else but in Massachusetts would a carved codfish hang from the ceiling of the Statehouse?
At SMAST, UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Divina Grossman, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell and I met with the men and women at the forefront of one of the most important research projects in the country right now, as they work to preserve an industry threatened by declining fish stocks and a changing ocean. Research is being done in several key areas, including ocean physics, fisheries science and management, and fish stock assessment — and the work and advancements in these areas is being watched nationally for the simple reason that it will greatly impact the future direction of the fishing industry.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times