Settler Simultaneity and Anti-Indigenous Racism at Land-Grant Universities

Moments of performative racial consciousness, however urgent and necessary, often fail to reckon with long-standing demands against injustice from communities of color. In the case of Indigenous Peoples in higher education, these demands frequently include an end to derogatory mascots and racialized campus violence. This article attends to those issues by merging and extending settler-colonial theory and racialized organization theory to examine how the logics of Indigenous elimination and dispossession permeate higher education. With a specific focus on land-grant universities, I argue that racialized organizations are embedded in institutional fields and that both operate within a broader settler-colonial project. I introduce the concept of settler simultaneity to further historicize the study of racialized organizations and uncover how they target persons, collectives, and ideas that pose obstacles to settler goals of subordination, extraction, and profiteering both locally and globally. I look to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a case study that illustrates how these logics work across time and conclude by considering how critical engagement with the logics of elimination can help us to better understand, and hold accountable, the policies and programs of racialized organizations in other areas of social life.

Starts and Stops: Strategizing an Age-Friendly University Commitment During a Pandemic

The Global Network of Age-Friendly Universities seeks to enhance age-inclusivity and engagement in higher education, but delivering age-friendly programming became very challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine how two land-grant universities adapted to the pandemic and draw some lessons from those experiences that may be useful for other universities seeking to implement or resume the AFU programming. The two main responses were to either pause many of the age-friendly initiatives at the university or adapt to virtual or online delivery platforms. To ensure the health and safety of older adults, colleges and universities paused many age-friendly initiatives such as intergenerational service-learning, technological assistance to older adults, and influenza vaccinations. Other programs continued but in a modified delivery format. Examples include: converting a face-to-face balance-training program to telehealth delivery; transitioning visitation programs to pen pal communication; and replacing face-to-face workshops offered by Extension Services with webinar delivery. Despite these challenges, we conclude that moving to virtual platforms and other methods of delivery, including conventional mail, has in some cases increased access for many older adults and became a lifeline during a time of social isolation for many older adults. Taken together, these experiences highlight the need for age-friendly universities to have contingency plans to ensure continuation of age-friendly programming in the event of pandemics or disasters. Finally, the pause in programming creates opportunities to re-launch or re-organize those initiatives in accord with federal and state safety guidelines.

The enduring pursuit of public science at U.S. land-grant universities

Since the 1990s, universities have faced a push toward output commercialization that has been seen as a potential threat to the public science model. Much less attention has been given to the enduring nature of internal organizational features in academia and how they shape the pursuit of traditional scholarly activities. This article exploits four waves of representative, random-sample survey evidence from agricultural and life science faculty at the 52 major U.S. land-grant universities, spanning 1989-2015, to examine faculty attitudes/preferences, tenure and promotion criteria, output, and funding sources. Our findings demonstrate that faculty attitudes toward scientific research have remained remarkably stable over twenty-five years in strongly favoring intrinsic and public science goals over commercial or extrinsic goals. We also demonstrate the faculty’s positive attitudes toward science, an increased pressure to publish in top journals and secure increasingly competitive grants, as well as declining time for science. These trends suggest a reconsideration of university commercialization strategies and a recommitment of universities and their state and federal funders toward fostering public agricultural and life science research.

Exploring Rural Engineering Students’ College-Choice Process at Two Land-Grant Universities

This qualitative case study examines the college choice decisions of rural students enrolled in engineering majors to understand what conditions and experiences led rural students to pursue engineering at their institution. We found four themes that help illuminate rural engineering students’ college choice journeys (1) The Inextricable Nature of College, Major, and Career Choice (2) “The Smart Person Thing to Do:” The Power of Prestige, (3) “Are You Sure You Don’t Want to Change your Major?” Dissonance Between Aspirations and Expectations, and (4) School and Community as Crucial Resources in College and Major Exploration. These findings have implications for those working with rural high school students seeking engineering degrees and admissions processes at four-year colleges and universities.

Everything Is Faster: How Do Land-Grant University–Based Plant Diagnostic Laboratories Keep Up with a Rapidly Changing World?

Plant diagnostic laboratories (PDLs) are at the heart of land-grant universities (LGUs) and their extension mission to connect citizens with research-based information. Although research and technological advances have led to many modern methods and technologies in plant pathology diagnostics, the pace of adopting those methods into services at PDLs has many complexities we aim to explore in this review. We seek to identify current challenges in plant disease diagnostics, as well as diagnosticians' and administrators'perceptions of PDLs' many roles. Surveys of diagnosticians and administrators were conducted to understand the current climate on these topics. We hope this article reaches researchers developing diagnostic methods with modern and new technologies to foster a better understanding of PDL diagnosticians’ perspective on method implementation. Ultimately, increasing researchers’ awareness of the factors influencing method adoption by PDLs encourages support, collaboration, and partnerships to advance plant diagnostics.

Whose Journey to Self-Reliance? Participation in the Journey to Self-Reliance and the Land-Grant Imaginary

Land-grant university and civil society development actors have long partnered with local and global communities to eliminate food insecurity. Despite the common aim of addressing food insecurity as a wicked problem, their approaches and designs differ in scope and scale. Similarly, levels of local stakeholder participation in agricultural development historically vary reflecting the complexity in relinquishing hierarchal decision-making power. In this pilot study, we investigated how participation is framed within the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) policy, “The Journey to Self-Reliance”. Subsequently, we sought to understand the implications of this framing on land-grant universities’ agricultural development aims in addressing global food security. We drew upon Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis and Pretty’s typology of participation in sustainable agriculture to analyze the inaugural speech launching the policy framework by the former USAID administrator. We also held two focus groups with development actors at two land-grant universities. Findings indicate local participation of governments, citizens, and civil society to be important. However, governmental participation may be contingent on accountability to both USAID and the private sector indicating an increased commitment to neoliberal ideology. The focus group themes identify self- reliance and its journey as prescriptive and at times, neocolonial, raising questions about participatory possibilities. The final theme illustrates land-grant praxis from participants as they advance visions for centering local partner needs through more equitable decision-making and resource sharing. We conclude with considerations for future research to more deeply understand the implications of “The Journey to Self-Reliance” policy through a CDA lens Keywords: Agro-ecology, Extension, Theory and Practice, Qualitative Research, Community Development

The Utilization of User Fees to Subsidize Greenhouse and Growth Chamber Facilities at Public and Land Grant Universities

Greenhouse and growth chamber operating and maintenance costs continue to escalate while budgets remain stagnant. As a result, many universities struggle to find the necessary funds for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of basic research infrastructure needs. A survey was conducted to develop an understanding of how user fee systems contribute to funding stability, and how they are designed and managed in support of greenhouse and growth chamber facilities at colleges of agriculture throughout the United States. Where user fees have been implemented, the majority of greenhouse and growth chamber facilities are managed centrally, and are administered by agricultural experiment station (AES) directors or facility managers. Regardless of the administrative authority, most systems use an advisory committee to set fee schedules and determine policies. The majority of user fees are allocated back to the specific facility, with the majority of funds in general used to help pay for indirect expenses. The findings also indicate that user fees make more efficient use of space by providing faculty with a financial incentive to minimize their project area and to conduct experiments quickly.

AAU APLU Guide to Accelerate Public Access to Research Data

The Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) have collaborated and led national discussions to improve public access to data resulting from federally funded research. As part of the NSF-funded (NSF # 1939279) Accelerating Public Access to Research Data Initiative, AAU and APLU convened representatives from the university teams at an Acceleration Conference in 2020 and facilitated two national Summits to help universities create robust systems for ensuring effective public access to high-quality research data and develop the current Guide. The Guide has been informed by 261 campus representatives from 111 institutions, representatives from several federal agencies, and other key stakeholders. The Guide is designed to help institutions develop and promote systems to support sharing of research data. It provides advice concerning actions that can be taken to improve access to research data on campuses. It also contains information about the infrastructure and support that may be required to facilitate data access, and it offers specific examples of how various institutions are approaching challenges to sharing research data and results.