Iowa State University of Science and Technology was founded in 1858 under the Morrill Act. The Morrill Act was a bill first proposed in 1857 with the intention of creating colleges to teach practical skills, science, agriculture, and engineering.

Then-Rep. Justin Smith Morrill wrote the bill “on the idea that a higher and broader education should be placed in every state within reach of those who may choose industrial vocations where the wealth of nations is produced.”

Rep. Morrill wanted to open the door to a liberal education and create a place where life may be taught. Charles E. Friley said the Morrill Act brought “into existence a new philosophy of education, national in scope, progressive in outlook, and peculiarly applicable.”

If you spend a few hours in the special collections of Parks Library, you’ll gain a relatively accurate image of the young Iowa State University. In 1904 the entrance requirements demanded proficiency “in a well balanced liberal background” including geometry, arithmetic, United States history, human psychology, algebra, orthography, and reading and grammar.

Specifically, you’d have to know the eight parts of speech, the declension of nouns, analysis of modern prose and possess an understanding of advanced rhetoric. These are basic elements of English which we used to learn in high school. However, many college students today can’t pass these requirements.

If you can’t write an example of an object complement, an attribute complement, a participial phrase or an adverbial clause, you may have been rejected by Iowa State, and there are still more entrance requirements.

After accomplishing those, you’d still have to manage a discussable level of knowledge in rhetoric, including definitions and distinctions of advanced vocabulary. In 1904 you were required to understand periodic sentences, along with knowledge in the history of the Reformation, Middle and Modern ages, and the history of Western Europe.

As a fourth-year student majoring in history, I’m embarrassed with how little history I actually know. Few engineers or agronomists are fortunate enough to benefit from 27 credit hours of historical studies. What does it mean for our liberal education when, as a history major, I haven’t learned the basics about U.S. history?

I am also a student writer, but I couldn’t classify an adjective clause from an object complement. I had to look up elocution and orthography in a dictionary. After four years in writing-intensive majors, I have done more papers than most students, and yet I have no theoretical or practical knowledge of rhetoric. Despite writing I am still weak in composition and English grammar.

I can’t complete the entrance exam from 1904, and that means that we at Iowa State have a problem.

I may not be as familiar with agriculture or the other departments like I am with my own, but I know that in 1904 the Agriculture College’s mission statement was, “to teach the sciences that underline practical agriculture and sufficient English, Literature, Mathematics, History, and other supplementary studies … to develop the agriculture students into the intellectual and the educated in any profession.”

I also know that in 1904, first-year students had to take a full year of mathematics, English, history and elocution. Your second year, you had nine classes, which included military science, French or German, advanced rhetoric and history.

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ current mission statement names three points.  The first is to “discover and share science-based knowledge for the development of socially beneficial, economically successful and environmentally sound systems for food and other renewable resources.”

The second is to “engage communities for enhancing the quality of life.” And the third is to “prepare students to become future leaders in agriculture and society.” Within the new statement I don’t see the intellectual development of students. I see some business, agriculture and economics, but I don’t see much general education for the benefit of humanity.

Former ISU President James Hilton said, “Science with practice for service of mankind will be just as relevant, just as worthy for Iowa State in 2005 as it was in 1905.” In order to accomplish this, Earle Ross noted that economics, government and communication were a must, essential in every line of endeavor.

In 2010, the Blue Sky initiative suggested condensing eleven departments, recommending “that all departments and programs be thematically clustered together under new departmental structures.”

The agenda was dropped, but the movement holds a prediction for Iowa State’s future. If we want to keep pursuing education for the betterment of humanity, we need the humanities and social sciences.

I struggled through the 1904 entrance exam, and I’m not alone. I know many students who can’t name the dates of the American Revolution, the basic patterns along the periodic table or discuss their favorite literature, regardless of their major. Theirs is not a college education.

The Morrill Act was designed to bring liberal education to the citizens of this state. It was critical to create intelligent, well-rounded citizens for society, but as time went on, we developed into a private trade school. We need to protect liberal education and the foundations of the Morrill Act, or we’ll be nothing but well-trained technical idiots.