Corporate America may be changing the focus of land-grant universities.

Approximately 70 percent of research at Iowa State is funded by business-sponsored awards, causing some to question its future as a land-grant university.

The original purpose of land- grant universities was threefold: to promote teaching, research and extension. Now, some individuals are wondering if that purpose has changed to promoting only business interests.

‘People’s university’

Neil Harl, retired distinguished professor of economics in agriculture who is working part-time as a liaison of economics in agriculture, said he fears university-wide emphasis on research results in less attention to the other facets of land-grant universities.

“The land-grant idea was to open institutions of higher education to the sons and daughters of shopkeepers, artisans and farmers,” Harl said. “Land-grants were often known as the ‘people’s university.'”

Harl said increases in tuition make it challenging to keep land-grant education available for middle-class families.

Since 2001, state appropriations have decreased by more than $60 million, according to the February 2004 President’s Council Report.

During that time, business-sponsored funding has increased by nearly $13 million, according to the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, and more than half of these funds are designated for research.

Outside funding compensates for research, and tuition compensates for teaching; yet no funds offset the cut to extension, Harl said.

“The main constituencies may not get served,” Harl said. “As a result, [land-grant universities] may lose more funding. Land-grants have become more like private universities.”

Harl said there was a time when Iowa State was more successful than the University of Iowa, which is not a land-grant university, in working with state government, because its strong extension units gave Iowa State statewide support.

“[Former ISU President James H.] Hilton could run circles around [former University of Iowa President Virgil] Hancher in the Legislature,” he said.

Profit motive

Harl said because of outside funding, universities are less often held to the “golden standard of objective insight” of public funding. Instead, they are accountable to private companies with profit-seeking motives.

Industry-sponsored research has a short-term payoff instead of the long-term agenda of earlier research, Harl said.

Provost Ben Allen said he agrees industry-sponsored research has changed the university’s focus.

“More research is directed,” Allen said, “as opposed to academic freedom in teaching and learning.”

The consequences may be more severe than a change of direction.

Max Porter, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, spent more than 15 years on research sponsored by Composite Technologies, a Boone-based company. The relationship was terminated when the sponsoring firm “changed conclusions of the research, retyped content of the report and put our cover page on it,” Porter said.

Porter has completed many successful research projects for Composite Technologies, but when it did not like the results of a project analyzing panel wall construction, it changed the written results.

“We tried to change the report four times to satisfy them and stayed up all night three times, but we couldn’t change facts,” Porter said. “We couldn’t change the data.”

Porter was never able to publish the report, which he said was “catastrophic for his career,” as researchers are credited for their work through publications.

Porter was not the only one affected. One of his doctoral students was not able to complete his dissertation because of the company’s alterations, he said.

With more private funding and emphasis on research, focus on the classroom may be more difficult as well. Many universities have directed their attention to research, which garners attention for the university from outside peers, Allen said. Because national rankings are based mainly on research, it becomes a natural focus for land-grant universities vying to be the best.

Harl said peer teaching evaluations should be as important as research evaluation.

“In my 40 years of teaching, no peer has ever stepped into my classroom,” he said.

Allen recognized Richard Seagrave, distinguished professor of chemical engineering, as a leader in combining his research and teaching efforts.

“In a field like chemical engineering, research is not optional. It’s necessary,” Seagrave said.

Seagrave agrees that his research is necessary and has helped him present material from a new approach.

Though research is beneficial, he said, its future as part of the land-grant mission is uncertain.

“Are we working on stuff important to Iowa and the U.S., to benefit the whole world?” Seagrave said. “Or are we trying to help some part of an agency fulfill its mission?”

This correction was printed on April 22, 2004:

Due to an editing error, the April 21 article “Research impacts land-grant mission” inaccurately characterized the sources of funding for ISU research. The funds should have been described as “sponsored,” not “business-sponsored.” The Daily regrets the error.