Senate Resolution 127 - Introduced
PAG LIN
S.R. ________ H.R. ________
1 1 SENATE RESOLUTION NO.
1 2 BY QUIRMBACH
1 3 A Resolution congratulating Iowa State University of
1 4 Science and Technology for 150 years of leadership
1 5 and service to the State of Iowa, the United States,
1 6 and the world as Iowa's land=grant university.
1 7 WHEREAS, Iowa's seventh General Assembly adopted a
1 8 charter on March 22, 1858, predating the passage of
1 9 the federal Morrill Act by four years, to create the
1 10 "people's college" and thereby establish the Iowa
1 11 Agricultural College and Model Farm in response to the
1 12 State of Iowa's desire to provide higher education
1 13 opportunities to farm families and working classes in
1 14 Iowa; and
1 15 WHEREAS, on September 11, 1862, Iowa became the
1 16 first state in the United States to accept the terms
1 17 and conditions of the Morrill Act creating the
1 18 land=grant system of colleges and universities; and
1 19 WHEREAS, the Iowa Agricultural College and Model
1 20 Farm, known today as Iowa State University of Science
1 21 and Technology, received Iowa's land=grant charter on
1 22 March 29, 1864, making it one of the first land=grant
1 23 institutions in the United States; and
1 24 WHEREAS, Iowa State University was a pioneer in all
1 25 three parts of the land grant mission, including the
1 26 following:
1 27 1. Allowing access to all, regardless of race,
1 28 gender, or social class by being the first land=grant
1 29 institution to be coeducational from its opening, with
1 30 the first term enrollment including 16 women and the
2 1 first graduating class in 1872 including 2 women among
2 2 the 24 graduates, with future suffragist Carrie
2 3 Chapman Catt being an 1880 graduate, and with George
2 4 Washington Carver being the first African=American
2 5 student, earning a bachelor's degree in 1894 and a
2 6 master's degree in 1896, and being the institution's
2 7 first African=American faculty member; and
2 8 2. Performing practical research by establishing
2 9 the United States' first Engineering Experiment
2 10 Station and domestic economy experimental kitchen and
2 11 one of the first agriculture experiment stations; and
2 12 3. Offering outreach services to the general
2 13 public by organizing the Farmers' Institutes in the
2 14 winter of 1869=1870 through the efforts of Iowa State
2 15 University's first president Adonijah Welch and
2 16 agriculture professor Isaac Roberts and by initiating
2 17 many programs that became models for national
2 18 extension programs including the Boys' Corn Club that
2 19 evolved into 4=H and the nation's first county
2 20 extension plan and county cooperative experimental
2 21 farm in 1903 in Sioux County in northwest Iowa through
2 22 the efforts of Professor Perry Holden; and
2 23 WHEREAS, some of the most important technological
2 24 advancements of the modern world were the result of
2 25 research at Iowa State University, including the
2 26 following:
2 27 1. Developing hybrid seed corn in the 1920s;
2 28 2. Pioneering soybean oil extraction and producing
2 29 ethanol from corn and other plant materials by
2 30 Professor Orland Sweeney in the 1930s; and
3 1 3. Inventing the electronic digital computer in
3 2 the late 1930s by Professor John Atanasoff and
3 3 graduate student Clifford Berry, whose Atanasoff=Berry
3 4 Computer was the first to incorporate the seven basic
3 5 principles of modern computing; and
3 6 4. Laying the foundation for the modern plastics
3 7 industry through polyethylene research by Professor
3 8 Henry Gilman; and
3 9 5. Developing the process still used today to
3 10 refine pure rare=earth materials, including
3 11 reactor=grade uranium, by Professor Frank Spedding and
3 12 Harley Wilhelm, as a result of Iowa State University's
3 13 key role in the Manhattan Project in World War II; and
3 14 6. Developing modern livestock breeding and animal
3 15 genetics by Professor Jay Lush; and
3 16 7. Inventing the round hay baler in the 1960s by
3 17 agricultural engineering professor Wesely Buchele and
3 18 a group of student researchers, and the first
3 19 field=testing of a genetically altered woody plant
3 20 (poplar) in 1989 by Professor Robert Thornburg; and
3 21 WHEREAS, Iowa State University hired the first
3 22 artist=in=residence, sculptor Christian Petersen, who
3 23 held the position from 1934 to 1955 and provided
3 24 hundreds of sculptures and other art objects to the
3 25 university, expanding Iowa State University's Art on
3 26 Campus collection today to more than 600 major public
3 27 works of art, thereby making it the largest public
3 28 campus art collection in the nation; and
3 29 WHEREAS, Iowa State University, which has had a
3 30 technology transfer office since 1935, longer than all
4 1 but one other university in the United States, was
4 2 officially renamed Iowa State University of Science
4 3 and Technology in 1959, with the resulting focus on
4 4 technology leading to many research patents and
4 5 inventions, to acknowledgment of the institution today
4 6 as a leader in putting technology to work, and to
4 7 being cited as a "model of economic development" and
4 8 "licensing powerhouse" in a 2007 study commissioned by
4 9 the National Science Foundation; and
4 10 WHEREAS, Iowa State University is today
4 11 spearheading new advances in science and technology,
4 12 including new materials, information sciences, green
4 13 architecture, biological research, and the development
4 14 of biorenewable fuels and other resources to support
4 15 the bioeconomy and the nation's independence from
4 16 nonrenewable petroleum resources; and
4 17 WHEREAS, Iowa State University students hail from
4 18 every state and more than 100 other nations, and Iowa
4 19 State University in its 150 years has awarded more
4 20 than 257,000 degrees and includes among its graduates
4 21 heads of state, leaders of industry, great
4 22 humanitarians, and gifted scientists, whose work has
4 23 improved the quality of life and environment of people
4 24 worldwide; NOW THEREFORE,
4 25 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE, That the Senate
4 26 congratulates Iowa State University of Science and
4 27 Technology for 150 years of outstanding service to the
4 28 State of Iowa, the United States, and the world in
4 29 fulfilling its mission as a land=grant university and
4 30 for its visionary leadership in beginning the
5 1 land=grant movement in the United States.
5 2 LSB 6625SS 82
5 3 pf/rj/8.2