[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 475 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 475

 Congratulating Iowa State University of Science and Technology on its 
150 years of leadership and service to the United States and the world 
                    as Iowa's land-grant university.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 6, 2008

   Mr. Harkin (for himself and Mr. Grassley) submitted the following 
             resolution; which was considered and agreed to

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Congratulating Iowa State University of Science and Technology on its 
150 years of leadership and service to the United States and the world 
                    as Iowa's land-grant university.

Whereas Iowa State University of Science and Technology was established by the 
        Iowa General Assembly on March 22, 1858, as the Iowa Agricultural 
        College and Model Farm in response to the State of Iowa's desire to 
        provide higher education opportunities to farm families and working 
        classes in Iowa, predating the passage of the Federal Morrill Act by 4 
        years;
Whereas on September 3, 1862, Iowa became the first State in the Nation to 
        accept the terms and conditions of the Morrill Act creating the land-
        grant system of colleges and universities;
Whereas the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, known today as Iowa State 
        University of Science and Technology (Iowa State), received Iowa's land-
        grant charter on March 29, 1864, making it one of the first land-grant 
        institutions in the Nation;
Whereas Iowa State was a pioneer in all 3 parts of the land-grant mission, 
        including--(1) access to all, regardless of race, gender or social 
        class, being the first land-grant institution to be coeducational from 
        its opening, with 16 women in its first class and later students 
        including future suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, an 1880 graduate, and 
        George Washington Carver, the first African American student, who earned 
        a bachelor's degree in 1894 and a master's degree in 1896, and was also 
        the institution's first African American faculty member; (2) practical 
        research, establishing the Nation's first Engineering Experiment Station 
        and domestic economy experimental kitchen, and one of the first 
        agriculture experiment stations; and (3) outreach, including some of the 
        earliest land-grant institution outreach activities such as the 
        establishment of the Farmers Institutes in the winter of 1869-70 by Iowa 
        State President Adonijah Welch, and the organization of the Nation's 
        first county Extension Service in 1903 in Sioux County in northwest Iowa 
        by Professor Perry Holden;
Whereas some of the most important technological advancements of the modern 
        world were the result of research at Iowa State, including--(1) the 
        development of hybrid seed corn in the 1920s; (2) pioneering work on 
        soybean oil extraction and producing ethanol from corn and other plant 
        materials by Professor Orland Sweeney in the 1930s; (3) the invention of 
        the electronic digital computer in the late 1930s by Professor John 
        Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry, whose Atanasoff-Berry 
        Computer was the first to incorporate the 7 basic principles of modern 
        computing; (4) the foundation for the modern plastics industry laid by 
        polyethylene research by Professor Henry Gilman; (5) development of the 
        process still used today to refine pure rare-earth materials, including 
        reactor-grade uranium, by Professor Frank Spedding and Harley Wilhelm, 
        as a result of Iowa State's key role in the Manhattan Project during 
        World War II; (6) development of modern livestock animal genetics by 
        Professor Jay Lush; and (7) the first field-testing of a genetically 
        altered plant (tobacco) in 1987 and genetically altered tree (poplar) in 
        1989 by Professor Robert Thornburg;
Whereas Iowa State hired one of the first permanent campus artists-in-residence, 
        with sculptor Christian Petersen holding that position from 1934 to 1955 
        and providing hundreds of sculptures and other art objects to the 
        university, whose Art on Campus collection today includes more than 600 
        major public works of art;
Whereas Iowa State has had a technology transfer office since 1935, longer than 
        all but one other university in the Nation, and is acknowledged today as 
        a national leader in putting technology to work, being cited as a 
        ``model of economic development'' and ``licensing powerhouse'' in a 2007 
        study commissioned by the National Science Foundation;
Whereas Iowa State University is today spearheading new advances in science and 
        technology, including new materials, information sciences, green 
        architecture, biological research, and the development of biorenewable 
        fuels and other resources to support the bioeconomy and the Nation's 
        independence from nonrenewable petroleum resources; and
Whereas more than 257,000 degrees have been awarded by Iowa State, and its 
        graduates include heads of State, leaders of industry, great 
        humanitarians, and gifted scientists, whose work has improved the 
        quality of life for people worldwide: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) congratulates Iowa State University of Science and 
        Technology on its 150 years of outstanding service to the State 
        of Iowa, the United States, and the world in fulfilling its 
        mission as a land-grant university; and
            (2) thanks the State of Iowa for its visionary leadership 
        in the beginning of the land-grant movement in the United 
        States of America.
                                 <all>