Dr. James Willis, retired professor of history and political science at Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, discusses the founding of the agricultural institutions that would one day blossom into Arkansas Tech, Arkansas State University, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and SAU in the current issue of Arkansas Historical Quarterly.
His article is “The Farmers Schools of 1909: Origins of Arkansas’s Four Regional Universities.”
As Arkansas entered the 20th century, agricultural leaders believed that rural youth be education in modern farming techniques. Willis explains “the state joined the front ranks of progressive reform” in creating institutions that were models for other southern states. He credits the Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative Union for laying the groundwork for the universities as they exist today.
The Farmers’ Union’s persistent demands and tough lobbying prodded the legislature to distribute schools throughout the state in each of four districts. The union triumphed over influential opponents who wanted to limit the number of farmers schools and attach them to existing colleges.
Arkansas funded the new agricultural schools more generously than almost any other state that set up similar institutions in these years. The state’s large investment in classroom buildings and dormitories ultimately allowed the schools to transform themselves into comprehensive four-year institutions serving Arkansans in all walks of life.
Willis is writing a centennial history of SAU.
The Arkansas Historical Quarterly is the journal of the Arkansas Historical Association.
