JUSTIN MORRILL COLLEGE: LEGACY

Funny... I don't feel dead!

If you've forgotten JMC - You weren't there!

1965

1979

An academy for wandering minstrels

Equipping lifelong learners to pursue personal and professional interests in art, activism, law, education, business, medicine, international affairs, social services, science, management, media, and more.

* Michigan State University's first, most experimental, and most innovative residential college *

JUSTIN MORRILL COLLEGE'S LEGACY

Programmatic Legacy
MSU programs which continue the themes of JMC
Personal Legacies
(Evolving...) Collection of personal reflections on JMC's significance.

This Webpage is the entry point for exploring the derivative effects and outcomes of Justin Morrill College.
This is intended to be distinct from 'Evidence' (objective traces of what was and what happened back then) and 'Group Memory' (JMC veterans' subjective traces of what was and what happened back then).
In other words, this 'Legacy' category concerns what came in the wake of JMC and our JMC experiences, not JMC and JMC experiences per se.

If anyone has additional 'legacy' contributions on JMC, its operations, its history, or its outcomes, please Contact the Editor.

PROGRAMMATIC LEGACY

Some of the themes prominent in the JMC concept persist in MSU programs to this day. Reading program descriptions for current programs often leaves one with the impression that multiple university initiatives continue to pursue the ideals around which Justin Morrill College was structured. Even though it's unreasonable to claim these more recent efforts are some direct descendant of JMC, it is still comforting to know that at least some of our late college's characteristics and goals are still considered worthwhile.

MSU Service Learning Center

"Established by the MSU Board of Trustees in 1967 as the Office of Volunteer Programs, the Office was renamed the Service-Learning Center in 1987 to reflect the integration of active learning through career and civic development.
The Mission of the Service-Learning Center (SLC) is to inform and prepare students for career and civic involvement through community service."

The Morrill Scholars Program (MSP)

The Morrill Scholars Program is a new program recently proposed (late 1998) for implementation in the MSU College of Arts and Letters. The following description of the program's intent sounds 'very JMC':

"This is a proposal for an interdisciplinary undergraduate specialization, open to all students with a major in the College of Arts and Letters. Inspired by the Bailey Scholars Program in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, M(A)SP will enable students with a primary interest in the liberal arts and a commitment to democratic community and public service to work cooperatively with faculty, staff, alumni/ae, and members of the wider community in a learning-centered environment where the study of the humanities and the Land Grant Mission of the University are explicitly joined. The curriculum will consist of 18-21 credits, including four sequenced courses starting with a proseminar and culminating in a senior capstone experience. With their faculty advisors, students will construct an individualized learning plan based upon a personal and professional mission statement, to include overseas study, service-learning course work, and/or a community internship."
SOURCE: Morrill Scholars Program Draft Executive Summary

More information on MSP can be found at: http://www.msu.edu/~msp/

Interdisciplinary Programs in Health and Humanities (IPHH)

A program of the MSU College of Arts and Letters (CAL).

Center for Integrative Studies in Arts and Humanities (CISAH)

A program of the MSU College of Arts and Letters (CAL).

Interdisciplinary Humanities

A program of the MSU College of Arts and Letters (CAL).

No WWW-accessible information is available on this program

Residential Option in Arts and Letters (ROIAL)

ROIAL is a two year residential learning program for freshmen and sophomore students in the College of Arts & Letters. ROIAL students participate in cooperative learning experiences in languages, writing, humanities, and the arts. ROIAL students have the opportunity for field trips, studying and living abroad, small group encounters with faculty and visiting scholars and artists, and enrollment in a freshman and a sophomore seminar. ROIAL brings together students with common academic interests in the arts and humanities to share residential living and to develop a sense of community.

More information on ROIAL can be found at:

http://www.roial.msu.edu

PERSONAL LEGACIES

Of course, JMC's primary legacies are its effects on its participants. This section provides an evolving set of pointers to reminiscences, reflections, and/or other materials relating to how JMC affected one or another individual.

NOTE:

These personal essays overlap in theme and/or content with the materials cited in the JMC Group Memory section.

Justin Morrill College Veterans' Feedback about their JMC Experiences
(2004 Survey Responses)

Introduction / Entry Point for Reviewing the 2004 Survey Results

Some Justin Morrill College Veterans' Testimonials about their Personal JMC Legacies

Memories of Extracurricular JMC (by Deborah De Haan [Sullivan])
Another View Entirely (by Jill Harrison Ellsworth)
JMC: Smartest Thing I Ever Did (by Phil Nash)
A Testimonial: What Justin Morrill College Did for Me (by Randy Whitaker)

Prospective Reminiscences from Justin Morrill College Veterans

In accordance with the intention that they pursue lives of diversity, JMC alumni are scattered to the four winds. In one sense, their diffusion can be considered testimony to the Justin Morrill experience. Many of the core JMC faculty members have gone on to other pursuits, retired, or (sadly) died.

This aggravates the problems in locating sources of information on JMC. Given the relative deficiency of documentation and the number of years which have passed, one must conclude that to the extent there is (or there can be) a Justin Morrill College 'tradition' preserved, it will be a tradition that is primarily 'oral' (as in dynamically construed / constructed / disseminated).

...And that makes the situation funny, in a way. That an 'oral tradition' appears primitive is consistent with the oft-purported aboriginal nature of the Justin Morrill community during the period of its existence.

Such a tradition can be seen as content wholly dependent upon the continuance of its particular vehicle (in this case, the JMC 'community'). This further reinforces the necessity of tapping into the remainder(s) of that community should anyone wish the tradition to survive (even if only for the purposes of nostalgic reflection).

This Web site was established in response to a perceived enthusiasm among the JMC participants attending the October 1999 JMC reunion. The exuberant conversations during the reunion only made it obvious that:

We were once so close, and it has been too long.

If there really is an untapped pool of interest (and interested parties), we can hope that through means such as this WWW site we can constructively recapture some of what JMC was to us, as well as what we reflect of it.

OK.... End of sermon.... Now what are we doing about it?

The JMC Veterans Directory contains contact information provided by JMC veterans. Some of the entries include capsule summaries of what these Morrillites have done since leaving JMC.
In addition, pointers to WWW sites owned by / referring to known or avowed JMC participants can be found in the JMC Veterans Directory.
Anyone wishing to comment upon (or, especially, to contribute to) these efforts is gladly invited to Contact the Editor.