UT, Clemson share land-grant mission
Chancellor Donde Plowman of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Clemson University President Jim Clements celebrated their universities’ shared mission as land-grant institutions in a guest editorial that ran in the Miami Herald the day before the schools competed in the Orange Bowl in South Florida.
The editorial notes that while the leaders may disagree on the best shade of orange, they are united in their commitment to education, research, and service.
“We are bound by a 160-year-old promise under the Morrill Act of 1862 to deliver better opportunities to the people of South Carolina, Tennessee, and beyond. We are also driven by the conviction that education changes lives — a truth we see every day in our students and graduates,” they write in the column.
Plowman and Clements made the case for the value of a college degree and the importance of creating opportunity for the students and people they serve.
“A college degree is more than a credential — it represents the knowledge our graduates gain, the skills they develop, the relationships they build and the lifelong curiosity they cultivate.”
Tennessee won the game 31-14.
Read the full editorial in the Miami Herald, where it first appeared on December 28, 2022.