... Society is changing in radical ways again and we in the university are in a mode of adaptation that appears to be creating deeper involvement in society's efforts to resolve its practical problems. Today's evolving "outreach university" had its origin in a unique 19th century American educational innovation, the land grant college. The land grant tradition introduced "service to society" as a function of U.S. higher education. However, we still have difficulty defining and agreeing on what outreach, extension or service should involve as a legitimate university function. The existence of such a variety of terms is indicative of our lack of consensus about the nature of this century-old function of the American university.
1. The land grant system of colleges did not spring into existence as a coherent idea or set of institutions in one decade or even one generation of leadership. The land-grant college evolved as an idea and then as an institution and a national system over many decades between 1850 and 1920. There was a lot of trial and much error, and it was not clear before the turn of this century whether the idea would be even a partial success or not (Roberts, 1946).
2. The land-grant idea was not conceived solely for agriculture. It is not any specific set of organizations, such as the trilogy of the experiment station, the extension service, and on-campus or resident instruction. These were designed specifically to address agriculture.
3. The land-grant idea is not just access to higher education for those with limited resources. It is not just good science. It is not just science applied to practical problems. It is not just extension education for people of the state who have practical problems to solve. It was all of this and more.
So what is the land-grant idea? It is, indeed, an idea. It is a set of beliefs about the social role of the university.

Scusa il lungo papiello, ma credo che spieghi bene l'idea, anche per chi in futuro consultera' il sito. Tradurre tutto cio' e' un altro paio di maniche. Potresti nel testo mettere "una sorta di universita' popolare a vocazione agricola" tanto per rendere l'idea poi magari mettere una nota con il caveat di prima.

Saluti

Paola L M