SEA GRANT COLLEGES 27 



INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY 



John A. Knauss, Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1959 

 Since 1962 he has been Dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography, 

 URI. A physical oceanographer, Dean Knauss has worked on prob- 

 lems of ocean circulation. He is presently Chairman of the Southern 

 New England Marine Sciences Association. 



The idea of a sea-grant college was first suggested publicly by Athlestan 

 Spilhaus in the keynote address at the ninety-third annual meeting of American 

 Fisheries Society, September 12, 1963. The suggestion of holding a conference 

 to consider the idea was made early in 1964, but for various reasons, was shelved 

 for a year. In the meantime, interest in the sea-grant concept grew, much of it 

 sparked by an editorial in Science (September 4, 1964) in which Dean Spilhaus 

 wrote as follows: 



. . ."I have suggested the establishment of 'sea-grant colleges' 

 in existing universities that wish to develop oceanic work. The sea- 

 grant college would focus attention on marine science, and it would 

 develop strengths in the applications of marine science in colleges of 

 aquaculture and oceanic engineering. These would be modernized 

 parallels of the great developments in agriculture and the mechanic 

 arts which were occasioned by the Land-Grant Act of about a hundred 

 years ago. Basic funds, undesignated except that they be used by sea- 

 grant colleges, could be obtained in much the way that agricultural 

 support has been obtained in the past. Establishment of the land- 

 grant colleges was one of the best investments this nation ever made. 

 The same kind of imagination and foresight should be applied to ex- 

 ploitation of the sea." 



One of the persons who became interested in the concept of sea-grant col- 

 leges was Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island. In fact, in the time between 

 the initial decision to hold such a conference and its first public announcment. 

 Senator Pell introduced legislation to establish sea-grant colleges (S.2439, the 

 National Sea-Grant College and Program Act of 1965). 



In calling this conference on The Concept of a Sea-Grant University, I wrote, 

 "More and more people seem to be interested in the idea of a sea-grant uni- 

 versity, but I have not found much agreement as to what is involved or what 

 form such a university might take; hence, the reason for this conference. I hope 

 that the conference will provide an opportunity to discuss specific ways in which 

 the concept might be implemented and the possible consequences to society if the 

 sea-grant universities are established. . ." The response to our invitation was 

 overwhelming. The official registration lists 224 persons attending; everyone of 

 the 30 states that borders the oceans or the Great Lakes was represented. Dean 

 Spilhaus 's idea of sea-grant colleges had obviously struck a responsive chord in 

 marine scientists and university administrators from all parts of the country. 

 The fact that at least one United States Senator was actively involved in the pro- 

 gram provided added interest in this conference. 



In rereading the proceedings, now some two months after the conference, 

 I have been struck by several things. The first is the general consensus that 

 the sea-grant concept is not merely a call for more of what we are already doing, 

 but is really a design for something quite different. It is a bringing together of 

 science and engineering, of education at all levels, and a consideration of the 

 social as well as the technological aspects of the problems of marine resources 

 exploitation; in other words, an assault on the problems of the sea using all of 

 the various kinds of intellectual resources generally associated with a univer- 

 sity. The excitement generated by these ideas will long be remembered by those 

 of us who participated in the conference. 



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