•HRES 703 IH 
Whereas the Farmers’ High School was granted a permanent 
charter by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1855; 
Whereas the First Morrill Act, enacted in 1862, provided for 
the distribution of grants of public lands owned by the 
Federal Government to the States for establishing and 
maintaining institutions of higher learning; 
Whereas in 1863 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania accept-
ed a grant of land provided through such Act to establish 
one of the first two land-grant institutions in the United 
States and designated the Farmers’ High School, re-
named the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, as Penn-
sylvania’s sole land-grant institution; 
Whereas in 1874 the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania 
was renamed The Pennsylvania State College and in 
1953 was renamed The Pennsylvania State University; 
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University consists of 11 
academic schools, 20 additional campuses located 
throughout Pennsylvania, the College of Medicine, the 
Dickinson School of Law, and the Pennsylvania College 
of Technology and has an enrollment of 83,000; 
Whereas one in every eight Pennsylvanians with a college de-
gree, one in every 720 people in the United States, one 
in every 50 engineers, and one in every four meteorolo-
gists are alumni of The Pennsylvania State University; 
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University Alumni Associa-
tion, formed in 1870, is the largest dues-paying alumni 
association in the Nation; 
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University has the largest 
outreach effort in United States higher education, deliv-
ering programs to learners in 87 countries and all 50 
States;
•HRES 703 IH 
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University consistently 
ranks in the top three universities chosen by high school 
seniors to receive SAT scores; 
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University annually hosts 
the largest student-run philanthropic event in the world, 
which benefits the Four Diamonds Fund for families with 
children being treated for cancer; 
Whereas the missions of instruction, research, outreach, and 
extension continue to be the focus of The Pennsylvania 
State University; 
Whereas the rechargeable heart pacemaker and the heart-as-
sist pump were designed at The Pennsylvania State Uni-
versity; 
Whereas four astronauts who have flown in space were alum-
ni of The Pennsylvania State University, including the 
first African American to fly in space; 
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University was the first in-
stitution in the Nation to offer a degree in agriculture; 
and 
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University is one of the 
most highly regarded research universities in the Nation, 
with an outreach extension program that reaches nearly 
one out of two Pennsylvanians each year and an under-
graduate school of immense scope and popularity: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) congratulates The Pennsylvania State Uni-
versity for 150 years of service to the citizens of the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Nation; and
•HRES 703 IH 
(2) commends Pennsylvania’s designation of 
The Pennsylvania State University as the land-grant 
institution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 
Æ