One student’s desire to get involved with the water community eventually led to the creation of the a student chapter of AWWA at West Virginia University. Read more about Kara Cunningham’s journey in #AWWAConnections.https://t.co/f8X2yFcciBpic.twitter.com/IjLwg038Os
Manufacturers are required to meet the NEC and CEC electrical codes to have their food equipment sold and used in the United States and Canada. Watch our video for more details. pic.twitter.com/d0vUf4zUl2
“…A land-grant university (also called land-grant college or land-grant institution) is an institution of higher education in the United States designated by a state to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890.
The Morrill Acts funded educational institutions by granting federally controlled land to the states for them to sell, to raise funds, to establish and endow “land-grant” colleges. The mission of these institutions as set forth in the 1862 Act is to focus on the teaching of practical agriculture, science, military science, and engineering (though “without excluding… classical studies”), as a response to the industrial revolution and changing social class. This mission was in contrast to the historic practice of higher education to focus on a liberal arts curriculum. A 1994 expansion gave land grant status to several tribal colleges and universities….”
The Morrill Land-Grant Act has not undergone significant changes in its core structure within the past decade. However, there have been important developments and discussions surrounding its implementation, particularly regarding the use of land originally designated under the Act.
One key area of focus has been the ongoing management of trust lands associated with land-grant universities. Investigations have revealed that many of these lands continue to generate substantial revenue, often through activities such as fossil fuel production, mining, timber sales, and agriculture.
For instance, between 2018 and 2022, trust lands associated with land-grant universities generated over $6.7 billion in revenue. These investigations have also highlighted the historical context of how these lands were acquired, often from Indigenous nations, sparking ongoing debates about equity and restitution.
📢 REMINDER
If you are seeking eligibility for the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, ensure your 2025 acreage reporting is factual and accurate by 5 PM ET on Dec. 19, 2025. Qualifying FBA payments are scheduled to be released by Feb. 28, 2026. https://t.co/ABBRK1b9xhpic.twitter.com/cLHZI2zeLq
Several universities associated with the Morrill Land-Grant Act continue to generate significant revenue from fossil fuels, timber, and agricultural activities. Here are some examples:
Washington State University (WSU): WSU benefits from timber sales on its trust lands, which have generated over $1.1 billion in revenue from 1889 to 2022. These lands are used for timber production, grazing, and other activities (Grist).
University of Arizona: The university’s trust lands are involved in grazing, timber, and fossil fuel production. These lands generate revenue through leases for activities such as mining and oil extraction (Grist).
University of Texas: The Permanent University Fund, which includes land-grant lands, generates revenue primarily through oil and gas production. The University of Texas system benefits significantly from these fossil fuel activities (Grist).
University of Wyoming: Like other land-grant institutions, the University of Wyoming manages trust lands that produce revenue through activities like coal mining and grazing (Grist).
These activities raise important questions about the environmental and ethical implications of continuing to use land-grant trust lands in this manner, especially given the historical context of how these lands were acquired.
The language of the Internet is shaped by large language models, international standards, and software platforms developed by people from many linguistic backgrounds. The challenge is not that many contributors are non-native English speakers — and that is a serious cultural problem — the challenge is ensuring that, despite the differences in how English is taught, understood and used — technical English remains precise, stable, and consistently interpreted.
Ambiguous wording, subtle shifts in meaning, or differing cultural assumptions can introduce confusion into engineering, law, medicine, and public policy when replicated at Internet scale. The remedy is not linguistic exclusivity but stronger standards: carefully defined vocabularies, consensus terminology, authoritative style guides, and rigorous editorial review by diverse experts.
English has become the principal working language of science, engineering, and commerce because it supports a vast body of technical literature and international collaboration. Preserving its precision is therefore a matter of stewardship. As AI systems increasingly generate and interpret technical information, maintaining a common, standards-based engineering English will become as important as maintaining reliable communication networks themselves.
The Society of College and University Planning was founded in 1965 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor during an informal gathering of campus planners frustrated with the lack of professional exchange in their emerging field. Rapid postwar enrollment growth and massive campus expansion projects had created urgent needs for long-range physical planning, yet few institutions had dedicated planners or shared knowledge.
A small group, led by University of Michigan planners George J. Bruha and Frederick W Mayer met in Ann Arbor to discuss common challenges facing other State of Michigan settlements; joined by Stanford, Ohio State and the University of Illinois. They decided to create a formal organization to foster collaboration, research, and professional development. In 1966, with Michigan’s support, SCUP was officially established as a nonprofit with its first office on the Ann Arbor campus. Its founding principle—integrated planning linking academics, finances, and facilities—remains central today.
Early operations benefited from administrative support (aegis) provided by the University of Michigan, including office space and resources in Ann Arbor. This arrangement persisted until a financial crisis in the late 1970s (1976–1980), during which SCUP relocated to New York.
The decoupling—marking full operational and administrative independence from the University of Michigan—occurred in 1980, when SCUP returned to Ann Arbor as a self-sustaining nonprofit headquartered at a separate location –1330 Eisenhower Place — less than a mile walk from Standards Michigan‘s front door at 455 East Eisenhower.
* Of the 220 ANSI Accredited Standards Developers, the State of Michigan ranks 3rd in the ranking of U.S. states with the most ANSI-accredited standards developers (ASDs) headquartered there; behind the Regulatory Hegemons of California and ChicagoLand and excluding the expected cluster foxtrot of non-profits domiciled in the Washington-New York Deep State Megalopolis. Much of Michigan’s presence in the private consensus standards space originates from its industrial ascendency through most of the 1900’s.
Summer occupies a surprisingly small place in the orchestral imagination. Winter has storms and Christmas; spring has awakening; autumn brings harvest, melancholy and departure. Summer, by contrast, often appears indirectly—as heat, evening, landscape or memory.
Gershwin’s Summertime became perhaps the season’s most familiar American expression, while Barber found summer in the remembered voices and warm night air of Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Delius gave us A Song of Summer and Summer Night on the River.
Still’s Summerland belongs naturally in this slender company. Perhaps summer resists composition because its characteristic activity is precisely the suspension of activity: long days asking little of us.
This is the second movement of William Grant Still’s *Three Visions*, composed in 1936 and originally written for piano. Set between the troubled atmosphere of *Dark Horsemen* and the luminous *Radiant Pinnacle*, it imagines a place of repose beyond earthly difficulty.
The music moves slowly, carried by long melodic lines and harmonies that seem to suspend ordinary time.
Still later arranged the work for other instruments, and it has proved especially adaptable to strings and wind ensembles. Its warmth is neither idle nor sentimental. There is movement beneath the stillness: a summer landscape understood less as a season than as a state of rest.
Today at 15:00 UTC we will review the latest in best practice literature for air conditioning systems. Note that we have broken out this topic from the standing Mechanical colloquia. Our approach features interoperability and system considerations. Catalogs on the agenda:
The Air Conditioning Contractors Association of America is an accredited standards developer for the design, maintenance, installation, testing, and performance of indoor environment systems. We find several ACCA best practice titles referenced as in education facility design guidelines and construction contracts. Much of its catalog forms the foundation for the technical curricula in trade schools. Its library is linked below:
As of this posting the ACCA has not released any titles for public comment. We encourage our colleagues to interact directly with the ACCA standards team: Air Conditioning Contractors Association, 2800 Shirlington Rd, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22206, (703) 575-4477, membership@acca.org.
We maintain the ACCA suite on the standing agenda of our Air Conditioning and Mechanical teleconferences. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
