land-grant

The first federal legislation that authorized the creation of land-grant state universities was the Morrill Act of 1862. The legislation authorized the federal government to give states land that they could use to create universities that would teach “agriculture and mechanic arts” to the “industrial classes.” The hyphenated adjective land-grant (lowercase and with hyphen, as in land-grant state universities, land-grant tradition, and land-grant institution) is in keeping with the editorial practice of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. It is correct to say the state received a land grant (no hyphen).