The years that saw the founding of Cornell and Stanford Universities

Reading Passage Question

The years that saw the founding of Cornell and Stanford Universities were also the years when many small private colleges were established in the Southern U.S. to serve the educational needs of the newly freed slaves. While great 19th century industrial entrepreneurs like Ezra Cornell and Leland Stanford gave amounts ranging from half a million to tens of millions of dollars to found great private teaching and research universities where none had previously existed, and while many others, less famous, gave impressive sums to expand and refurbish modest college establishments that had already taken root, there were not comparable benefactions for private Black higher educational institutions. Only in the 20th century, ‘and then mostly through the donations of a handful of individuals and bodies like the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Julius Rosenwald Fund, did the struggling private Black Institutions begin to receive support in single-gift amounts larger than a few thousand dollars.

A similar disparity existed between Black and White state- supported institutions. The Morrill Act of 1862 is considered by some to be the most important piece of federal legislation affecting state-supported higher education in the 19th century. It created the basis on which states established land-grant institutions throughout the country, most successfully perhaps in the midwestern States. Less has been written about the Morrill Act of 1890, which made possible the establishment of separate Black land grant institutions in the southern and border states, where the majority of Black people lived before the 1st World War. Though it is called the “2nd Morrill Act '', no one would seriously contend that it achieved monetarily for Black land-grant institutions anything comparable to what the 1862 legislation accomplished for other land-grant institutions. The “separate but equal” principle, even if it had been faithfully adhered to, could never have created black land-grant institutions in the southern and border states as financially secure as the land-grant institutions that developed with the help of the 1862 act: these states simply were not generous in their appropriations for state-supported education.

“The years that saw the founding of Cornell and Stanford Universities” - is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 5 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. The author connects the timing of the establishment of many small private Black colleges in the South to which of the following events?

(A) The emancipation of the slaves
(B) The passage of the Morrill Act in 1892
(C) The passage of the Morrill Act in 1890
(D) The increase in the number of Black students attending high school.
(E) The establishment of charitable foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Julius Rosenwald Fund.

2. According to the passage, if the southern and border states had adhered faithfully to the principle of “separate but equal,” which of the following would have been true?

(A) Private colleges and universities in those states would have received more generous state appropriations.
(B) Black private institutions in those states would have received state appropriations equal to those given to Black land-grant institutions in those states.
(C) Black private institutions in those states would not have received state appropriations for expansion and renovation.
(D) Black private institutions in those states would not have received donations as large as Black private institutions in other states received.
(E) Black land-grant institutions in those states would not have received as much state financial support as land-grant institutions in the midwestern states received.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that, in the nineteenth century, gifts to private Black institutions were typically given

(A) by nineteenth-century industrial entrepreneurs such as Leland Stanford
(B) by bodies like the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation
(C) to establish institutions that were to be named after the donors.
(D) in an attempt to make private Black institutions competitive with Black land-grant institutions
(E) by benefactors in amounts of no more than a few thousand dollars.

4. The author refers to the Julius Rosernwald Fund primarily in order to.

(A) clarify an ambiguity
(B) provide an example
(C) emphasise a problem
(D) defend an assertion
(E) introduce an argument

5. Which of the following titles best summarizes the content of the passage?

(A) A history of Black Higher Education
(B) Financial Support for Black Higher Education
(C) A Financial History of Major Private and Land Grant Universities
(D) A comparison of the Financial Support Given to Black Private Institutions and Black Land-Grant Institutions
(E) The successful Growth of Black Higher Education despite Financial Difficulties

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