Growing Together: Conversation with Waded Cruzado, President, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities

Dr. Waded Cruzado became President of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) July 1, 2025. From 2010 to 2025, Cruzado served as President of Montana State University, where she led transformative growth and set records in enrollment, retention, academic excellence, research, and fundraising. Cruzado is well known for her passion in bringing greater public understanding to the importance of the Morrill Acts of 1862, 1890, and 1994 – which collectively created the public, land-grant university system for the benefit of all Americans.

How have your experiences in the U.S. public higher education system influenced your leadership journey?

My leadership journey has been heavily influenced by the U.S. public higher education system. First, it provided me with a solid foundation in terms of my education. My caveat is that during my educational background and leadership years, I have only been at land-grant universities where I developed this passion.

Public higher education has transformed not only the nation but the world. For me, the most important part is the principle of access that has been present ever since our inception. When Justin Smith Morrill’s seminal legislation of 1862 finally passed after two rejections, it stated that we were going to open one public university in each state for the purpose of educating the sons and daughters of the industrial classes. The emphasis on the men and women of toil and the insistence of opening public higher education not just for those who could afford it or who were previously educated but for everyone as the aspirational objective. During the middle of the Civil War, our nation came together with a vision for a better and brighter future predicated on the one promise that a better educated society would transform the world.

What motivated you to step into this leadership position at this stage in your career?

It was clear to me that I had devoted the last several decades of my life to not only serve public and land-grant institutions but to tell their story and this was a natural extension of that work. In a way, it was a great manner for me to complete my career by making sure that we continue to open access to higher education to future generations. Now, I also have an opportunity to reach out to fellow university presidents, staff, researchers, and individuals who believe in the power of public research universities around the nation. I said “Yes!”

How does APLU’s mission to drive student success, foster research and innovation, and deepen community and economic engagement strengthen our nation?

APLU is the nation’s oldest university association that was founded in 1887, the same year that the Hatch Act was passed, which mandated the creation of agricultural experiment stations for scientific research.

The Morrill Act was absolutely revolutionary with its idea of establishing a network of universities throughout the nation and its territories to deliver on a very important promise and that this new brand of type of universities will solve very important societal problems. At that time, we were a hungry nation so these universities’ promise of placing agriculture as a solution to famine was amazing. The vision of these new universities to propose engineering education as a way to connect in their communities and to be a vehicle for technological innovation and creativity were great contributions.

No sooner than we had established these new colleges and universities that we found that we needed to have more content to teach. In 1887, the Hatch Act gave us that incredible opportunity with this establishment of agricultural research centers that serve as a model for having the university in charge of the discovery of new knowledge through research. In 1914, we determined that it’s not enough to take care of our students in the classroom. Let’s make sure that that discovery that happened in the lab or the field was also accessible to the individuals far from campus. It has been and will continue to be an incredible legacy for decades in the future.

Why does the land-grant university system’s mission of research, education, and Cooperative Extension remain critically important today?

It’s the perfect triad because we’re promising our students not to sit passively in a classroom and learn from textbooks that other people wrote. We offer them the opportunity to learn from the individuals who are working on discovery, who are advancing scholarship, and who are also failing. It’s very important for younger generations to be exposed to failure early on as a vehicle to build resilience.

Finally, they gain the social awareness that the university doesn’t end in the confines or along the walls of our buildings. We have an obligation to serve our counties, communities, and states. In that sense, the entire nation is our campus. Our forefathers envisioned a wonderful tripartite mission that has served our nation very well and served as a model for institutions in other parts of the world.

During your time as President of Montana State University, what was your favorite example of agricultural researchers, educators, and Cooperative Extension professionals working together to benefit the community?

There are too many to tell. One of the things that I love the most about my time at Montana State University was that Extension, research, and our faculty on the Bozeman campus learned to work together in a very collaborative manner. They made sure that we paid attention to Montana’s farmers, ranchers, smaller rural communities and even around the world by taking new knowledge such as plant pathology studies and providing important information to people around the world.

Maurice Hillman was one of Montana State’s most impactful alumni. In the history of his life, we find the important contributions of a land-grant university. Maurice was born in Miles City, Montana in 1919. His mother and his twin sister died in childbirth. His uncle adopted him and raised him on a chicken farm. While growing up in Miles City in the 1930s, his biggest aspiration in life was to work at JCPenney, the brand-new department store that was all the rave. I’m sure he would have been a very successful merchant, but his uncle saw something different in him, so he took him to Montana State College.

They were so poor that they could not have afford the very affordable tuition at that time. Thanks to a scholarship, young Maurice was able to finish a degree in microbiology and chemistry and continue graduate studies at the University of Chicago. The boy who was raised on a chicken farm and knew Extension agents became a vaccinologist and not any vaccinologist. Maurice Hilleman was the vaccinologist who discovered vaccines to prevent measles, mumps, hepatitis A and B, chickenpox, meningitis, and pneumonia, which saved millions of lives across the globe. In fact, he discovered eight of the 14 childhood vaccines that we rely on today.

When he died in 2009, Robert Gallo was quoted in The New York Times obituary saying that Maurice Hilleman saved more lives than any other scientist of the 20th century. As a graduate of Montana State and a son of Miles City, all his potential was realized thanks to Extension, research, and Montana State working together to identify and encourage Maurice’s talent.

What is your advice for today’s college students?

My advice to students is to come to your public and land-grant university and explore paths to the future. It’s important for you to do something worthwhile for others. Get out of your shell. When we are very self-centered, things become old and boring very quickly. When you devote your life to something bigger than yourself and armed with the knowledge that these universities have accumulated over centuries, you will have a more fulfilling life. Colleges and universities take students where they are and hopefully transform them into competent professionals, committed citizens, and happy and healthy human beings. Embrace the opportunities!

How do public and land-grant universities drive economic development and strengthen the nation’s global competitiveness?

Public and land-grant universities are absolutely crucial in advancing technology to address today’s big problems. Also, these universities provide industry with the basic technological knowledge that is transformed into services and products. What happens in our labs, fields, classrooms, and the scholarship, art, and creativity help us be a stronger nation. It is no coincidence that the United States has both the strongest economy and the best colleges and universities in the world. They go hand-in-hand and in tandem. We’re very proud of our universities.

What strategic opportunities in higher education shape your vision for its future?

Colleges and universities will be even more crucial in the future than in the past. For example, particularly with the advent of new technologies and AI, public and land-grant universities are uniquely positioned to make sure that our students and citizens know how to use the technology to enhance knowledge and procure a better quality of life for everyone.

In that sense, it comes full circle back to the Morrill Act of 1862’s vision of educating both the wealthy as well as the sons and daughters of America’s working families. That sentiment and promise continue to be as important in the future as ever before. If we don’t continue making progress in that area, it is very easy to lapse back. We cannot afford to do that so public and land-grant universities continue to be an integral part to advance society to a better world that we all aspire to have.