The primary goal of this work is to ask two questions: (1) Can an institution ever escape the rhetorics that built it? How are those in the university haunted by the rhetorics of its past? and (2) If a progressive cause - in this case the land-grant university - is supported by conservative rhetorics, how do those conservative rhetorics compromise the success of progressive goals? In three sections, I investigate these questions through a case study of the adoptions of and rebellions against classical (Greek and Roman) rhetorics in the history of Michigan State University. I introduce two hypotheses about historical rhetorics and political change. First, classical rhetorics built to support social inequality retain parts of their original meanings, even when repurposed to serve a progressive cause. Second, past institutional rhetorics remain embedded in each university. The consequences of their incomplete incorporation into the present rhetorics of the university show that historical rhetorics have a crucial role in our analyses of the institutional spaces and cultures in which we work and teach. -- Abstract.
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