 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
         |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| navigate: home: magazine: winter 2000: article | |
| Penn State’s historic leadership in outreach | ||||||
|
Reports by major national associations, such as the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, and federal agencies—including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration—predict an important future for university outreach. Increasingly, forces that support our teaching, research and service are sounding the call for greater integration of those functions through outreach activities that extend the expertise and resources of the University to meet the needs of individuals, families, organizations and communities. Outreach, an important element of Penn State’s land-grant mission, fulfills the University’s promise to share faculty scholarship with constituents across the Commonwealth and beyond. Penn State’s first president, Evan Pugh, set the standard for research-based outreach when the Commonwealth commissioned him to conduct chemical analyses of commercial fertilizers so that farmers would know what they were buying. Today, the University’s major outreach units—Continuing Education, Cooperative Extension, Distance Education, Public Broadcasting and Technology Transfer—have become recognized leaders in delivering programs with widespread impact, offering the largest and most diversified outreach program in the nation. Through the years, Penn State has made many contributions to the growth and development of the communities it serves. Cooperative Extension, Penn State’s oldest outreach unit, has been a forerunner in outreach research and teaching for almost 125 years. Nationally, extension began with the passage of the Smith–Lever Act of 1914, which provided funds for cooperative administration of agricultural extension by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and state land-grant institutions. At Penn State, however, extension services began as early as 1877, with the introduction of statewide Farmer’s Institutes. These institutes and similar programs grew into a formal extension organization in 1907, when Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved the hiring of a superintendent of Agricultural Extension and officially created the Agricultural Extension Service. In the spring of 1910, the nation’s first county agent was assigned to Pennsylvania’s Bedford County, and by the time Congress passed the Smith–Lever Act four years later, Penn State already had 25 extension agents at work delivering agricultural education throughout the Commonwealth. Nearly a century after Penn State sent its first extension agent into the field, Cooperative Extension has become a major force for University outreach, reaching 2 million Commonwealth citizens each year through centers in all 67 Pennsylvania counties. The same commitment to meeting the educational needs of rural populations that drove early extension efforts also led to innovations in the delivery of educational services. In 1892, Penn State, along with the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin, offered the first distance education courses through the new rural free delivery (RFD) —a rural postal service. Penn State’s first University-based correspondence programs emphasized a certificate in agriculture. Within two years, the University boasted four graduates—two from Pennsylvania, one from Canada and one from the Oklahoma Territories. Today, there are more than 20,000 enrollments from around the world in Penn State Independent Learning and World Campus courses each year. Just as current outreach offerings reflect academic expertise in a range of disciplines, departments and colleges, our early outreach activities were not based exclusively in agricultural programming. In 1915, Penn State University established one of the nation’s first continuing education programs for business and industry. Management Education (today’s Management Development Programs and Services), an outgrowth of engineering extension, boosted Pennsylvania’s economy by tailoring instruction to thousands of clients statewide in such fields as supervision, communications, employee motivation and leadership. The program served as a model for similar continuing education efforts nationwide. Over the years, more than 10,000 clients worldwide have benefited from Management Development Programs and Services. Embracing the opportunities provided by technological innovations has enabled Penn State to remain a leader in university outreach. In 1952, Penn State’s Nittany Lion Inn became the birthplace of the nation’s public broadcasting service. In an historic meeting, more than 100 leaders in education, broadcasting and government gathered to accept a challenge from the Federal Communications Commission to begin a noncommercial educational television service. The plans made at Penn State led to national educational television broadcasting and later to the Public Broadcasting Service, including Penn State’s own Emmy-winning WPSX-TV Channel 3. Complementing the large-scale education projects of Public Broadcasting and other units are a number of individualized consulting and partnering projects. Among these, PENNTAP (Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program) services promote economic development in the Commonwealth by connecting small businesses facing technical challenges with individual faculty who can offer technical solutions. As early as 1965, PENNTAP began its innovative approach to the outreach mission by providing support to small businesses that lack the in-house expertise or time to resolve specific technical problems. By linking research-based solutions with local problems, PENNTAP has delivered scientific and technological assistance to more than 20,000 businesses and industries throughout Pennsylvania, increasing their competitiveness and strengthening the state’s economy by more than $100 million. Throughout their history, these individual outreach units have accomplished much and made a lasting impact on the Commonwealth and society in general. In 1996, President Spanier’s Plan for Strengthening Outreach laid the foundation for continued growth through increased collaboration and coordination among all outreach units. The plan marshaled all of the strengths and expertise of Cooperative Extension, Continuing Education, Distance Education and Public Broadcasting, working closely with Technology Transfer and other outreach units, bringing together their resources in a unified outreach effort. The recent growth in innovative cross-unit programming and partnerships that you will find in the pages of this magazine is a testament to the value of this change. This year, Penn State has another opportunity to effect historic changes in outreach by making a renewed commitment to Cooperative Extension through increased funding provided by the Commonwealth. Already, extension’s educational programs strengthen agricultural productivity and profitability, enhance the quality and safety of our food supply, improve the management and quality of our natural resources, help young people master life skills through 4-H and other youth development programs, strengthen families and improve economic and community development. Nevertheless, the challenges facing society require us to do more and to create and deliver new programs in new ways. One of our strategic goals is to develop these programs by building our capacity to rapidly deploy University expertise where and when it is most valuable. By enhancing the scope of faculty expertise mobilized to provide outreach through Cooperative Extension programming, we will increase the engagement and responsiveness of the University—connecting communities more closely to the research and teaching relevant to them. The new appropriations from the Commonwealth will be centered on expanding county and regional extension agent staffing and faculty in the College of Agricultural Sciences in order to better deliver cutting-edge information and technology in a timely, responsive manner to the communities we serve. In addition, these appropriations will enable Cooperative Extension to draw upon faculty expertise in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the College of Engineering and the College of Health and Human Development to complement the efforts of the College of Agricultural Sciences in addressing priority areas, including dairy profitability, nutrient management; water quality; food safety and nutrition; integrated pest management; children, youth and families; and information technology, including geographic information systems. These issues are of profound importance to the future viability not only of the state’s agricultural industry, but also to the general economy of Pennsylvania. Through a well-integrated Cooperative Extension program and a commitment to a systematic collaboration among all colleges, departments and outreach units, these initiatives will have a lasting impact on the well-being of every citizen of the Commonwealth. In addition, the increased faculty involvement, enhanced opportunities for interdisciplinary and interunit collaboration and the general growth in engagement University-wide will have a lasting impact on the future of our own institution and on all the faculty, staff and administrators who call Penn State their home. Enriched by new partnerships, we all may see new benefits from our rich history of participation in outreach. Returning to our Roots: The Engaged Institution, a report from the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities, points out the value in continuing the tradition of engagement for all land-grant institutions. The report states, “It hardly needs to be said that partnerships of various kinds are uniquely embedded in our land-grant mission and tradition. They are derived from the public purpose of our institutions. The land-grant movement was motivated, in part, by a recognition that public higher education needed to attend to the problems of the community supporting it and direct its teaching, research and service toward the issues of the day.” By working in partnership with our communities, both the University and its stakeholders benefit from the exchange of experiences and ideas, and we must continually renew our commitment to support the institutions that create and maintain such alliances. At Penn State, we are indeed fortunate that our forerunners had the vision to take leadership in creating multiple vehicles for faculty outreach. And through ongoing innovation in programs and delivery mechanisms, our faculty and staff will continue to make widespread societal impact long into the 21st century.
| |||||
| ||||||
