Online Edition | Washington State University | Pullman, Washington | Friday, December 14, 2001

Using the extension advantage
Doors open statewide 
for all WSU colleges
By Dena Marchant, Special to WSU Today

Most universities have one primary contact point with the public—their main campus. For the past 12 months, Washington State University has been expanding its vision to include more than forty "front doors" across the state.

"Every Cooperative Extension office is a front door to the university," said James Zuiches, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Home Economics. "When you walk in there, you enter WSU."

In a strategic effort to effectively extend its reach, WSU named Michael J. Tate as dean and director of WSU Cooperative Extension on Jan. 1 of this year.

"This puts the director on the Council of Deans," said Ron Hopkins WSU Interim Provost. "So, he interacts on a different level than before. By itself, it doesn’t change anything; it creates an opportunity for change."

An idea whose time has come
The idea of university-wide extension is not a new one.

"Cooperative Extension has been around for 100 years," said Wayne Madsen, Northeast District Director of WSU Cooperative Extension. "University-wide extension has been talked about for 50 years at WSU. Those talks were started with C. Clement French. And when I joined Cooperative Extension in the early ‘70s, President (Glenn) Terrell was talking about it."

Linking to all programs
The move is part of a nationwide trend toward university-wide cooperative extension, Zuiches said. "It’s absolutely essential that extension link to other programs and Mike Tate is creating those linkages," he added.

"This is really an opportunity to build on what we have in place," Tate said, "to see WSU more engaged in state issues and problems and to involve the university in solving those problems."

While colleges other than the College of Agriculture and Home Economics have had outreach programs in the past, they didn’t access the extension’s infrastructure. This includes offices in every county, research centers across the state, and a network of volunteers.

Extension provides WSU a comparative advantage over other higher education establishments in Washington, Tate said. "We have offices in every county," he commented. "No other four-year institution has that."

"We have a true partnership with many of our community colleges through the ten learning centers in the extended degree program," he said. "The fact that 12,000 volunteers lead and support many of our programs is an advantage. No other four-year institution can say that," Tate notes.

By tapping the capacity of the entire university, WSU is extending that advantage, Tate said.

Access to all WSU resources
Washington counties face a broad range of issues from bioterrorism to youth education to the economy, Madsen said. Not all of these problems can be solved through the College of Agriculture and Home Economics. Extension provides counties with access to all the university’s resources.

"I see this as a tremendous resource and opportunity for Washington communities," Madsen said.

Funds lacking, but a start
The move, however, doesn’t include funding.

"It would have been nice if it had included substantial budget increases, but that didn’t happen," said Blair Wolfley, Southwest District Director of Cooperative Extension.

Still, Wolfley agrees that the move is significant. "It opens the door for tremendous potential."

Although a budget shortfall may slow the effectiveness of this effort, WSU still has a tremendous opportunity to create new partnerships and alliances across the university and Washington to address issues of state and national concern, Tate believes.

One example is collaboration between the College of Education, which has a relationship with every state school district and Cooperative Extension’s after-school programs.

"If we can team up as we want, we could go after grant money to extend to many school districts," Tate said. "This is on the near horizon."

Diabetes prevention education
Another potential collaboration involves the colleges of Agriculture and Home Economics, Pharmacy and Nursing. This effort would marry educational materials on diabetes from the College of Pharmacy with Cooperative Extension’s statewide network to provide diabetes prevention education to high-risk groups.

Concern over diabetes is increasing in Washington. In King County alone, 44,000 adults have it, and the death rate has increased by 50 percent since 1987, according to a report issued by Seattle and King County Public Health. Funding for this project will come from the Department of Agriculture, Tate said.

More visible
In addition to extending the university’s expertise, the move stands to make WSU more visible.

"Extension works with thousands and thousands of people," said James Kropf, Northwest District Director of Cooperative Extension. "They know we’re connected with WSU, but they’re focused on the program, whether it’s Master Gardeners or something else. This gives a wider perspective to WSU."

"Through increased delivery of programs, we will also experience increased support from the state," Wolfley adds.

One reason that WSU succeeded in getting funds for branch campuses and learning centers was that legislators saw these as investments that went beyond Pullman, he said.

4-H advantage
Extension also provides an opportunity to attract top-notch students to Pullman and the branch campuses through an expansion of the 4-H program, Tate said. Administered by Cooperative Extension, 4-H has been a powerful tool for bringing some of the best students into the College of Agriculture and Home Economics, as well as other colleges at WSU.

"This could provide an opportunity to link faculty with 4-H members beyond the College of Agriculture and Home Economics," Tate said. "We could do that with the College of Education, Sciences, Liberal Arts, or with any college, through 4-H."