Extension and Outreach
MINUTES, June 28, 2004
1-2:30, 1092 LeBaron

Attendance: Larry Ebbers – p; Cindy Fletcher – p; Ruth Freeman – p by phone; Frank Schabel – p; JaneAnn Stout – p; Kathi Thomas – p; Myrna Whigham – p; Carol Legg Zeigler – p

Agenda

1. Introductions

2. Review of minutes from May 18th meeting. Minutes approved for posting.

3. Outreach from CoE – Kathi

Kathi shared brief comments and a packet of information that included the CoE strategic plan, annual report, and outreach reports from each of the three departments in CoE. Frank shared a set of 5 CDs with outreach movies. (copies forwarded to Julie Tarbox)

4. Outreach from HDFS – Cindy

Cindy shared brief comments on several outreach efforts (non-Extension) associated with the HDFS department, including HDFS practicums, Child Development Lab Schools, Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic, Financial Counseling Clinic and the Child Welfare Project. Additional outreach efforts from FSHN and AESHM will be shared with committee members via the new FCS annual report, to be released in the next couple of weeks. (Sent by mail following the meeting.)

5. Issues to be addressed in combining – all

Key issues/recommendations:

  1. The committee strongly endorses the current outreach programs within the Colleges of Education and Family and Consumer Sciences and the Extension to Families program lead by the College of Family and Consumer Science under the umbrella of ISU Extension. It is significant that the unique expertise of the faculty, graduates, outreach and Extension efforts and the body of knowledge and research from which they draw correspond precisely with Iowa's and the nation's most pressing social concerns at a time when pressing social concerns take huge amounts of our state's revenue. The subcommittee encourages the overall planning committee to closely review the proposed college plan as it is being developed, so that the pending college combination would in no way harm the existing outreach and Extension efforts but would support and encourage growth, to the highest extent possible, during these difficult budget times. This subcommittee will also be reviewing the proposed plan for the same.

  2. Much of the outreach from both colleges, not specific to Extension, is an outgrowth of department lead efforts or individual faculty interests, and as such will continue, assuming the departments continue as currently understood in the college combination discussions. A few examples from FCS include: Child Welfare, Great Plains Idea, Food Safety, Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic, Child Development Labs, the MidWest Quality Child Care Study, Wellness Counseling, Center for Designing Foods and Nutrition, and Nutrition Sensory Work. A few examples from COE include: the Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education, the Center for Technology in Learning and Teaching, the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center, The Community College Leadership program including the Community College Leadership Initiative Consortium (CLIC) and The Leadership in the New Century (LINC) program, and the Research Institute for Studies in Education (RISE). A few examples of special projects in COE, include: Competitive Manufacturing by Design, DaVinci Project, First in the Nation in Education, Math-Science Teacher Attraction and Retention, Multi-cultural and International Curriculum Studies, Team Nutrition and Sports Medicine/Injury.

  3. The subcommittee strongly recommends the continuation of the coordination of Extension activities and programs centrally within the newly proposed combined college through the office of the Associate Dean/Extension Program Director.

  4. As new funds become available, the subcommittee recommends expanding Extension program efforts to high need areas within the newly combined college to grow new Extension programming faculty and staff appointments consistent with the ISU Extension mission and that of the combined college. This expansion should not be at the expense of current priority programming.

  5. The sub committee encourages the newly proposed combined college and ISU Extension to explore the opportunity of creating an academic home for the ISU Extension 4-H Youth Development program within the new college.

  6. Continuing Education (credit programming) will need to be coordinated in the combined college. Currently some duties are handled in the department and others are assigned to associate deans. This needs to be thought through and one person will most likely need to be assigned as the Continuing Ed College coordinator.

  7. The subcommittee wants to make sure that attention is paid to international programming. We believe that this is being handled by another subcommittee, but we want to make sure this does not get lost.

Background information:

(Recommendation A)
The current outreach efforts and Families Extension programs have strong, documented outcomes for Iowa and the nation. These outcomes also speak to an important influence internationally. Examples of outreach and extension efforts are numerous and well documented in both college and ISU Extension annual reports.

(Recommendation B)
Teacher Education Licensure is centralized for the university through the CoE. We would not see that changing. (Note to committee – We may want to add more information about teacher licensure.)

(Recommendation C)
ISU Extension to Families is one of six program units within ISU Extension, and is jointly administered by the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and ISU Extension. The unit is lead by the Associate Dean, FCS/Program Director, ISUE Extension (1 FTE) and co-supervised by the Dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the Vice Provost for ISU Extension. The Associate Dean/Program Director position is funded 15% by FCS and 85% by ISU Extension. ISU Extension to Families has a combined field and campus budget of around $4M, with approximately $1M supporting campus and $3M supporting field positions. $3-4+M of grants are administered annually though Extension to Families. The associate dean/program director provides program leadership and support to 22 campus P&S and faculty, 40 families field specialist, and 100 county offices. An additional 50 part time para-professionals are supported totally on soft dollars administered through the Families unit.

(Recommendation D)
Given 14 years of budget cuts within Extension, and the loss of over $1M in ISU Extension to Families base budget within the past five years, it is important to understand that this may be a slow process over many years.

(Recommendation E)
The ISU Extension Futuring report (8/18/04) carries a similar recommendation. "Short term goal 2, under Integration With Colleges: Align 4-H Youth Development Extension with the appropriate academic home by July 2006. Action step: 3. 4-H Youth Development Program Director will establish a formal request for linking with the proposed newly combined college of FCS and CoE by no later than March 2005. The intent is to broaden the scope of youth programming."

6. Next meeting

The group decided that we have done what we need to do at this time. We will meet again in the Fall or by email, after the mission and naming committee or other committee reports start to be routed and if it appears suggestions might create concerns to outreach and or Extension and/or if additional items are brought forth in the overall committee that need to be discussed.

JaneAnn Stout, Assoc. Dean, College of Family and Consumer Sciences
Director, Iowa State University Extension to Families