Contents
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Implementation of the Innovations
The following information about the implementation of the innovations
was derived in part from the interviews and in part from data provided
by OSU Extension administration.
- Extension faculty have met the requirement of finding a home within
an academic unit. They are housed in 31 different units (26 departments
and five colleges “at large”). Details are reported in the
Integration section.
- Campus-based faculty are more dispersed among colleges and departments
than the field faculty. Field faculty are associated with 17 different
units, campus-based faculty with 29. Twelve departments are home to
94% of field faculty but only 67% of campus-based faculty. Three colleges
are home to 99% of field faculty but only 90% of campus-based faculty.
- The colleges with previously strong Extension contacts house the majority
of Extension faculty. However, one college that is not traditionally
an Extension base, Liberal Arts, has become the campus home for ten
Extension faculty.
- There is, of course, a wide range in the number of Extension faculty
in any particular department, and a wide range in the percentage they
constitute of their department's total faculty.
- In numerous departments, P&T
committees for Extension faculty include non-Extension faculty and vice
versa. The Dean & Director of the Extension Service serves on the
University P&T committee.
- Supervisory responsibility has been shifted from Extension's central
administration to colleges and especially to department heads. The Extension
central staff has shrunk and the department heads’ workload with
respect to Extension faculty has increased.
- Funding to cover the expenses of campus-based Extension faculty for
“Supplies and Services” – to cover Extension travel,
secretarial expense, professional development, and program expenses
is allocated to program areas in the amount of $30,000 per campus-based
Extension faculty member per year. Much of this is passed on to the
Extension person’s academic department. This, of course, helps
the departments see the Extension presence in their midst as a net gain
– financially as well as otherwise – rather than as a drain
on limited resources. OSU Extension field-based faculty have a similar
allocation, provided half by the county and half by OSU Extension, which
is channeled through their county office, not their academic home.
- There are, scattered throughout the campus, people who serve as strong
advocates and champions of this overall effort. Such people, especially
if they are in key roles such as department head, associate dean, or
dean, make a considerable difference in the extent to which their unit
is welcoming and supportive of Extension faculty.
- There are reportedly others, especially some of the research faculty,
who are negative toward the placement of Extension faculty within departments.
- Many among the campus community are impressed with how far they’ve
come and how much various campus units have flexed.
- 95% of the respondents report that they have written position descriptions.
Two-thirds (67.8%) report that their position description was written
or updated in the past 18 months (2000-2001), 90% since the start of
1998.
- The scholarship expectation for Extension faculty has been implemented.
Position descriptions typically include a scholarship expectation with
a guideline of 15 to 20 percent time allocated to it. A variety of purposes
and approaches are being pursued by Extension faculty in the fulfilling
the scholarship expectation.
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