The OSU Innovations and Their Context

Contents Executive Summary Situation Statement The OSU Innovations Introduction to the Study The Questionnaire Study Findings Results by Theme Integration Scholarship Responsiveness Flexibility Resources Outcomes Discussion Recommendations

The OSU Third Mission Innovations Oregon State University has described its Third Mission Innovations of 1993-1995 in various ways. For example, the most detailed single representation of the proposed changes was probably the list of 39 recommendations contained in the Transition Committee’s April 1994 report. (Some of these recommendations were amended by the Provost’s response of July 1994; implementation since then has generated further variations, but to a considerable degree, the innovations as now operationalized are consistent with the 1994 planning documents.) At the core of the innovations are four primary ones and four secondary innovations which were instituted in order to implement the primary innovations: Primary innovations Identify extended education [extension] as an important university-wide mission Integrate OSU Extension faculty into academic departments Locate programmatic guidance for Extension education within the academic structure Institute a scholarship expectation for all Extension faculty Secondary innovations (put into place to fully implement the primary ones) Develop a new definition of scholarship that encompasses the activities of Extension faculty Develop and regularly update position descriptions for all Extension faculty Develop and utilize promotion and tenure guidelines and procedures (university-wide and at college and department levels) that recognize and reward all three of the University’s mission areas Allocate Extension program support funds for campus-based Extension faculty through program leaders but, for the most part, channel into academic departments A variety of intended results of the innovations were identified in documents from the 1993-1994 period. These have recently been summarized as follows: Overall Intended result: Address the needs of the people of Oregon. In order to do so, improve integration of : Campus and off-campus faculty Research and Extension Assure that Oregon State University’s Extension Service is: Customer-driven and responsive Flexible in fulfilling the Third Mission Reallocate internal resources by the University and the Colleges as appropriate to emphasize Extension Source: Bloome, personal communication, 2001. Emphasis added to highlight themes that are explored in this report. The roster of innovations and the list of intended results, above, provided the basis for selecting the following themes for this study: Integration Scholarship Responsiveness Flexibility Resources Outcomes These six themes guided the development and selection of questions for the questionnaire and also provide the outline for the report of findings contained in this document. University and Societal Context Several features of Oregon State University's situation when the innovations were conceived (about 1993) provided a specific context for the innovations: Extension professionals already had faculty titles and a tenure track. The state legislature's contribution to the OSU Extension Service had been cut. A consultant study had recommended positioning the Extension Service more broadly than its historic Ag College base. The top leaders at the university and the College of Agricultural Sciences were disposed toward bold action that would go beyond existing precedents. The innovations have of course been introduced into a changing environment. Since the period when the innovations were put into place (1994-95), key features of change include changing state funding for the University; the rapid acceptance of computer technology, the Internet, and the World Wide Web; a period of considerable turnover among campus faculty and Extension field faculty; and the introduction of the InterAction dialogue process and accompanying training at OSU. Additional changes have occurred in the broader society that may be salient. For example, Oregon has experienced considerable demographic change, bringing new clientele with different needs. Also, it may be that Extension’s recent hires bring different attitudes toward their work, hours, careers, scholarship, communities, and specifically toward Extension, when compared with longer-term employees. At the University level, other change initiatives have followed this one; active, primary attention has shifted elsewhere. To the extent that further effort is needed to completely fulfill the intentions of this change initiative, it would be a matter of returning attention to this area, or to a reframing of this initiative that incorporates current concerns. previous page top of this page next page