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The
overall theme of this issue of Extension Focus is economic development.
We are highlighting work our faculty are doing that benefits the
state's economy in one way or another including economics studies
that helped potato producers negotiate a better contract a couple
years ago; Extension's coached forestry stewardship program, which
is helping small private forest landowners manage their lands better
and achieve their goals; and Extension work that is helping educate
workers in Washington's rapidly growing wine industry.
In this issue you will see examples of our expanded mission in our
collaboration with Jerman Rose, who is director of the Center for
Entrepreneurial Studies in the College of Business and Economics.
On the flip side, you will see a lot of examples of things we have
been doing for many years that are the strength of Extension and
continue to be successful.
Last
fall I told you that we were taking steps to change our organizational
name to reflect our expanded mission and partnerships. The Board
of Regents endorsed our request in November, so now we are known
as WSU Extension instead of WSU Cooperative Extension.
Historically,
most of our funding has come from a partnership of federal, state,
and county governments. "Cooperative Extension" described that relationship.
In recent years, however, a growing portion of our budget has come
from external sources, primarily grants and contracts. That source
has grown to the point where grants and contracts now equal the
state's contribution to our budget.
This
tells us that Extension is a really good taxpayer investment if
you consider that for every state dollar we receive, we bring in
an external dollar.
But, grants and contracts cannot replace state funding. State funding
pays faculty salaries. Grants often require local matching funds.
State-funded salaries often constitute a major portion of the matching
funds we cite when writing a grant proposal. We can’t afford
to get any leaner because we won’t have the physical effort
to compete for grants that now fund a lot of what we do.
Welcome
as external funding is, it comes with strings attached. It directs
our programming. While that isn’t necessarily bad, we lose
some flexibility in our ability to respond to the needs of our clientele. |
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Federal appropriations now constitute 10 to 12
percent of our budget. An equal percentage is furnished by counties.
Gifts and contracts that do not fall into other categories provide
close to 10 percent of our funding.
We
face some budget challenges on the federal front. We have lost
some funding for a number of high priority programs in the federal
FY ‘04 budget which we hope to restore in FY ‘05.
One of those programs is the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education
Program, which is celebrating 35 years of service to the public
this year. You will read more about that program in this issue.
EFNEP
staff, drawn from low income audiences the program is trying to
help, work with families to help them understand food choices,
food preparation, and food safety as they apply to them. The idea
is to improve health, productivity, and self-esteem through better
diets.
In
Washington, we have served both migrant and immigrant communities.
The newest include Latino communities throughout the state and
an immigrant Slavic population in Spokane.
As
we move to a university-wide Extension, I want to remind people
the most distinguishing characteristic of land-grant universities
is Extension. I cannot overemphasize the importance of implanting
the land-grant vision in those who lead our land-grant university.
I contend university-wide Extension is returning to our roots
as a land-grant university.
We
also are reminding the public that the mission of a land-grant
university differs from other public universities. What makes
us different is our commitment to serve the people of the state
in the communities where they live by helping them apply knowledge
learned at the university and by responding to their needs.
The
land-grant vision, and dedication to that vision, are worth more
than any techniques or tools we use in our work. The key is not
in the specific details of what we do, but the purpose to make
lives better.
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