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from the issue of January 31, 2008
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Extension or engagement debate raised at strategic plan forum
BY KIM HACHIYA, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Extension vs. engagement? Are the concepts equal or limiting? And does one better describe UNL's strategic focus? Arguments ran on either side at the second open forum on UNL's Strategic Plan Jan. 24.
More than 60 packed the East Union meeting room, and several others attended via polycom at 11 sites statewide to offer feedback on the proposed UNL Strategic Plan.
Several in the audience argued that the document should substitute the word extension for the word engagement. "Extension is a strong word that people of Nebraska understand better than words like engagement, outreach or service," said one commenter, adding that the university's land-grant mission expressly uses the word extension.
Both Chancellor Harvey Perlman and IANR Vice Chancellor John Owens defended the word engagement. Owens said the concept has been widely adopted by land-grant universities since the mid-1990s following the Kellogg Commission on the future of land-grant universities. It also has been adopted by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, he said. Engagement, he stated, suggests two-way communications, while extension is more one-dimensional from the university.
Perlman said he was a strong advocate of Extension and IANR, but said many parts of UNL have an "elaborate engagement component" without being part of IANR or Extension. Engagement, he said, is a generic descriptor and engagement activities are part of the mission of the entire university. He said he believed using extension to describe those activities would narrow the scope and meaning of the term.
Barbara Couture, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, said the document aims to "not call out specific units but to make the document something that all of us can see ourselves as a part of."
Perlman said an earlier draft of the document listed specific examples of the vision and strategy but they were omitted from this draft so that each unit could state, "this is how we do those particular things."
Forum comments will be posted at www.unl.edu/ucomm/chancllr/compass/. The draft will be revisited before final adoption.
GO TO: ISSUE OF JANUARY 31
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