Comprehensive Standards: Educational Programs 3.4.2 (extension programs)
The institution's continuing education, outreach, and service programs are consistent with the institution's mission.

Compliance
North Carolina State University is in compliance with this standard.

Explanation 
As the state's only research-extensive university in the land-grant tradition, NC State University has a unique mission to serve the citizens of North Carolina through collaborative research, technical assistance, professional development, lifelong education, technology transfer, service partnerships and other means of applying knowledge to real world problems.

The university has a rich history of extension programs.  Personnel in extension and engagement are present in each of North Carolina's 100 counties plus the Cherokee Reservation, reaching more than one million citizens annually.  Moreover, the university has raised the profile of its extension and engagement programs recently by establishing a new position, vice chancellor for extension and engagement.

Extension and Engagement Programs
NC State University uses a wide variety of programs to bring its research and technology to the citizens of the state.  Miscellaneous extension and engagement programs are listed below.  Summaries of all programs are available on the Web. 

The Office of Extension and Engagement provides leadership for university partnerships with external communities.  The office’s mission is to provide vision for the nation's premier “engaged institution,” recognized for the depth, scope, and impact of learning, discovery, and service partnerships involving faculty, staff, and students with external entities.    

The following organizations within the office of extension and engagement promote outreach practices within the university: 

Extension Operations Council
The Extension Operations Council is the overall coordinating group for all university extension and engagement activities.  Under the leadership of the vice chancellor and assistant vice chancellor for extension and engagement, the council includes representatives from all colleges in the university.  Its primary function is strategic planning and coordination of planning, implementation and evaluation of extension and engagement activities campus-wide. 

University Standing Committee on Extension and Engagement
The extension and engagement committee is advisory to the vice chancellor. The committee's responsibilities are to recommend policies to improve the extension program; to inform faculty about the need for and garner their support of extension activities; to advocate for recognition of faculty in their extension endeavors; to communicate the extension mission of the university.

The university standing committee has been influential in advocating the inclusion of public service as a criterion in promotion and tenure decisions.

To meet its responsibilities, the committee took on the task of examining current extension data reporting structures and streamlining them.  A joint university committee, with representation from the committee, has been formed to study the scholarship of extension and engagement, including data collection, analysis, and dissemination.

The committee chose as its primary task understanding the role of extension and engagement in each college.  As a starting point for accomplishing this task, the committee has conducted a survey of the extension culture at NC State University.

Academy of Outstanding Faculty Engaged in Extension
NC State University is home to the first scholarly academy in the United States to recognize scholarship in extension and engagement.  The academy is active in the promotion and recognition of excellence in extension and outreach at the university and elsewhere.  It is also active in stimulating faculty to address critical social problems or opportunities that require creative interdisciplinary solutions or collaborations.  The academy maintains liaison with appropriate administrative and field offices as well as appointed committees across the campus and the state.

Any faculty member or non-faculty Exempt employee who wins the college-level Outstanding Extension Service Award is eligible for membership into the academy.  Membership includes faculty and professionals who have been recognized for outstanding extension work since 1978. 

Joint Faculty Committee on Scholarship of Extension and Engagement
This committee is a joint initiative of the university standing committee on extension and engagement and the academy of outstanding faculty engaged in extension.  Its purpose is to guide the university in building a culture that values extension scholarship.  As a means towards that end, the joint faculty committee has determined that its goals are:

• To examine the status of the "scholarship of engagement" at the university, paying particular attention to assessing the degree to which reappointment, promotion and tenure guidelines reward extension activities

• To investigate whether a common understanding of scholarship of engagement exists at the university 

• To work with the office and the council to create opportunities for encouraging and enabling faculty, staff and students to participate in engagement

• To teach faculty about the scholarship of engagement, with implications for building program excellence and rewards systems

• To provide support in developing recommendations on processes for evaluating scholarship of engagement and collecting and reporting results

• In collaboration with the Institute for Emerging Issues and other organizations, to conduct a campus-wide forum on the scholarship of engagement

• To include support information related to these endeavors on the extension and engagement website

References

• Academy Of Outstanding Faculty Engaged In Extension (http://www.ncsu.edu/extension/usacabyl.html)

• Extension Operations Council (http://www.ncsu.edu/extension/useocmem.html)

• The Office of Extension and Engagement (http://www.ncsu.edu/extension)

• University Standing Committee on Extension and Engagement (http://www.ncsu.edu/extension/ususcinf.html and http://www.ncsu.edu/provost/governance/standing_committees/ExEC)

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