TABLE 43.-Methods of avoiding unnecessary duplication of work offered by other State agencies General extension has failed to make the most of its opportunities to develop a satisfactory publicity program. The most frequently employed methods for making known the services of the extension division are official bulletins or news letters, correspondence, and newspaper publicity used by all the institutions, and lectures, district representatives, advertising, and radio, all of which are utilized by half the colleges reporting. Extension divisions lack some of the means of effective publicity that are inherent in residence, among which are campus appeal, athletic teams, alumni, and the traditions of the institution. Furthermore, general extension has not developed community contacts through cooperative activities to the extent practiced by Smith-Lever extension with such favorable informative effect. Chapter XIII. Offerings of General Extension The democratic character of university extension service is indicated by the general appeal which it makes to all people regardless of age or of educational level of achievement. Informal services of general extension, such as visual instruction aids and package libraries of information are utilized by the public schools where millions are served, by women's clubs, and by other community groups, as well as by individuals from practically all the walks of life. In its teaching service also university extension reaches students irrespective of age and within broad limits of educational advancement. Mature men and women who for some reason have not completed their secondary school training enroll in home study courses of high-school grade as a means for removing this handicap. Boys and girls with approval of high-school principals take such courses in case of local need of cooperation. Work which is offered both in short courses and in class and correspondence study without regard to university credit of any kind appeal to a wide range of citizens. The greatest field of the more formal phases of university extension teaching, courses for credit, is the large class of undergraduate college students and of teachers in service. These groups enroll in extension work for the chief purpose of applying credits toward their regular collegiate degrees. Graduate courses, too, are becoming increasingly popular. Gradnate work is offered in the form of specialized training for people in business and in the professions. Many enroll in such courses because their previous collegiate training was general or was in another field or because economic, social, and scientific changes have rendered their training obsolete. Others take such courses chiefly for their general cultural value. Still others engage in graduate study through university extension for the purpose of obtaining advanced degrees. It is significant that 15 land-grant colleges accept extension-class credit to apply on the master's degree and 55 accept 4 Alabama Polytechnic Institute, University of Arizona, University of Arkansas, Purdue University, Iowa State College, Louisiana State University, University of Maine, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, North Carolina State College, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State College, State College of Washington, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Wyoming. University of Arkansas, University of Idaho, University of Missouri, North Carolina State College, and State College of Washington. correspondence study. One institution (University of Nebraska) accepts extension-class work as a part of the requirement for the doctor's degree. As mature students are the most capable in pursuing studies under a minimum of direction, graduate extension work will develop more generally within the fields of study where the necessary research materials are available. That general extension work of the land-grant colleges is available for people of all ages and of varying degrees of previous training is evident from Table 44, which indicates the number of institutions offering work through different types of instruction on a variety of levels. TABLE 44.-Educational levels and medium of instruction of general extension offerings The extent to which the different schools and colleges of the landgrant institutions offer general extension work through noncredit short courses, through extension classes and correspondence, both credit and noncredit, and through a number of informal extension. services is shown by the Table 45, listing the offerings of institutions reporting such service. TABLE 45.-Number of institutions reporting offerings and activities relating to schools and departments Table 46 shows a wide range of offerings by different schools and colleges within the institutions, but the number of institutions offering general extension work in a large number of the different educational fields is not large. Not one of the schools and colleges is represented by general extension in all of the institutions. Those most generally appearing are arts and sciences in 19, teacher training in 19, engineering and industry in 16, and commerce and business in 15. Offerings by courses.-Another and more detailed view of the scope of the general extension work of the land-grant colleges may be obtained by a study of the list of individual courses offered through short courses and through extension class work and correspondence study, both credit and noncredit. Table 46 gives this list with the number of schools that offer such courses. |
