Funding uncertain, Extension plans for future

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The phrase “land grant university” is not foreign to Spartan ears. Most MSU students know at least something about the university’s past, but many are unfamiliar with how MSU is fulfilling its land grant mission today, or that there is even a mission to begin with.

Land grant universities are meant to spread the resources of the university throughout the state, and that’s what MSU is doing through MSU Extension and Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, or MAES, Extension Director Thomas Coon said.

“We are the presence in a land grant university in communities across the state,” Coon said.

“We are there to understand what the needs are in communities and then to translate the expertise from MSU faculty in addressing those needs.”

Extension covers a wide range of activities, ranging from providing education programming on nutrition and physical activity to offering farmers information on how they can increase their crop yields, Coon said.

But budgetary and funding uncertainties have plagued MSU Extension and MAES, which receive a large portion of their funding through state appropriations. Compounding this, MSU recently reduced the amount Extension and MAES receive as part of the university’s overall budget by a collective $2 million.

Regardless, each program will undergo changes to ensure the impact felt by lowered appropriations is minimal.

Budget uncertainties

During its June 18 meeting, the MSU Board of Trustees authorized a $43.2 million budget for MSU Extension, $1.6 million less than last year’s.

Although Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed in February to maintain Extension’s funding for 2010-11 at its 2009-10 levels, the exact amount the program will receive hinges on legislators’ budget negotiations.

Extension has received more than $29.4 million from the state in year-to-date appropriations, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency.

MSU Extension receives federal, state and county funding, and the predicted total of these funds influences the amount the board will approve for the budget.

“Our funds largely go to pay for people’s salaries and benefits,” Coon said.

“When we face a reduction like that it means fewer people. As much as possible, we will account (for) that through attrition people, retiring people (and people) taking jobs elsewhere. But if it goes beyond that, it may mean we’ll have to let some people go.”

It is difficult to predict how many employees the program will let go, as some faculty positions are supported by funds outside of MSU Extension, Coon said.

Despite this, he estimated the planned $1.6 million cut would lead to the loss of 24 educators.
MSU Extension has nearly 300 extension educators, 200 of whom are supported by state and federal funding, Coon said.

MAES, another federally and university-funded program serving the state through MSU, had its approved budget reduced $400,000 from last year at the board’s June 18 meeting. MAES has received more than $34.1 million in year-to-date appropriations from the state, according to the House Fiscal Agency.

Jeff Armstrong, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said MAES will compensate for the losses by not refilling positions after employees retire.

MAES also will eliminate the cows from an experiment station in Chatham, Mich.

Restructuring

Extension will undergo a mass reorganization starting Thursday in hopes of making the program more efficient and useful to the Michigan residents it serves, Coon said.

MSU Extension has an office and director in 82 of Michigan’s 83 counties.

But after July 1, all county extension director positions, as well as five regional director positions, will be eliminated.

The counties will be divided into 13 regions, with each region headed by a district coordinator.

The reorganization began last summer, with various task forces examining programs and the structure of the organization.

Betty Blase, who is a newly appointed district coordinator for an area covering Kent, Ottawa and Allegan counties, said the change will be beneficial for MSU Extension.

“The main reason for the reorganization is to allocate more dollars toward programs and to streamline and allocate fewer dollars to administration,” Blase said.

MSU Extension still will continue to maintain an office in each county, Coon said.

However, Extension educators and staff will begin serving multiple counties instead of one and specialize in a particular field of study.

“We’re dealing with complicated issues in communities and family business across the state,” Coon said.

“As a good example, a lot of farmers have not only a bachelor’s degree, but a master’s degree. They’re sophisticated and well-educated, and to be able to provide them a higher level of expertise, we need to be at a higher level as well.”

Randy Bell, director of the Ingham County Extension, will transition from the county’s extension director to an extension educator for seven counties, including Ingham.

Bell said he is looking forward to the change.

“I support it 100 percent,” Bell said. “I’m invigorated by it. I’ve been an extension director for five years, but I’m being given the opportunity to continue working in Ingham County and I think it’s a great opportunity.”

Program changes

Along with changes to the administration and employees, there also will be a change to the programs and curriculums within MSU Extension.

In the past, there were a variety of curriculums in which extension educators were involved, and the educators themselves were organized by counties. Now that educators will work for multiple counties, educators will be grouped into four focus areas.

The four new focus areas deal with agriculture, community and economic development, supporting and educating Michigan’s youth and health and nutrition building.

“A lot of work was done with talking with employees in MSU Extension over the last year to really identify what are the key areas in Michigan that could be benefited with education and research,” Blase said.

Having educators focus on specific areas allows the program to be more useful to a greater number of people, said Rita Klavinski, Marshall County’s Extension director.

“It’s going to make us more focused on our program delivery in that we will be able to be more specialized in providing assistance on issues facing the state of Michigan,” Klavinski said.

MSU Extension’s associate director Steve Lovejoy said getting feedback from people the program serves is an ongoing effort.

“A lot of it was feedback from stakeholders — the people we serve — saying the staff needed to be more focused, more specialized,” Lovejoy said.

“We continuously look for feedback.”

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