On January 2, 1996, Michael Aiken, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, appointed a Commission on Extension to study and make recommendations on programming, structure, and the future of the Cooperative Extension System, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The Commission was given a six-point charge by the Chancellor: To identify Extension's strengths and suggest ways to build upon them; and to identify organizational weaknesses and suggest how to address those weaknesses; To address the question of mission, what are the most important and least important Extension functions; To address the question of structure, what adjustments should be made to Extension's structure to make it cost-effective and able to achieve its mission; To address how Extension can become a financially sound organization; To examine Extension's relationships with other organizations and the possibility of duplication of services; and To identify changes Extension needs to consider to take full advantage of technology currently available or coming on-line in the future.

The Members of the Chancellor's Commission on Extension
John T. Colgan Springfield		Peter Orum St. Charles
Powhatan Collins Matteson		Robert Pritchard Hinckley
George R. Cotton, Sr. East St. Louis		John Wayne Rehn Chicago
Ronald H. Dodd Joliet		Donna Reifschneider Smithton
Douglas Dougherty Springfield		John G. Reifsteck Champaign
Jack Erisman Pana		E. Louise Rogers Crystal Lake
Jean Finley Ramsey		Mary Scheider Freeport
Larry Fischer Pittsfield		Richard L. Stiltz Jacksonville
John L. Huston Chicago		Robert Thurston Pulaski
Sharnell S. Jackson Barrington		Catherine Wolfe Chicago
Steven Wentworth, ex officio Illinois Department of Agriculture, Springfield