Chancellor's Commission on Extension

4. Seamless and Accessible Organization The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences should create a seamless administrative organization that includes U of I Extension with efficient and clear lines of communication that provide citizens direct access to subject matter expertise irrespective of location. Effective communication must occur between citizens and all professionals across the three parts of the land-grant university mission–Extension, research, and academic programs.
Information needs of people in the 21st century will continue to grow in scale and complexity. No single delivery point or level of expertise is ideal for problem solving or delivering information in fields as diverse as, for example, swine production, youth development, integrated pest management, at-risk families, community development, and food safety. The challenge to the College and Extension is to create a seamless organization that allows citizens access to the information and educational resources at any place in the organization appropriate to their needs.

Recommendations

The Extension system should be officially recognized as the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension System but shortened to University of Illinois Extension, or U of I Extension on all materials, communications, and facilities when appropriate.
The 76 local Extension offices should be grouped into five regions, each with a Regional Director responsible for overall administrative leadership for U of I Extension in that region. The criteria for determining regions should include population, geography, staffing levels, etc. The offices for the respective Regional Directors should have adequate support resources and infrastructure, including budget and fiscal management, information and communications technology, and professional development and training support so that these support resources are easily accessible to the local Extension offices they serve.
The use of the terminology Unit, Cluster, and Center should be discontinued.
Wherever possible and practical, regional offices and/or subject matter experts located in the field should be located at ACES regional research facilities, U of I Extension Regional offices, community colleges, or other university campuses where such partnerships can strengthen the effectiveness of programs and their delivery.
Subject matter experts located in the field should have a strong working relationship with an appropriate UIUC department, both through their team and as individuals. Subject matter experts located in UIUC departments should have a strong working relationship with U of I Extension, both through their teams and as individuals. The breadth of the relationship should include responsibility for the scope and quality of program content, effective program delivery, as well as relevance to the research programs centered in departments. Subject matter experts should be held accountable and evaluated relative to these responsibilities and relationships.
Extension should develop and aggressively implement a systematic and dynamic marketing plan. This should be done as part of and in concert with a larger comprehensive effort by ACES.