Small Group Discussion - Group 1
Recorder: Steven Weiss

• Breadth of expertise including faculty knowledge, student involvement, and alumni base.

• Opportunity to serve the state and region as a publicly supported institution.

• Momentum and established strength of outreach programs on this land grant campus providing a base for further activities.

• An increased sense of urgency stimulated by faculty, student, staff, and alumni interest and the emergence of increased social problems.

• Strong student internship programs in individual departments and campuswide.

• Proximity to the seat of the nationís largest state government and the center of the worldís seventh largest economy.

• Cutting edge technology.

• Opportunity to reward outreach.

• Impediments to making an effective connection between campus expertise and outreach programs.

• Inflexible faculty reward system, including a rigid research-teaching-service model, and the faculty emphasis on individual agendas.

• Internal and external gaps in communicating the opportunities and products of outreach activity.

• Cumbersome internal bureaucracy that impedes the flow of outreach activity.

• Technologically-driven projects, with unrealistic expectations and high costs.

Taking advantage of new opportunities for the land grant university for this region and state.

1. New and enhanced methods of collaboration, both across campus disciplines and programs and with community and regional partners.

2. Create an ongoing process for evaluating outreach activities to better inform future efforts.

3. Maintain an inventory of outreach projects and provide a methodology for organizing outreach programs that emphasize partnerships.

4. Invest in outreach comparable to investment in research.