Believe We Can[1]

By

Dennis R. Campion

Annual Conference

October 14, 2008

The first thing I must do is to acknowledge you and all your efforts to uphold University of Illinois Extension as among the very best nationally in university public engagement, in providing transformative knowledge in a setting of partnership that improves the quality of life for the people of Illinois, the nation, and increasingly the world.

This is really our ultimate shared vision – improving the quality of life.

We have been through a lot this year, some of it real and some of it imagined; some of it exciting and some of it stressful, no,much of it stressful. Some of you have taken on important roles of leading us, by design and by example, to positive changes.

Many of you have embraced – or accepted – the changes we’ve made and the changes being planned. You are what makes University of Illinois Extension so great!

Let’s take a moment to applaud ourselves and to applaud each other.

I know that individually, each one of you does your very best. But this does not always result in an aggregated best. We must look at the totality of what we do and how we do it, for we have many daunting challenges ahead of us, challenges we cannot meet if we don’t think broadly and creatively and if we don’t act together. We must remember, you must remember, that it’s not “all about me”or “about them”, but rather it’s “all about us.” I’m not suggesting that we be guided by that last-decade mantra to “do more with less,” but rather that we do more better – that is, that we do the very best we can do collectively while recognizing that bigger is not better and that territorialism or clinging to the past will keep us from doing our collective best and realizing our vision. In the words of Mike Hutjens, Extension Dairy Specialist, “We need to work smarter, not harder.”

I have seen enormous changes over the nearly two decades in which I have been at Illinois. However, I have not experienced the type, complexity, speed, and comprehensiveness of the changes I’m now seeing in society in general, in higher education and in universities, and particularly here in Extension. The road blocks seem daunting at first blush. Out of this milieu, is coming a clear message that the public is changing the way it thinks about higher education. And, there is ample evidence that the issues that higher education faces as a result are not temporary. That is to say we are less a public good than a private good. The calls for accountability are growing louder while public support for higher education as a societal good is on the decline. In part this is why Illinois has the second highest tuition in the Big Ten after PennState.

We may very well be at one of those watershed moments – those moments of transformation in higher education such as those brought about by the Morrill Act, the HATCH Act, the Smith-Lever Act, the rise of graduate schools and disciplinary-focused departments, the G.I. Bill, and by the influx of huge amounts of Federal research funds that fundamentally changed the role and nature of higher education.

It is up for grabs as to what the new monker might be. Some have suggested that publicly engaged universities will grab footing like teaching and research did a few years ago as defined by the Carnegie Foundation. Today, Carnegie is in the business of classifying Engagement!!!

Now we must add personal wealth, psychological wealth (TUMS) associated with an imperfectly performing economy to the sweeping history noted above. These transformative factors were boiled down in Provost Linda Katehi’s comments yesterday, “As a campus we anticipate a challenging financial context for the next two years…”

We will need to separate the constraints from the challenges. It is the latter that we have some real control over.

Over the next few minutes, I’ll focus on some, and only some of the highlights of the past year, but only to set the stage for articulating (again) the challenges we have in front of us if we are to realize our vision. Meeting these challenges successfully is critical to continuing the heritage of Extension. Our excellent progress and the associated positive impact are at risk if we fail.

President White talks about a brilliant future. Chancellor Herman talks about being the number one public research institution of higher education in the nation. Dean Easter talks about being globally pre-eminent and locally relevant.

Our quest for excellence must fit this mold, we must be remarkable. Parenthetically, Provost Katehi used this word, “remarkable,” yesterday to describe our impact. Our vision must be one of pre-eminence in all we do. The societal issues we address must be of the highest priority. The stakes are high and we must be bold, aggressive and entrepreneurial in developing and implementing strategic and operational plans if we are to succeed.

There is good news. The micro mileau of Extension:

1. We have been successful with TOP and spousal hires.

2. Our rate of growth in grants and in ICR (new terminology for ICR is Facility and Maintenance) exceeds that of the college and campus, at least at this point.

3. Rate of growth of overall funds that are county-based continues to be positive.

There are concerns about our future, however. Campus-based reductions in State funding, declining purchase power of Smith-Lever funds and the uncertainties of state-appropriated county funds are primary. These are our constraints.

That leaves the challenges. What is it that we can really control? Programs!!!

We need to expand our portfolio of what I call high-end programs directed at high priority societal issues. The corollary here is that these programs will provide a rate of financial return sufficient to sustain our mission. Our teams are working to identify and define their stable of high-end programs, several with great progress. They are acting on their possibilities.

We are an organization with wonderfully creative people and an emerging entrepreneurial spirit. Will we have the programs and revenue streams to cover our “losses” from traditional sources and to meet our goals? It will be a challenge, but at least it will be an adventure over which we have control.

To be sure, there are other solutions to the financial issues we face, greater efficiency of operation, different models of Units sharing Educators, tapping donors, to name a few. Wouldn’t it be great to have a new State appropriation as we did two years ago to replace lost Center Educator positions? All of these need to be, and will be, pursued.

These are trying times for everyone. You are setting a new course, one based on more self-reliance than on things over which we have relatively little control. We have great examples of success and there are more in the pipeline. With this energy picking up speed every day, we will succeed. “When you think it possible, you see more possibilities.”(SM) (Genworth Financial)

Let me end with a note of caution. Serious rumblings of a mid-year State rescission are starting to surface. The probability is very high that this will happen. This is one of those things that fits into the, “It is out of our control category.”

What this would mean is that we are on the right track to diversify our revenue streams, streams that we create and control. We have the personal power in terms of scholarship, creativity and a sense of entrepreneurship to succeed in our vision for pre-eminence. Finally, we must work in unison to improve the quality of life of Illinoisans.

Whether you think you can, or can’t, you’re right (Henry Ford). Again, “When you think it possible, you see more possibilities.”(SM) (Genworth Financial) Let’s believe we can. We will realize so many more possibilities if we do.

Thank you for the privilege of serving as your Director.

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[1]Special thanks to Dean Paula Kaufman who allowed reference to use of text and context for portions of this address. Her presentation, State of the Library, 2008 can be found at: