LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF EDUCATION, SIR: For five years this office has watched with increasing interest the development of the extension work of the University of North Carolina, some of which, though as yet peculiar to this State, is, with necessary adaptations to the varying conditions in other States, capable of general adoption. Because of the importance of some of the phases of this work I have induced the president of the University to have prepared the account which is herewith transmitted for publication as a bulletin of the Bureau of Education. Respectfully submitted. The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. P. P. CLAXTON, Commissioner. THE BUREAU OF EXTENSION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. INTRODUCTION. The work of the Bureau of Extension of the University of North Carolina is presented here as typical of what can be done in making widely serviceable the resources of an institution of higher learning. The University of North Carolina, chartered in 1789, is one of the oldest of the State universities. Its genesis and development have been along the lines characteristic of the private, endowed institutions of the East, rather than those of the Western State universities. It is separate from the State's college of agriculture, and so its extension activities are not associated with the many and important activities of the department of agriculture. It has a student body of 1,000 during the regular session, and an additional 1,000 students in a summer term. Its regular faculty numbers 75 and has always been notable for its scholarship and its research interests. The faculty has maintained for many years three journals of a scholarly nature, and has been steadily active in the representative national societies. These points are significant in giving orientation to its recently developed extension work. It is important to note that this development is not a record of attaching a new department of extension to departments of teaching and research, for the sake of superficial interest or "protective popularity "; but it represents the normal outgrowth of a concept of the university as an organism, and of the extension organization as merely the channel through which the inner life of the institution is given a chance to express itself fully in its environment. It rests on the assumption that the inner life must be sound and true to type to have anything of value to express in extension; and on the further assumption that, in so functioning fully and truly, it not only does not injure the inner life, but strengthens and purifies it. On this belief as a basis, the extension work began as an organized department in 1912, with no special appropriation, and with no expenditures except for printing. The organization consisted committee from the faculty, under a chairman, the universit rian, Dr. L. R. Wilson, who has ever since been its direct Under this faculty group, divided gradually into chairmen of divisions, the extension work grew steadily during the following five years, as it met the demands made upon it-always with the dominating idea of making it the natural outward expression of the institution's vital life. As it grew, strength was given to the machinery as it was needed, but nothing was added that was not a medium for expressing in kind and quality the characteristic life of the institution, and nothing was added that some other agency was doing, or might do, better. The extension work of other university extension departments was studied, but the success of a certain extension activity elsewhere was not regarded as a conclusive reason for its emphasis and adoption by the University of North Carolina Bureau of Extension. If the local organization was not equipped to carry it on efficiently, or if the demand for it was not sufficient or genuine, it was not adopted. On the contrary, some features of the extension work most successful here are original and even unique. All of this is set forth in a record as direct and clear as possible on the pages that follow. In retrospect this growth of five years seems natural, healthful, and helpful to every interest concerned. There has been no loss, it appears, of fineness of quality in university work, nor distraction of attention, nor attenuation of the vital "life at the center "; but rather, by freer and more sympathetic contact with the world outside, there has been added what James called, the no less essential, "robustness of tone." PLAN OF ORGANIZATION. In the establishment and development of the bureau, the university has adopted the plan of utilizing regular university schools, departments, and offices in serving a public more extensive than that represented within the campus. That is, it has not organized a special extension department apart from other departments, but through a widely representative committee of the general faculty, whose chairman is styled "director," it has extended the functions of the various departments beyond the campus walls. When it has been necessary to secure additional assistance in carrying on the work, it has done this by adding it to the department involved rather than to the bureau. The necessary clerical and stenographic aid has been furnished the respective departments to carry on the special duties assigned them, and the director and assistant director have headquarters in the library and the educational building, respectively, where the general work of the bureau is carried on. Furthermore, it has been the policy of the bureau to consider carefully the need of the service to be undertaken, and to secure cooperation from such organization or agency as is best qualified to make the work most productive. In establishing the High School Debating Union, for example, it secured the cooperation of the century-old societies on the campus whose former members were to be found in every community in the State, and whose interest was genuine in making the union as represented by the local school a worthy representative of the society. Similarly, in conducting the road institutes and the courses in postgradute medicine, not to mention other instances, it has worked through the department of civil and road engineering in conjunction with the State geological survey and the State highway commission, and through the medical school in conjunction with the State board of health. In following this plan, every department of the university has been engaged in extension activities and almost every individual instructor has participated at some time or in some way in the work. And in doing this the university as a whole has been kept in sympathetic vital touch with the State to whose life it has been set apart to minister. For the purposes of administration the work of the bureau has been systematized under nine divisions. These and the members of the faculty who administer them follow: (1) General information, by the director, Prof. Louis R. Wilson; (2) Social and economic surveys, by Prof. E. C. Branson and Mr. S. H. Hobbs, jr.; (3) Public discussion and debate, by Assistant Director E. R. Rankin; (4) Correspondence study, by Prof. L. A. Williams; (5) Lectures, by Assistant Director E. R. Rankin; (6) Municipal reference, by Profs. C. L. Raper and J. G. deR. Hamilton; (7) Educational information and assistance, by Profs. M. C. S. Noble, N. W. Walker, H. W. Chase, and L. A. Williams, of the school of education; (8) Good roads institute, by Dr. Joseph Hyde Pratt, cooperating with the department of civil and road engineering and the State highway commission; (9) Medical instruction, by Assistant Director E. R. Rankin, cooperating with the State board of health. COST OF OPERATING. The cost of operating the nine divisions, printing the bulletins, News Letter, and other publications, providing administrative and clerical assistance, represented in 1916-17 (exclusive of fees, gifts from interested citizens devoted to the support of the work), an appropriation of $7,500, of which more than one half was spent for printing. The services of all instructors, whether given in delivering lectures, conducting correspondence courses, making school or other surveys, or what not, have been given free of cost and with a sympathy of interest and spirit which have at once given distinction to the character of the service and made it gratifyingly productive. |