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CORVALLIS - Resistance to change within the nation's grassroots network of land grant or "people's" universities is threatening to shove the uniquely American concept, which dates to the 1860s, into the dustbin of history, a Virginia Tech University professor contends.

But innovations at a few institutions, including Oregon State University, offer the hope of a new social "contract" and role for the land grant system in the country's future, says George McDowell.

The Virginia Tech University economist's book "Land-Grant Universities and Extension into the 21st Century: Renegotiating or Abandoning a Social Contract," published by the Iowa State University Press last year, is sparking discussion across the United States.

In his introduction, McDowell explains that the land grant system, which Congress established with the Morrill Act of 1862 that provided land and money for a "people's" college or university in each state, was a "uniquely American approach to democracy."

Until then, higher education had been reserved for "the aristocracy." But the new land grant institutions focused on practical topics such as agriculture and engineering, as well as on classical academic subject matter. The land grant schools' overriding purpose, McDowell says, was to support the democratic process by providing broader access to higher education.

As the decades passed, research in agriculture and other areas was added to the land grant mission. Then in 1914 Congress set up the federal-state Cooperative Extension Service. That became the outreach arm, with faculty in county offices delivering to the public new knowledge generated on campuses and at branch experiment stations. "This institutionalized form of public service has had a profound impact on the character of higher education in America" and delivered sweeping contributions to life in America, McDowell writes.

But despite that, support for the land grant system has been "under assault" in recent decades from the state and federal levels, he observes. "The reason is quite simple and clear," said McDowell. "The success of the agricultural research/extension establishment and the increased productive capacity of farmers made it possible to produce the nation's food with fewer farmers. Indeed, as more successful farmers survive and less successful farmers go out of business, farm business size has grown and farm numbers have declined.

"But the extension portfolio of programs has not followed suit," he added. "Indeed, during the same period, the proportion of extension resources committed to agricultural programs has grown rather than shifted toward new clients and new problems."

The reasons for this, McDowell asserts, include pressure from groups such as farm organizations to keep extension work focused on traditional areas of emphasis, and pressure within institutions for educators to work within traditional disciplines to advance professionally.

But McDowell points to innovations he contends hint at the promise of a refocused and revitalized land grant system. Among those:

• In the 1990s the state of Oregon's land grant institution, Oregon State University, became the first major research university in the country to significantly broaden its definitions and evaluation of scholarship. This allows more recognition for innovation in the outreach work of extension faculty, researchers and other faculty members;

   

• The OSU Extension Service's county-based faculty receive appointments as members of the university's academic departments to encourage integration of the institution's teaching, research and public outreach efforts;

   

• McDowell describes how in recent years OSU's Extension Service has produced tabloid-format publications on controversial public issues such as salmon survival and poverty and inserted them into newspapers. Those publications, he says, move away from the traditional "expert model" of extension education and find another way to contribute to society "in the finest tradition of the land-grant universities," which were established to make American democracy better.

   

• Many issues in contemporary American society confound the most diligent of scientists and extension educators because they are problems about which the experts disagree," he said.

The OSU tabloid publications, he explains, describe controversial issues in a balanced manner and bring large numbers of citizens a wide range of views, making them more prepared to participate in the democratic process.

In his book McDowell also describes nontraditional activities and structures at other land grant universities, such as Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin, as examples of land grant institutions exploring new ways of operating.

In response to McDowell's book, Lyla Houglum, director of the OSU Extension Service, said: "We aren't abandoning our traditional audiences and clients. But we are also addressing emerging needs within the state. In some cases our role is to help traditional clients like farmers evolve and continue to be productive in a changing world. In other cases, our role is to work with new audiences in new ways.

"Here's an example of an emerging need," said Houglum: "The OSU Extension Service, in concert with other parts of the university, has begun to implement pilot projects that bring education about the application of information technologies and business development to underserved audiences and economically depressed areas of the state.

"In the future," she added, "Extension may have a very important role to play within the state's technology industry and also in helping citizens in rural and urban areas, both young people and adults, take advantage of the opportunities of the information age."