Economic Impact

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Land-grant universities are tasked with educating and informing the communities that surround them. As part of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, Outreach and Extension has been pursuing that mission and reaching its goals since the early 1900s. The department is made up of nine outreach units that include:

Applications Engineers Program (AEP).
Center for Local Government and Technology (CLGT).
Distance Education.
Fire Protection Publications (FPP).
Fire Service Training (FST).
International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC).
International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA).
New Product Development Center (NPDC).
Professional Development.

Together, these units serve all 77 counties of Oklahoma, multiple states and countries to improve people’s lives by sharing best practices.

“Our college represents the best in technology, science and innovation,” says Ed Kirtley, assistant dean of Outreach and Extension for CEAT. “Outreach and Extension takes that knowledge and those skills, and they serve as the delivery system that sends it out in a way that it can be used.”

All areas of the Outreach and Extension units serve the state of Oklahoma whether in manufacturing, processes, sustainability, safety or other areas. Several extend into the surrounding region, including the NPDC through its work with companies throughout the southeast and Distance Education with students located across the country. Three units in particular offer resources around the world, including IFSAC through its international accreditation programs, FPP with publications in more than 12 languages and IGSHPA with members in Canada, India, China and Australia.

From small manufacturing companies to international organizations, Outreach and Extension units provide services to all facets of industry. AEP and the NPDC improve processes and equipment for local manufactures while FPP, FST and IFSAC make up some of the largest governing and education groups in fire safety. Distance Education and Professional Development each offer courses for industry workers looking to continue their education, and groups like IGSHPA serve as global partners to the world’s most innovative sustainability efforts.

While the units maintain working relationships with the academic side of the college, Outreach and Extension operates largely on its own as an arm of CEAT. This has not always been the case. History has shown that nearly all the units were formed by faculty who knew the college had something practical to offer the citizens who supported it and made an effort to connect those stakeholders with information and services that could benefit the state, region and country as a whole.

Kirtley says the fire service areas were some of the first to take on the responsibilities of outreach. In the 1930s, the Oklahoma State Fireman’s Association was holding training conventions that soon became too large to accommodate. The assocation turned to Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College for assistance. A vocational teacher from Ponca City, Okla., stepped up to teach the classes, and Fire Service Training was established. A similar story can be told for units such as NPDC and CLGT.

Some units, like IGSHPA, were created when groundbreaking technologies were invented on the OSU campus. Ground-source heat pumps are a rapidly growing industry for heating and cooling buildings, and the technology was researched, created and implemented at Oklahoma State. IGSHPA today has more than 5,000 members worldwide and hosts an annual conference to promote the movement.

CEAT Outreach and Extension has programs that assist the state, region and nation with all types of engineering and technology issues, including road maintenance and fire trainings.

The Outreach and Extension department has high goals for the future. With budget cuts and new customer ideologies, Outreach and Extension is working more diligently than ever to find innovative ways to provide services and products at low or no cost to the public and industry. They are also striving to better connect with constituents in an increasingly competitive work environment.

“Our resources are dropping, and our customers’ needs are continuing to rise,” Kirtley says. “We are finding a way to close the gap between those and improve engagement and responsiveness in each of our units. We are looking to provide a ‘cradle-to-grave’ source for training in both technical and nontechnical skills that makes OSU an institution of choice when considering beginning or continuing education.”

Kirtley has identified two main goals for the future:

Reconnect and strengthen the connection with customers by building two-way communication that will determine the needs of future customers.
Create a new, sustainable funding and resource model.

Surveys and other communication platforms will give the department more feedback to improve its work, Kirtley says. The department recognizes the need to understand the greater expectations of customers and believes the best way to attain this information is through a free exchange of ideas and requests.

“For so long, our customers have simply accepted what they’ve gotten from the government,” Kirtley says. “Now they are speaking out and being more proactive about their needs and requirements.”

Simultaneously, Outreach and Extension will address funding issues by reevaluatingbudget management. Kirtley says the NPDC has implemented a new approach that he would like to see throughout the units — a system of looking at expenses in three brackets to better calculate the highest returns on investment.

Outreach and Extension will continue its long-standing reputation as a service department for the state, nation and world. Kirtley is optimistic that the next 100 years of outreach will be as, if not more, successful than the last.