Dean
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State College earlier this year, it
was the first we lived in town since
we’ve been married. That was not
an easy decision for us to make.
But given my schedule it just made
sense. As you know, she travels
with me a great deal. We just
didn’t want to spend all of our time
trying to take care of the back 40.
Q. I know you have some concern
that the University has become too
dependent on federal funds. Would
you comment on this and also give
some possible solutions?
A. That certainly is of major
concern. And I have set one of my
major goals to change that
situation. In days when those funds
were plentiful, this wasn’t a bad
thing to be dependent upon. Even
so, over the lak four or five years,
we have had at best level funding
from the federal government while
the University’s costs have been
increasing. What’s likely to happen
in the future is that the level of
funding will decline. We all know
the President proposed a 59 per
cent cut in funding for Cooperative
Extension. We have turned that
proposal around because people
sent letters to the Office of
Management and Budget at the
rate of 20,000 per week saying the
cut was a bad idea. OMB never had
an issue that generated that kind of
responcse.
Q. Where will the new funds come
from?
A. There has been a change in the
mantality in Washington to shift
more of the responsibilities to the
state and to the private sector. We
are hoping the state legislature
will recognize the need and
allocate |5 million for ag reserch
and Extension. It’s a very im
portant prospect to those who think
Hood Looks For Innovation At PSU
Penn State is important to
agriculture and related industries
in this state.
Q. In many respects the physical
facilities at Penn State have not
kept pace with the up-to-date
research projects that have been
generated at the University. How
far along are your building plans?
A. That’s certainly true. We are
operating in facilities that are very
old fashioned. For example, our
poultry research program is
conducted in facilities that are of
1930 vintage. You can’t do good
research or good Extension
programming when people see the
facilities are the same as their
fathers and grandfathers operated
in. We must also upgrade our dairy
research facility and build a new
agronomy facility. We have a
major building program that must
be done. The good news is that we
have been able to get $l3 million in
the Capital Facilities Bill that was
approved and signed by the
Governor this past spring. And we
have the prospect of getting more
to match a similar appropriation in
the 1985 Farm Bill. This farm bill
appropriated $2O million to
upgrade facilities of ag univer
sities around the country.
Q. I’m interested in a statement
you made recently where you said
we need more cooperation between
the ag colleges. I know there has
been some friction between
colleges in the past. It is probably a
barrier we need to break down.
A. I do think we do, Everett,
because we are in an era where we
have inadequate resources to do
everything. So we have to look at it
in an innovative and perhaps a
fresh way and think how we can
most effectively utilitize those
resources to address the really
important issues. I think op
portunities exist for cooperation in
research and in Extension and
probably in the area of training
students. There is no logic, I
believe, for adjacent states like
New York, Ohio, Maryland and
Pennsylvania to have research and
Extension programs in a large way
focusing on the same issues. I think
we have got to look at what we do
and make sure we are doing it very
well. And also accept the fact that
we are not going to be able to do
some things. It’s inconceivable to
me that adjacent states feel they
must have one of each when it
comes to specialists on their
college faculties. For example, we
have two grape programs in New
York and Pennsylvania. The labs
are located 25 miles from each
other in the western part of the
states and there is virtually no
cooperative effort between these
two activities. In addition, we need
to look at the way we have been
doing Extension. Not that we have
been doing it bad. But because of
tight budgets, we must be in
novative and share resources.
Q. What are some of the in
novations Extension can in
corporate into their program?
A. I think multi-county or
regional efforts in cooperative
Extension is a trend we will move
to. In addition, we are moving
away from as much one on one as
we have had in the past. The
reason we are able to move away
from this is because of the advance
we’ve made in communications.
With the statewide computer
network, other states look at our
program with envy. We are unique
with our computer system between
county agents office. Let’s put a
computer in every county office.
Disease
tolerance.
We curerently have about 250 units
across the state. And I would ex
pect in 10 years you will be tied into
that network on your own farm. It
will become a major way- of
dispensing information about
growing crops, disease problems,
how to deal with weeds and
marketing forcastings. Home
economics, family living and 4-H
progams will also be included. It’s
going to become a tremendously
viable communication network.
Also video tapes will become a
major way to disseminate in
formation. Thirty percent of the
households in this country have
video capabilities. And it’s
estimated that in two years 60
percent of the households will have
them. That’s something everybody
will have access to. And video
tapes are inexpensive. And it’s a
great teaching tool. That’s what
Extension is-teaching.
Q. One of the notable changes in
the Extension programs comes in
the area of urban type education.
Many production farmers think in
light of the funding problems for
Extension these urban city-type
programs should be cut so we can
have Extension address more time
to agriculture itself. Is this the
area we cut out first if funding is
not available?
A. That is a very good question
and one that there is not a terrible
simple answer to. If you think
about Extension as an education
process (which I believe it is), and
if you think about the fact that we
are a land grant institution in
Pennsylvania, I believe we have
the responsiblity to educate in
whatever appropriate ways
possible to all people in the com
monwealth. If you are in
production agriculture, that
.High yielding
ability.
education takes the traditional
form of cooperative Extension. I
think in the urban and suburban
settings we have probably not had
as effective or as active a program
as we need to have in Extension. So
I think Extension has a very im
portant prominent roll to play in
the nonrural settings. I often say
that Extension has the respon
sibility to serve all 12 million
people in Pennsylvania. But it’s
going to be in different ways.
Because obviously we have a very
different population density in
those urban and suburban areas.
One of the exciting activities that
we have seen in Philadelphia is a
very rapidly developing and ef
fective 4-H program. This is in
Philadelphia County. Normally
you think of 4-H as being related to
the rural sector. But we got Ex
tension staff down there that is
very active and innovative. We do
have and will continue to have
some very good 4-H efforts. It ties
to the urban gardening question. It
ties to producing food. It ties to
other agricultural issues. A term
that is often used, which I think I
am becoming more and more
comfortable with, is urban
agriculture. After all if you’ve got
ornamental plantings around your
house in a suburban or urban
setting, it’s the same Jdnd of
problems that the fellow that is
producing corn in Lancaster
County has in terms of disease,
insects, weeds, nutritional
problems and so on. Different
plants. Slightly different en
vironment. But those are
agricultural problems. And I think
we have a responsibility to work
with them. I know in this my
opinion is not a popular one with
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