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<p>The U.S. land grant university system’s roots reach back to a mid-nineteenth century commitment to provide “liberal and practical” education to the “industrial classes”. By the early 20th century, the founding of the national Cooperative Extension Service (CES) institutionalized an evolved mission for higher education. The CES mission, which complemented the more traditional higher education missions of teaching and research, focused on community outreach and public service. In affiliation with the land grant university system, it was implemented by constituting and staffing a federal / state / county “cooperative” system of educators or “agents”. CES has served both conceptually and functionally as a boundary spanning organization to connect campus resources and people with off campus communities. CES educators now serve every county or county equivalent in the U.S. We describe the extent to which the national land grant universities and CES are recognizing the accelerating climate crisis as mission critical and are responding to the crisis within the broad parameters of its educational mandate. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the CES in its efforts to date to deliver climate services, considering the need for dynamic engagement with an increasingly diverse array of communities dealing with climate change. We describe the vision now coalescing of how the CES will further mobilize the extensive resources of the land grant university system to more effectively address the mitigation and adaptation needs of the communities served.</p>

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Cooperative extension’s public service mission and the challenge of climate change

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年8月5日

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  • David Kay,
  • Paul Lachapelle

摘要

The U.S. land grant university system’s roots reach back to a mid-nineteenth century commitment to provide “liberal and practical” education to the “industrial classes”. By the early 20th century, the founding of the national Cooperative Extension Service (CES) institutionalized an evolved mission for higher education. The CES mission, which complemented the more traditional higher education missions of teaching and research, focused on community outreach and public service. In affiliation with the land grant university system, it was implemented by constituting and staffing a federal / state / county “cooperative” system of educators or “agents”. CES has served both conceptually and functionally as a boundary spanning organization to connect campus resources and people with off campus communities. CES educators now serve every county or county equivalent in the U.S. We describe the extent to which the national land grant universities and CES are recognizing the accelerating climate crisis as mission critical and are responding to the crisis within the broad parameters of its educational mandate. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the CES in its efforts to date to deliver climate services, considering the need for dynamic engagement with an increasingly diverse array of communities dealing with climate change. We describe the vision now coalescing of how the CES will further mobilize the extensive resources of the land grant university system to more effectively address the mitigation and adaptation needs of the communities served.