President Van Hise on the Formation of the American Model of University Extension

Abstract

  The American Model of University Extension, featuring “Public Service”, emerged in the early 20th century. Charles R. Van Hise, President of the University of Wisconsin, made a large contribution to the diffusion of the new model as well as the establishment of the new Extension Division at his university. This paper aims to clarify how the American Model was formed, focusing on Van Hise's ideas and plans for university extension.

  The University of Wisconsin, as a state institution, has been expected to pursue two purposes, “Research” for the elite and “Service” for the mass. The acceleration of “Research” for industrialization and economic development required an elitist graduate study, while the mission of “Service” to popular demands was embedded by nature. Van Hise, a Progressive scientist, argued that university was a center for social progress, and that university-trained experts could find the best solutions to social problems. He enlarged the concept of “Public Service” as an ideal that unified all activities of the university and placed Extension as the most efficient instrument embodying the ideal Extension could compromise the conflict between “Research” and “Servise”.

  Van Hise, however, could not define who was really served and what the “Public interests” meant, because he was not class-conscious and had an optimistic view toward scientific reform. Extension, therefore, contained the danger of mass control.