Major restructuring underway at Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) calls for the elimination of county directors, shifting employee responsibilities, creating educational institutes, and organization by districts rather than counties.

Reorganization began July 1, driven by Michigan's economic recession, said Tom Coon, MSUE director.

“It's primarily so we are better positioned to foster economic development in Michigan,” he said.

Counties will continue to provide office space and administrative assistance to Extension, while the agency will provide the expertise through specialists, research, and literature. Administratively, however, the state has divided the state into 13 districts. The Upper Peninsula comprises two of them, with Mackinac County included in District 2, along with Alger, Delta, Schoolcraft, Luce, and Chippewa counties.

Jim Lucas, the former extension director from Chippewa County, is the District 2 coordinator and his office will be at Bay Mills Community College in Brimley.

“We still will focus on local needs,” said Mr. Lucas. “We understand how essential that is. But instead of being retrospective and trying to say, 'This is a need that's happening, let's deliver it,' we are trying forecast where the needs will be and develop programs from that perspective.”

For example, last year when companies in some parts of the state began deep shale exploration, the extension should have been preparing programs to educate landowners on dealing with leasing offers, said Mr. Lucas. The new organizational structure will position the extension to be proactive, he said.

“I don't think we are watchdogs,” said Mr. Lucas, “but we are educators and we really like to provide people with research-based information and learning so that they can make educated decisions.”

When the agency shifted to districts in July, all county directors were eliminated and those people will become “Extension educators.” As educators, Mr. Lucas said, they will focus on specific areas. Former Mackinac County Extension Director Michelle Walk's specialty likely will be in tourism and local food systems, although assignments are not expected to be made before fall.

“It makes sense for our organization and I'm real excited about the opportunity to focus on a narrower set of topics,” said Ms. Walk of her new responsibilities.

Also working in the Mackinac County office are youth care educator Tracie Abram, 4-H youth development educator Joyce Belonga, family nutrition educator Mary Swiderski, summer day program coordinator Paula Ramelis, breastfeeding peer educator Casey Zimmerman, and secretaries Candy DeKeyser and Sherri Wheeldon.

Eventually, staffing levels will be based on funding and their importance to Extension's four new areas of focus, agriculture, environmental economics, health and nutrition, and child development.

“We aren't doing this to reduce our budget or reduce our workforce, but we expect that we are going to be facing some budget reductions,” said Mr. Coon. “When we face those, and if we have to let people go -- because 85% to 95% of our budget goes to people, salaries, and benefits -- we want to be prepared to say these are the positions we must protect because they are core to the programs we say are our priorities.”

MSUE receives a $30 million state allocation to help support its statewide educational operations, but that is subject to annual review by the state legislature. For Michigan's 2010/2011 fiscal year, which begins October 1, the House proposes no cuts to the $30 million allocation while the Senate proposes a 3% reduction.

This year, Mackinac County has budgeted $135,800 for the local Extension office, which is in the annex building to the county courthouse in St. Ignace. That includes wages and benefits for one parttime and six full-time employees.

The county also funds the office's travel, dues, and subscriptions, printing, office supplies, education, and software. Also covered by the county, but not included in the $135,800 allocation, are office space and utilities.

Mackinac County allocated about $133,000 in 2009 and about $110,000 in 2008.

Extension, said Mr. Coon, wants to maintain a presence in each county so it can be aware of opportunities and challenges for growth.

“The only way we can justify investment in our programs, whether it's from the state, county funds, federal funds, or private grants, is by showing we are having impacts in the four areas where we think we can help foster Michigan's economic growth,” said Mr. Coon. “We don't have the expertise to do all things that are related to economic growth, but there are four key areas where we feel we can help translate the expertise from MSU into those opportunities.”

Extension will call these four focus areas “institutes,” and agriculture, “green economy,” health, and child development will take on institutional titles, like Enhancing Michigan's First Green Industry: Agriculture and Agribusiness; Greening Michigan: Leveraging Natural and Human Assets for Prosperity; Improving the Health and Nutrition of Michigan’s Residents, and Preparing Michigan's Children and Youth for the Future.

Mr. Coon said the areas draw on the strengths of the state's resources and Extension's background.

Agriculture, he said, is a strong part of the state's economy, with an economic impact of $71 billion a year and growing. Under the reorganization plan, the extension will be looking at what it can do to improve and foster growth in agriculture.

“Just as in 1855 when Michigan's agricultural college was created, the legislature created this university specifically at that time to foster economic growth in the state in the agriculture sector and to do it by bringing the latest scientific understandings to bear on agriculture to improve and make agriculture more efficient,” said Mr. Coon, referring to the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, what is now Michigan State University.

The green economy, sometimes called the new economy, said Mr. Coon, offers opportunities around alternative energy and energy efficiency and it includes tourism, land use, and natural resources. The agency has provided educational workshops on alternative energy already, including one offered in St. Ignace on wind turbines.

MSU Extension is known for food safety and nutrition education, he said. This program has been one of its strengths.

“We feel we are in a position to expand that by connecting more closely with our college of human medicine and take the expertise we have in community-based nutrition education and expand that to deal with other issues in health care where the patient, individual, consumer can make choices that can help reduce their health care costs and at the same time improve their health,” said Mr. Coon. “Nutrition is part of that. Physical activity is part of that.”

He added, “Any dollar we can help people save in their health care costs is a dollar that can be used somewhere else.”

Extension's focus on children and youth will help to prepare the state's workforce of tomorrow, he said.

“Public schools are critically important,” said Mr. Coon. “We feel that we are in a position to help add value to the public school experience, whether it is through the experiential learning in the sciences, such as in 4-H clubs, or nutrition education in the school setting to help reduce childhood obesity. There are a lot of ways we that we feel we can take our expertise and expand it and have a bigger impact and in the process help younger people become better prepared for the career opportunities that this new economy is going to present.”

Educational experts say tomorrow's workforce will need post-high school education, said Mr. Coon. The extension helps young people understand the important role education can play in their future and the opportunities offered from attending a college, community college, or trade school.

A study just completed at MSU shows a higher percentage of 4-H members go to college than those who do not participate in the program, he said. The study reported that, of young adults across the county from 18 years old to 24 years old, 34% were in college in 2007. In Michigan, it was 37% in college. Also in Michigan, among students who had been involved with 4-H, 53% were in college; of those who participated in the MSU enrichment college experiences program, 66% go on to college.

“In our new way of operating, we've got to track that kind of information because if we are not hitting those marks, we're doing something wrong,” he said.

This fall, counties will be asked to change the way they manage their Extension budget, although the new plan would not be implemented until 2012. Details are not complete, said Mr. Coon, but what likely will happen is that the Lansing-based agency will take over management of each county's Extension budget and the county will continue to provide funding to the agency.

It's also possible that counties will be asked to pay for the travel costs and associated expenses of educators who come to a county for a program, although a county would not be responsible for costs when their local educator travels to another county to offer a program.

Mackinac County Commission Chair Dawn Nelson said the proposed accounting plan is a good idea because it places financial responsibility on the agency.

Extension will be responsible for the educational programs it offers to counties, said Mr. Coon. The effectiveness of the programs will be tracked and counties will be given the information. Programs will be evaluated three months after a presentation. Audience members will be given a survey asking how they have used this information.

“We'll be able to report that information,” said Mr. Coon, “because ultimately that's what we're accountable for. It doesn't matter whether we put 100 hours in or 1,000 hours in on a particular project, what matters is whether that effort makes a difference in the economy.”