NCSU's Mission Statement asserts that research and public service, along with teaching, constitute the heart of the University's institutional purpose. It pledges that "teaching, research, and public service will continue to be mutually enriching enterprises."
NCSU's Mission Statement further asserts that "research and scholarly inquiry form the foundation for education and public service." Research is significant for undergraduate education because "exposure to the discovery and synthesis of new information provides [undergraduate] students with a basis for identifying and solving society's problems and builds a critical foundation for their personal growth, cultural enrichment, and professional development." At the graduate level, research is essential because "students work as partners with faculty in the creation, expansion, conservation, and transmission of knowledge."
As a result, "faculty and students in all disciplines engage in the art and science of discovery and creativity, extending the boundaries of knowledge and horizons of human intellect" (see chapter on Institutional Purpose for the complete NCSU Mission Statement).
Every member of the permanent faculty at NCSU has an obligation to perform and publish research for the advancement of his/her discipline. Through the commitment and leadership of nearly 2,000 faculty in its ten colleges and schools, NCSU is well along the way to achieving preeminence in research in a wide range of disciplines.
In some colleges, such as Engineering, Textiles, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Forest Resources, NCSU faculty have achieved national and international recognition based upon traditional strengths of the University and current, innovative, and dynamic programs. In colleges that represent more recent additions to NCSU's research expertise, such as Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Design, and Education and Psychology, the continued development of dynamic research programs contributes to the overall balance of the University. Research by faculty in the newest colleges, Veterinary Medicine and Management, complements traditional and developing areas of research.
Expenditures and awards over the period 1987 to 1992 indicate substantial growth in activities in research, research training, and sponsored University-extension activities at NCSU. Expenditures are generally a relevant measure of current activity, whereas awards indicate future activity. Expenditures for research, research training, sponsored University-extension activities, and facilities increased by 60 percent from $125.5 to $201.5 million with a 90 percent increase in federal funds, a 51 percent increase in state funds, and an increase of 44 percent in funds from sources such as industry contracts or grants and private grants. According to the National Science Foundation, NCSU ranked between thirty-first and thirty-sixth nationally in overall research and development expenditures between 1987 and 1992, and between fourth and tenth in expenditures from industrial sources. During the same period, research awards for externally funded activities increased by nearly 46 percent to $69 million annually.
In addition to increases in expenditures for research and research-related activities, in the past decade NCSU has renewed its commitment to striving for excellence in all disciplines within the University. Developing strengths and national recognition of faculty in the Colleges of Humanities and Social Sciences, Education and Psychology, and Management signal the commitment to achieve greater balance between teaching and research at NCSU. Such a commitment on the part of the faculty and the administration is essential if the University is to achieve preeminence among research universities. The achievement of true balance and overall excellence in research among the many disciplines at the University will not occur, however, without continued examination of how research funds are apportioned between "traditional" areas of excellence and "developing" areas of excellence.
NCSU's Mission Statement also asserts NCSU's "commitment to active stewardship of the human and natural resources of the State" and its function "as an innovative educational resource, providing leadership for positive intellectual, social, and technological change." From the early days of the University, through the development of research farms and the network of farm home-demonstration agents, North Carolina State University has contributed to "the social and economic well-being of the people of North Carolina." The exercise of NCSU's service mission has now spread to "public service activities in all the University's colleges and schools, whereby the expertise resident among the faculty and students is disseminated across the State through extension, technical assistance, professional development, lifelong education, and technology-transfer programs."
The products of research at NCSU, at other universities, and from industry are made available to the citizens of the state and the nation through the University's outreach and extension activities. Although a majority of the official allocation of faculty and staff time assigned to outreach and extension occurs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, all of the colleges and schools have vital activities in this area. Outreach and extension, perhaps more than any other area, provides opportunities for development and increased activity as the University prepares for the twenty-first century and aspires to preeminence among U.S. universities.
Expenditures for outreach and extension activities at NCSU increased nearly 19 percent between 1987 and 1992 to a total of $82.9 million. Of total outreach and extension expenditures in 1991-92, contracts and grants accounted for only 5.5 percent, but the amount spent ($4.5 million) represents an actual increase of 200 percent over the amount spent in 1987-88, when contracts and grants accounted for only 2.1 percent of expenditures.
In 1991-92 NCSU's Cooperative Extension Service of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences ranked third nationally and the College of Veterinary Medicine ranked thirteenth (out of twenty-seven) nationally in funding for outreach and extension. But perhaps the greatest recent and innovative growth in outreach and extension activities at NCSU has been in areas not traditionally associated with the outreach and extension activities at land-grant universities. Programs of national prominence have been established in humanities extension, industrial extension, textiles extension, and education extension (which includes efforts from faculty in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences). Although numbers of faculty involved and funding associated with these programs are not yet of the magnitude of the more traditional outreach and extension programs, University faculty and administrators have recognized the possibilities in these areas and are committed to continue developing such programs.
This chapter of the self-study defines and describes research, outreach, and extension activities at NCSU in terms of the institution's administrative structure; funding and expenditures; and physical and human resources. The SACS Criteria for Reaccreditation addressed in this chapter include those in Section 4.3 on Continuing Education, Outreach and Service programs; Section 4.5 on Consortia and Contractual Relationships; and Section 6.5 on Externally Funded Grants and Contracts. In addition, because research, outreach, and extension are so central to NCSU's institutional mission and institutional activities, the committee authoring this report has written additional quality standards, modeled on those provided by the Commission on Colleges. This format enables us to respond to the criterion of inclusiveness in section 1.1: "The Commission requires that the self-study assess every aspect of the operations of the institution; and provide a comprehensive analysis of the institution, identifying strengths and weaknesses." The additional standards are addressed at appropriate places in the chapter.
Data supporting the conclusions of this chapter on faculty attitudes regarding research, outreach, and extension come from two sources: the survey distributed in 1992 to faculty as part of the self-study, and the 1993 University Extension Committee survey of the faculty addressing activities in extension and outreach. The University Extension Committee survey was returned by 768 persons, approximately 50 percent of those eligible to participate. The results were published in a May 19, 1993, report on the survey.
The self-study survey did not measure the amount of time faculty devote to each component of faculty service. One can infer from the proportion of respondents who appear as "missing" data or "no opinion" regarding extension activities that 20 to 25 percent of the faculty are not sufficiently involved in extension work to be able to answer questions about this activity. Because of the relatively large proportion of faculty who are not able to answer questions, percentages have been recomputed for certain questions based only on those who were able to respond to an item regarding extension. In such cases, reference is made to "those who have an opinion."
In the responses to the extension survey, it is not possible to distinguish the responses of those who do and do not have experience in extension. It seems reasonable to expect that responses from "all respondents" to the University Extension Committee survey would be close to those of faculty who have been "involved in extension" in the self-study survey.
