I. The Pennsylvania State University

University Outreach

Penn State Outreach extends the intellectual expertise and resources of the University through teaching, research, and service to address the social, civic, economic, and environmental issues and opportunities of our Commonwealth, nation, and world. Working closely with faculty in all the academic colleges, the University delivers outreach programs and services at convenient times and accessible locations through Cooperative Extension, Continuing Education, Distance Education, Public Broadcasting, and Economic and Workforce Development. University scholarship is shared using a variety of formats: through print; multimedia enhanced print; satellite; interactive compressed video; on-site courses and certificate programs for credit; online credit certificates and degree programs; conferences; institutes and seminars; symposia; continuing professional education; and management development programs and services. The vice president for outreach, in collaboration with the University Council on Engagement and the Faculty Senate Committee on Outreach, supports the colleges and coordinates outreach programs and services. For more information, contact the vice president for outreach at 814-865-7581.

Continuing Education

Faculty members disseminate research, provide instruction, and extend their scholarship through Continuing Education programs at all Penn State locations. Each college dean is responsible for Continuing Education in his/her college. The academic department serves as the basic unit for outreach activities, as well as for resident instruction, and research. Faculty members are encouraged to develop and deliver credit and noncredit Continuing Education courses; certificate, diploma, and licensure programs; conferences, workshops, symposia, and teleconferences. Faculty are supported by the associate vice president for outreach and executive director of Continuing and Distance Education. For more information, contact the associate vice president for academic engagement at 814-863-2045.

Conferences and Institutes

Faculty are encouraged to disseminate research through conferences, institutes, workshops, seminars, symposia, and short courses. Colleges are responsible for program content and for instructional staff. Staff from the Conferences and Institutes and Continuing Education offices at all Penn State locations support development and delivery of these programs. Approval for the offering of noncredit programs is provided by each of the academic colleges. Programs are offered at all Penn State locations and centers, Cooperative Extension sites in all sixty-seven counties, and at national and international sites. Professional planners assist faculty in offering conferences, workshops and institutes. Many conferences and workshops are offered at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, which is located at Innovation Park at Penn State to the east of the University Park campus. The facility features enhanced technology resources, including interactive video-conferencing, satellite technology, computer-based group decision-making classrooms, and audiovisual equipment. For more information, contact the director of Conferences and Institutes at 814-863-5111.

For more than a century, distance education has helped Penn State serve learners nationally and internationally. Distance Education programs involve teaching and learning relationships where students and instructors are geographically separated and communication between them occurs through technical media (e.g., radio, television, audio, video, computer, and correspondence). In 1998, Penn State took that tradition into the twenty-first century by creating a World Campus that uses technology to create global learning communities around some of the University's best and most respected academic programs. Distance Education seeks to ensure access to Penn State 's academic resources and to extend the University's academic programs nationally and internationally. For more information, contact the associate vice president for academic engagement at 814-863-2045.

Penn State Public Broadcasting

Penn State Public Broadcasting is a media production and distribution organization that provides daily educational, cultural, and entertainment programming to citizens of the Commonwealth. Penn State Public Broadcasting has one of the largest broadcast coverage areas in the country. It provides public television (WPSU-TV) programming to nearly 500,000 households in central Pennsylvania. It provides a public radio service (WPSU-FM) to more than 450,000 listeners in northcentral Pennsylvania. Penn State Public Broadcasting is supported in part by the University, but largely through memberships, fund-raising, and development. Penn State Public Broadcasting personnel regularly identify topics of community interest where they can link faculty expertise with the needs identified. For more information, contact the associate vice president for public engagement and Penn State Public Broadcasting general manager at 814-863-5630.

Cooperative Extension

Cooperative Extension, a non-formal educational delivery system with programs focused on locally identified issues, is funded jointly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Commonwealth, and county governments. Penn State faculty members with extension responsibilities provide statewide leadership for extension education programs. They develop resources in cooperation with county extension agents, paraprofessionals, and volunteers who help plan, present, and evaluate the programs. All programs delivered by Cooperative Extension are noncredit. Each year, more than two million people across the state participate in activities such as cooperative extension seminars, workshops, conferences, short courses, computer-assisted learning, learn-at-home programs, and 4-H youth development programs. Programs and resources center on agriculture, environmental issues, forest resource management, food safety, community development, family life, nutrition, and health, among many other topics. Information is delivered through publications, newspapers, radio, television, and a computer network. For more information, contact the associate vice president for outreach and director of cooperative extension at 814-865-5410.

Office of Economic and Workforce Development

The Office of Economic and Workforce Development responds to the economic needs of all 67 counties in Pennsylvania by serving as a catalyst, facilitator, and collaborator for using the resources, expertise and intellectual assets of Penn State to help create and retain jobs and enhance the skills of the workforce in the Commonwealth. It also supports Pennsylvania's employers and workforce by identifying and facilitating opportunities for partnerships between University units statewide and other economic and workforce development organizations. Training and career awareness for employees, and software implementation and technology expansion are just a few of the ways the Office of Economic and Workforce Development helps companies and employees be more productive and improve their competitiveness. Units within the Office of Economic and Workforce Development are the Workforce Education and Development Initiative, Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP) and the Penn State Small Business Development Center. For more information, contact the director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development at 814- 865-0427.

Penn State University Press

The Penn State University Press, as an administrative unit of the Libraries, is dedicated to promoting the dissemination of knowledge through the publication of books and journals. With more than one thousand titles on its active backlist, the press seeks to serve both the scholarly community and the citizens of Pennsylvania. Its current editorial program emphasizes art history, literature, philosophy, and religion in the humanities; history (primarily American and European); law, political science, rural studies, and sociology in the social sciences; Latin American and Russian/East European studies; medieval studies and women's studies; and works of regional interest (published in the Keystone Book series). In addition, it publishes 11 scholarly journals in the fields of education, history, literature, philosophy, and political science. The Press also operates an Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing jointly with the Libraries. For more information, call 814-865-1327 or visit www.psupress.org.