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Cooperative Extension, Then and Now Kenyon Butterfield, URI’s shortest-serving president from 1903 to 1906, felt strongly about outreach. He organized an extension department in 1904—a decade before other land-grant colleges—and employed agents to liaise between the school and the public, translating evidence-based research into practice while keeping a finger on the pulse of people’s needs. In 1914, Butterfield’s system was formalized when the Smith-Lever Act established Cooperative Extension programs at land-grant universities nationwide. As society’s needs changed, Cooperative Extensions adapted. During the social and economic turmoil of World War I and the Great Depression, they helped people learn practical skills.

The passage of the Morrill Land-Grant College Act in 1862 transformed public education in the United States. At the time, universities were largely elite and exclusive. The land-grant system aimed to make higher education accessible to a broad range of people and to deliver a practical education. In addition to research and teaching, land-grant universities have a third mission: outreach, often called extension—a commitment to connecting knowledge with real-world application that directly benefits the state in ways that contribute to strong economies and quality of life. The University of Rhode Island, the state’s only land grant institution, engages with this legacy through a variety of disciplines, from nutrition and education to the humanities and sciences, with a focus on serving communities statewide.

Rebecca Brown, URI professor of plant sciences and entomology, at the Greene H. Gardner Crops Research Center on the Kingston Campus. On the tractor is summer farm crew member and animal science major Simon Tetreault ‘25.

Page 40 | The University of Rhode Island { MOMENTUM: ANNUAL REVIEW OF URI’S RESEARCH IMPACT }