In December of his first year as NIU’s president, John Peters announced “an aggressive regional outreach strategy” as the next logical step for a university on the rise in a dynamic region.
Along with enhancing the campus undergraduate experience and building graduate and research programs, Peters said NIU needed to “lay claim to the Chicago region as the firm domain of this very strong public university.”
“Extension, outreach, continuing education and public service are core functions of the institutions that make up NASULGC, the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges,” the president explained. “While NIU has a long tradition in this areas, our new status in the higher education community nationwide really requires us to expand our mission to serve off-campus audiences.”
To that end, Peters challenged the deans and other campus leaders to develop strategic off-campus academic plans, and began to consolidate various departments and programs with distinctly off-campus missions.
By the spring of 2001, Peters announced the creation of the new Division of Outreach, comprised of the four regional campus sites (Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford and Oregon); NIU eLearning Services; the former Continuing Education unit; the Center for Governmental Studies; Northern Public Radio; and a handful of niche programs such as the Illinois Council on Economic Education and the popular Motorcycle Safety program. Information Technologies remained part of the administration side of the division, and would come to play an important role in NIU’s regional outreach strategy.
Veteran administrator Anne Kaplan, vice president for outreach and administration, was called upon to make the new division work. In fairly short order, Kaplan and her team had created new revenue streams that allowed the Outreach operation to be more entrepreneurial. She encouraged her staff to think big, and they did not disappoint: Among Outreach’s early accomplishments was creation of a regional fiber optic network supported by a $68 million federal grant.
And when President Peters launched the P-20 initiative to coordinate university leadership of educational improvements from pre-school through graduate school, he tapped Outreach to lead the way. In addition to providing focus for a university-wide effort, P-20 begat several additional programs that continue to this day, including the STEM Education initiative and the Illinois Interactive Report Card (IIRC).
At the time Outreach was created, nearly one-sixth of all NIU students took classes at the regional centers, primarily at night and on weekends. In addition, the centers hosted hundreds of events each year, firmly planting the NIU flag throughout the region with a physical presence.
Before the decade was out, NIU had a new strategic plan, and it called outreach “a defining institutional value.” The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recognized NIU’s solid outreach commitment with a 2008 designation as an Engaged University. In 2013 the division received a new name that better recognized its role in the region: the Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development. Later that same year, NIU received APLU’s inaugural Innovation and Economic Prosperity Award, recognizing universities that do the best job of engaging with the regions they serve.
Click on photos to enlarge
