Timeline

College president W.C. Riddick requests a visit from education consultant George Zook to survey the existing organizational structure at North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (former name of NC State University.) Zook issues a report with recommendations for restructuring which includes a recommendation to offer general extension courses and to hire staff to coordinate this work.

The first Electric Meter Course is offered by the Electric Department of the college. By 1925, the College Extension Division was given the responsibility for this short course, with electrical engineering faculty designing the curriculum. This program is still coordinated by the division.

The College Extension Division is organized when Frank Capps is named director. Since 1922, Capps had been at the college administering the federal rehabilitation program for disabled veterans of World War I.

The College Extension Division is officially founded. The new division is housed in the college library offering short courses, in partnership with campus units and industry, and correspondence courses. In its first year of operation, it enrolls 461 students.

Early short course offerings are for home demonstration agents (whom Jane McKimmon led), clay workers (ceramic engineering), poultry workers, beekeepers, hay graders, and electric metermen. Enrollments steadily increase during the first few years of the division.

Edward Ruggles (future Extension Division director) joins the Electrical Engineering faculty to teach courses requested by Carolina Power and Light for their employees. He is one of the instructors for the Meter School.

Since Ruggles taught mostly extension courses, he joins the division as Assistant Director of Extension.

Edward Ruggles becomes director of the Extension Division. In the 10th year of its founding, the division serves approximately 2,000 people.

The division coordinates short courses to support the war effort, including diesel engineering, radio communications, industrial plant protection, aircraft inspection, chemical testing and inspection, materials inspection, and engineering training specifically for women.

The UNC Communication Center is created to centralize media operations on the Chapel Hill campus. By 1947 an advisory board for the center is formed, and they begin to hold meetings. Edward Ruggles is a part of this group. Although the Advisory Board is originally focused on educational films and radio broadcasts conducted by the three UNC campuses, its focus quickly moves to the educational potential of television as that medium takes off. Ruggles’ involvement expands the division’s distance education offerings beyond correspondence courses to include television, once UNC-TV is launched in 1955.

The Division is given responsibility for the college’s Veterans Guidance Center, which provided counseling and support to war veterans attending State College. These centers were set up at colleges as a result of the G.I. Bill and funded by the Veterans Administration. 

The Division offices move from D.H. Hill Jr. Library to the 1911 Building.

The School of Engineering and the Extension Division partner to launch the Morehead City Technical Institute, located on war surplus property, the former Camp Glenn. The institute offers a one-year technical/vocational certificate program. With enrollments lower than anticipated, the institute relocates to Gastonia in 1952 to be closer to the industries it was meant to benefit and was renamed the Gaston Technical Institute. It is a division of NC State’s School of Engineering and is operated by the College Extension Division. It offers two-year associate degrees in technical engineering areas and becomes a successful forerunner to future technical institutes/community colleges. In 1964, it becomes part of Gaston Community College, one of the first campuses in NC’s community college system.

State College and East Carolina Teacher’s College (later ECU) start offering credit-bearing courses at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty). The division coordinates this program for State College and assumes full responsibility in 1962. In 1964, the program begins granting degrees and reported to Dr. Jack Suberman, director of continuing education. Fayetteville State University joins the UNC system in 1972, and in July 1973, responsibility for this program is transferred to Fayetteville State.

Dr. William L. Turner, future division leader, joins the faculty of the Agricultural Economics Department.

The first Truck Driving Training School is held, the first of its kind in the nation. The School ran continuously until the rise of the community college system. In 1974, the program was transferred to Johnston Community College and is still in operation today.

The division holds the first tax school, a program that still exists today. The original title was the Farm Income Tax Short Course. William Turner plays a role in the teaching and development of this program.

The Sport Fishing School is held for the first time, a program still in existence.

The division marks 30 years of operation. In its 30th year, the division serves 12,136 through short courses, classes and conferences, and has a national and international reach.

The division begins reporting to the Dean of the Faculty, John Shirley (this position was later retitled Provost).

John Tyler Caldwell becomes chancellor and appoints William Turner to the university’s business office.

Dr. Jack Suberman, who had been on the English department faculty, becomes director of Summer School. Suberman later heads the Extension Division from 1965-67.

The division begins providing credit-bearing night classes for the local population. It is called Evening College.

The name of the university changes to North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh.

The name of the university officially changes to North Carolina State University at Raleigh. The university is now known as NC State University.

Edward Ruggles retires after a 39-year career at NC State. The division’s name changes from Division of General Extension to Division of Continuing Education. Dr. Jack Suberman succeeds Ruggles, until Suberman leaves the university in 1967.

William Turner becomes the Administrative Dean for University Extension, reporting to Chancellor Caldwell. Turner has campus-wide responsibility for all extension activities.

The Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services (CUACS) is founded as a unit of Continuing Education. Funded in 1965 by Title I of the U.S. Higher Education Act, it is one of three urban studies centers of the UNC System.

Leaders of the statewide home demonstration agents deliver a $100,000 check to Chancellor Caldwell as “seed money” for the building of a continuing education and conference center. The money was raised through the sale of butter and eggs.

Chancellor Caldwell gives William Turner additional responsibilities, including responsibility for the Division of Continuing Education. Since the division had already played a role in State College’s involvement with UNC-TV, full responsibility is transferred from the provost to Turner. The business operations of Summer School and Evening Programs are also transferred to the Division of Continuing Education.

William Turner chairs a national task force to propose a uniform standard of measurement for noncredit continuing education programs. In July 1968, a National Planning Conference is held in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the U.S. Office of Education, U.S. Civil Service Commission, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, and the National University Extension Association. This work eventually results in the Continuing Education Unit (CEU).

Robert Scott becomes governor of North Carolina and William Turner takes leave from NC State to become Scott’s director of the North Carolina Department of Administration. Turner’s time in state government becomes important to the success of building a continuing education center on NC State’s campus. E. Walton Jones becomes the Acting Administrative Dean for University Extension.

With the strong support of Governor Scott — and the lobbying efforts of Chancellor Caldwell, William Turner, the NC home demonstration agents, and others — the legislature appropriates $4.25 million for the construction of a continuing education center on NC State’s campus.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) adopts the CEU to measure noncredit educational opportunities offered by colleges and universities in its 11-state region.

The division begins coordinating several short course “schools” for parks and recreation personnel at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, West Virginia. The curriculum is designed by NC State’s Parks and Recreation faculty with input from parks and recreation practitioners. Sondra Kirsch, later division leader, is instrumental in the development of these programs. Over time, these programs evolve to meet the needs of parks professionals, and in 1991, the first Supervisors’ Management School is held, which is still in existence today.

William Turner, vice chancellor of extension and public service, returns to the division after his stint in Governor Scott’s administration. The division is renamed the Extension and Public Service Division.

In its 50th year, the division’s key activities are coordinating short courses and conferences, correspondence courses, summer sessions, non-degree student advising and enrollment, off-campus extension classes, educational television, and an audio tape library.

Responsibility for all UNC System correspondence courses becomes centralized and managed by UNC-CH. The program is renamed Independent Study, with one centralized advertising catalog and one registration system.

Jane S. McKimmon Extension Education Center opens.

William Turner serves as president of the National University Extension Association — later given its current name of UPCEA, The Online and Professional Education Association.

John Cudd, who later becomes the interim head of the division, becomes director of Summer School.

McKimmon Center Annex is built.

CUACS begins work with the NC Department of Public Instruction.

The Office of Professional Development (OPD), a unit of the division, coordinates the first State Construction Conference, held at the McKimmon Conference and Training Center (MCTC). This event is a partnership with the Department of Administration’s State Construction Office. Attendees are representatives of state agencies and institutions, architects, landscape architects, engineers, contractors, and subcontractors. This annual event is still occurring.

William Turner retires. The division begins reporting to the Vice Chancellor for Research, Outreach, and Extension, who in turn reports to the provost. The division’s name changes to Outreach, Extension and Continuing Studies.

Sondra Kirsch serves as Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Extension and Public Service; she is later appointed to this position permanently.

Summer Sessions merges with Adult Degree Programs to form one unit within the division, eventually named Adult Credit Programs and Summer Sessions.

The Encore Program for Lifelong Enrichment is launched.

Connecting-in-North Carolina (CINC) tours begin; supported by the provost and run by the division.

The division’s name changes to Division of Continuing Studies.

The NC General Assembly passes legislation that changes how distance education is funded in the UNC System, providing appropriated funding equivalent to on-campus instruction. Sondra Kirsch co-chairs a campus-wide task force, the Extension Instruction Funding Response Team (EIFRT) to manage this transition. Distance (now Digital) Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) is founded in July 2000. Staff from the division’s Office of Instructional Telecommunications are folded into Adult Credit Programs, which continues to provide registration and exam proctoring services during the transition years as DELTA builds capacity.

Sondra Kirsch retires. John Cudd heads the division as Interim Vice Provost for Continuing Studies and Director of Summer Sessions; later his title changes to Senior Associate Vice Provost for Continuing Studies.

John Cudd retires, and Denis Jackson, former director of the Encore Center, is promoted to Assistant Vice Chancellor for Extension and Engagement. The division reports to a newly formed position at the university, the Vice Chancellor for Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development, Steve Jones.

The division is renamed the McKimmon Center for Extension and Continuing Education.

McKimmon Conference Center lobby is named for William L. Turner. His widow, Marjorie Turner, and his children and grandchildren attend the dedication ceremony. The division also creates an award for service to the division, the William L. Turner Award for Outstanding Contributions to Extension and Continuing Education. Ted Pemberton, longtime continuing education instructor, is the first recipient.

The Collaborative at the Gateway Technology Center was created by NC Senate Bill 1239 to provide educational programming and services to eastern North Carolina by a collaboration between ECU and NC State. Originally a unit of DELTA, responsibility is transferred to the division in July 2009.

University leadership decides to redirect the work of Credit Programs and Summer Sessions to the individual colleges and the university’s Enrollment Management and Services unit.

Denis Jackson retires, and Alice S. Warren is appointed Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor for the division.

The Upper Coastal Plain Learning Council (UCPLC) was created by NC House Bill 2436 to address the 2008 UNC-Tomorrow recommendations. UCPLC serves Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash, Northampton, and Wilson counties.

After a national search, Alice Warren is appointed Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of the McKimmon Center for Extension and Continuing Education.

The Extension, Engagement, and Economic Development unit is dissolved; Alice Warren’s title changes to Vice Provost for Continuing Education, and the division is aligned once again under the provost’s office.

The Encore Program receives an endowment from The Bernard Osher Foundation and changes its name to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at NC State University.

Alice S. Warren, vice provost for continuing education, serves as president of the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA).

Alice Warren retires.

Dr. Mark Bernhard becomes vice provost for continuing education.

The division is renamed NC State Continuing and Lifelong Education.

The division marks 100 years of service.