Time and again, NDSU President Joe Chapman has emphasized that NDSU is about people. It's the people of NDSU who make this institution what it is. And it is those people who will build its future.

The future of the NDSU Extension Service and the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station is inextricably intertwined with the people they serve — mostly North Dakotans, but more and more, people all over the world.

Our faculty and staff work closely with people across the state. The Extension Service has 52 county offices in North Dakota. These staff are your neighbors, friends and colleagues. There are eight research extension centers in the state where researchers tackle local problems and demonstrate new ideas under local conditions. A host of advisory boards and panels provide ideas and direction for our research and educational efforts.

Our scientists conduct research on private farms, and entrepreneurs and businesses bring their ideas to test. We're proud of our ability to respond — to a crop disease like scab or a 500-year flood. Our people are the researchers, developers and life-long educators for North Dakota's farms, businesses, families and communities.

And technology is playing a role. High-speed Internet access is available at most county extension offices, and two-way video conferencing capabilities are available in a growing number of communities. That means, in many cases, the full complement of NDSU's research and outreach specialists is just down the road instead of across the state.

The faculty and staff of the Extension Service and the Experiment Station are hard working. They're innovative. They're dedicated to the future of this state and this region. In other words, they're just like you.

No wonder we have such a close working relationship. Because when it gets right down to it, it's all about people.

This report is a sampling of the efforts of the 
NDSU Extension Service and the North Dakota 
Agricultural Experiment Station. We hope it gives 
you a flavor of our work and a glimpse of how we 
work with people across the region.