Ensuring Responsible and Transparent Use of Generative AI in Extension

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of generating human-like text, images, and ideas from existing data based on user-defined prompts, will inevitably impact Extension, including increasing efficiency, productivity, and performing tasks previously exclusive to humans. There are ethical and risk-related considerations surrounding the use of generative AI, including concerns about bias and unintended consequences. It is important for Extension to consider these implications and take steps to ensure that generative AI is used in a responsible and transparent manner. Extension must ensure that educators and staff have the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively utilize and integrate this technology

Pandemic-Related Business Assistance, July 2021

The CARES Act is the largest stimulus package passed in the United States to date. On 12/27/2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act was passed, providing $900 billion in stimulus relief for the pandemic. Another 1.4 trillion in spending helped plan the 2021 federal fiscal year. On 3/11/2021, the American Rescue Plan was passed providing an additional$1.9 trillion in economic stimulus to further aid the country through the ongoing pandemic. The pandemic has caused an unprecedented increase in unemployment, the closing or suspension of operations for many businesses, a drastic reduction in the capacity to produce many goods and services, and a significant reduction of disposable household income. To assist with these economic emergencies, federal, state, and local governments have passed legislation to aid households and businesses, including some programs for nonprofits. The timeline illustrates various programs developed on the federal, state, and local levels (Cuyahoga County and Cleveland) initiated after the pandemic started. This brief groups the actions of all levels of government into four categories: general business support, small business support, industry-specific support, and unemployment benefits for individuals. The subsequent sections offer a summary of each program and a link to their full description. The timeline covers a period of time from March 2020 to June 2021 and shows which programs continue beyond September 2021

Pandemic-Related Housing Assistance, July 2021

On 12/27/2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act was passed, providing $900 billion in stimulus relief. Another 1.4 trillion in spending helped plan the 2021 federal fiscal year. On 3/11/2021, the American Rescue Plan passed providing an additional$1.9 trillion in economic stimulus to further aid the country through the ongoing pandemic. The pandemic has damaged not only health systems, but social and economic systems as well. One effect of COVID-19 has been mass housing instability, which is predominantly due to evictions. Many people have lost their jobs, in part or altogether, due to COVID-19, leaving residents with little income to pay their bills, including rent or mortgage and utilities, and forcing them to face consequences such as eviction or utility shutoffs. As a result of these housing issues, federal, state, and local governments have all passed legislation to mitigate housing instability. The timelines displays how the Federal Government, the State of Ohio, Cuyahoga County, and the City of Cleveland responded to housing issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The timeline covers a period of time from March 2020 to June 2021 and shows which programs continue beyond September 2021

Assessing Rural and Urban Community Assets and Needs to Inform Extension Program Planning

A needs assessment is a useful tool for prioritizing community needs and allocating resources. Prioritizing community needs helps ensure Extension programs are relevant and targeted towards specific audiences. This study prioritized normative needs of urban and rural Utah residents using a needs assessment framework. Convenience data were gathered from 1,043 adult Utah residents, and the raking method was used to weigh the sample by selected population characteristics. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and nonparametric statistics) were used for data analysis. A calculated Point-Score represented the difference between residents’ perceived importance and satisfaction of various community assets. Results showed affordable housing, affordable medical clinics, well-paying jobs, quality public schools, and affordable internet were the top five needs in urban areas. Utah rural residents ranked well-paying jobs, quality public schools, steady jobs, emergency healthcare, and affordable housing as high priority needs in their communities. Utah State University Extension should tailor existing programs to address urban and rural community needs, allocate resources to create new programs aligned to those needs, facilitate collaborations with local organizations, and conduct timely needs assessments to monitor changing community needs

Application of a Three-Phase Needs Assessment Framework to Identify Priority Issue Areas for Extension Programming

Cooperative Extension strives to deliver relevant programming to residents. However, problems facing communities are increasingly complex. We used a three-phase needs assessment to describe Utah residents\u27 perceptions of issue areas for Extension programming. We gathered data from 1,043 Utah residents. Results highlighted four priority issue areas for Extension programming. These were environmental quality, conservation capacity, community development, and agriculture and food safety. On the basis of our work, we recommend that Extension allocate resources to addressing priority issue areas and implement a formal needs assessment framework for monitoring issue areas to inform relevant and quality programming in response to emerging needs

Fiscal and Economic Impact Analysis of Proposed Nexus Natural Gas Pipeline on the City of Green, Ohio

In 2014 Spectra Energy (“Spectra”) and DTE Energy announced plans to build a high-pressure natural gas transmission pipeline (called “Nexus”) that would run from the Utica-Marcellus region near eastern Ohio across northern Ohio, into Michigan, and ultimately into Chicago and Ontario, Canada. The stated purpose for building the proposed pipeline is to take anticipated “growing” gas supplies produced from the Appalachian Basin to the “high demand” markets in Ohio, Michigan, Chicago and Ontario. Nexus proposes 250 miles of high pressure, 36 inch diameter pipeline capable of carrying around 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. However the route proposed by Nexus takes the pipeline through some of Ohio’s fastest growing and most prosperous communities. In particular, the pipeline route promises to disrupt development plans in the City of Green (Summit County). Importantly, as will be shown in the discussion below, the proposed route will render useless large portions of prime industrial and commercially zoned land that Green has earmarked for near term development. Much of this land is next to the Akron-Canton airport, and is of considerable interest to the business community. Accordingly, the City of Green has proposed to Nexus an alternate route that accomplishes Nexus’s goals of moving natural gas from Appalachia to Michigan and Ontario. The alternate route, which could be built for about the same cost as Nexus’s plan, bypasses and spares the fast growing City of Green, instead taking the pipeline through a more rural area. With proper planning, potential negative impacts on future industrial or commercial development could be minimized by using an alternate route in a more rural setting. Although we expect that property value and tax losses, if any, would be minimal for the alternate route, these results are not set forth here. The route currently proposed through the City of Green would, however, lead to uneconomic remnant parcels, as well as devalued or stranded residential parcels. The proposed route is shown on Exhibit 1 (both panels). Over the life of the pipeline, this would in turn lead to very substantial losses in property taxes and income tax for the City of Green. In short, while there may be compelling reasons for the pipeline to be built, and while it may be beneficial for portions of Ohio in terms of taxes and construction jobs, the current route leaves the City of Green to suffer disproportionately the losses the pipeline will cause. The following discussion sets forth the basis for this determination

A Descriptive Analysis of Remote Work Adoption in the United States

Advances in information and communications technology have enabled organizations to shift traditional work functions away from place or where work is accomplished to how work is accomplished (i.e., task facilitation). With the rise in remote work, there was a need to describe the adoption process by organizations in the United States. Given that the practice of remote work is considered an innovation, this quantitative study was guided by the theory of Diffusion of Innovations and followed a nonexperimental design with a correlational analysis, collecting cross-sectional data from a sample of organizational leaders in the United States (N = 1,259). Results describe where organizations range in the innovation-decision process of remote work adoption and categorize organizations based on innovativeness. This research demonstrates the role of COVID-19 in precipitating organizations’ rapid implementation of remote work during a pandemic. Findings hold implications for leaders deciding whether to adopt remote work as a formal workplace practice and can assist them in making informed operational decisions. Findings also provide Extension professionals with insights into responding to the social and economic consequences of the widespread adoption of remote work with relevant, research-based educational programming in their local communities

Evaluating Utah\u27s Rural Online Initiative: Empowering Organizational Leaders Through Remote Work

Compared to urban counties, Utah\u27s rural counties experienced high levels of unemployment. Informed by a statewide needs assessment, Utah State University Extension developed a remote work leadership course to equip business leaders with knowledge and skills to create remote jobs as a solution to rural unemployment. This descriptive evaluation study collected data from course participants (N = 62). Findings showed short-term outcomes were achieved; participants experienced increases in knowledge and skills and had more positive intentions toward creating remote jobs and hiring employees from rural counties. Extension professionals can design and evaluate their programs using the framework in this study