We have been able to energize the latent energy of the faculty with these teams. I think there have been remarkable gains. In the process, we showed that even though academe fights to keep itself insulated from the public and to work in narrow reductionist modes, the individual researchers, especially those with backgrounds in the natural and biological sciences, resist this tendency and naturally seek each other out. Further, they are far more at ease working on problems that are in the public good as opposed to furthering the corporate world. This progress can not be made by an institution bound to its sponsors, either the state or university, or the corporate, though the two are becoming so intertwined I can not separate them in many cases.
Extension has similar problems, being bound to the status quo and protecting against change.
I feel the center's accomplishments have been huge. We raised the debate on sustainability to a level encompassing both science and ethics, involved maybe 100 faculty and more importantly, their students, in work they would not have done otherwise, and in the process demonstrated the importance and rewards of people learning about and accepting their research. The latter has been accomplished with the second priority of the Center after good science good communications. The editorial staff is now widely recognized for its creativity and commitment to quality. Many of our publications have won national awards, and the whole center was recognized in 1995 by the Ford Foundation as a leading government program.