
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 24, 1994                   TAG: 9401240055
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WILFORD KALE RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG (AP)                                LENGTH: Medium

HIS LEADERSHIP IS COOPERATIVE

William Allen hasn't had an easy job since he became interim director of the Virginia Cooperative Extension 16 months ago.

Within days, Allen was faced with a recommended $3.4 million cut in the extension service budget by then-Gov. Douglas Wilder. Within the extension service, there was "a lot of anxiety and disappointment" over previous budget cuts, layoffs and transfers.

But the 1993 General Assembly restored budget money for the extension program.

"Legislators turned out to be very supportive to what extension agents are doing and confirmed a lot of what we were able to do," Allen said. "The vote is recognition of the strength that the extension agent brings to the commonwealth."

The extension program, based at Virginia Tech, is a joint effort between Virginia Tech and Virginia State University. The program uses extension agents around the state to help farmers and the public use techniques developed through research in Virginia and elsewhere.

Andy Swiger, dean of Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, praised Allen for guiding the extension program through a particularly difficult stretch.

"We had to fight for our lives because of proposed budget cuts," Swiger said. Allen "inherited an agency that needed consensus leadership. It's always had strong leadership - sometimes too strong."

Wilder's last budget, released Dec. 20, calls for still another budget cut for the extension service and will require another selling job by Allen during this year's General Assembly.

"Last year we realized we hadn't done a good job of reporting to the citizens at large the importance of the work we are doing," Allen said.

"When I took over, I made a decision that we would do a better job of reporting and ask them to help build our agenda," he added. "That's the most important thing we've done in the short-term."

Allen's involvement in extension work began in 1962 at Purdue University, when he received the first assistantship designed to train someone as an extension entomologist, a specialist in insects.

"Rather than write an insect thesis, I did one on extension programs in north-central United States, looking at what was needed and what was being provided with an interest on improving extension in that 13-state area," he said.

When Allen received his degree, he became an assistant county agent in Pinellas County, Fla., about 90 miles west of his hometown of Kissimmee.

"It was a rapidly expanding area, and there were lots of new homes and lots of landscaping needed," Allen said. "There were more nurseries in my area than in the entire state of Indiana."

After 3 1/2 years, Allen enrolled in a doctoral program at Virginia Tech, where he also worked as an instructor. Five years later, he received his degree and continued working at the university as an extension entomologist.

Allen, 54, points to development of the integrated pest management program as his greatest accomplishment in 25 years at Virginia Tech. The program tries to manage insects while sustaining crop production.

When Allen was at Purdue, extension services mainly served agriculture production and related programs, he said.

"A lot of new technology was on the scene, pesticides were in full bloom and most control strategy handled insects after they had become epidemic."

However, after Rachel Carson's book, "The Silent Spring," was published in the early 1960s, he added, "we became environmentally concerned, not only in entomology, but across the country."

Now the program also helps farmers cope with environmental issues. "We're targeting water quality issues," Allen said. "Farmers who can't meet water standards can't stay in business."

Agents are the key to the Virginia extension program, Allen said.

With satellite technology, some people anticipated that information would "shower down and farmers would go to classes and pick up the information," he added. "Satellite technology is wonderful, but it's supplemental. The real education goes on between the teacher/agent and the client. There's just a tremendous advantage of having that agent in a community."

Allen expects to be a candidate for permanent directorship of the extension service. The hiring process is expected to begin next month.

by CNB