WSU Cooperative Extension and the College of Agriculture and Home Economics recently got new names to reflect their expanded and evolving missions.
The new names are WSU Extension and the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences. The acronym for the new college name is CAHNRS, pronounced “conners.”
Interim Dean R. James Cook said the name change was necessary to update the college’s image. Home economics has been a discipline at WSU for 100 years. But the nature of the field has changed dramatically and the term home economics no longer describes well the field of study.
“The name change reflects the fact that home economics has grown into the field known today as human sciences, one of the fastest growing areas in teaching, research and outreach in the United States,” he said.
Mike Tate, Extension dean, said the word “cooperative” was dropped to reflect the university’s expanded commitment to outreach.
“ ‘Cooperative’ signified the federal, state and county partnership that historically has provided the foundation of our public funding,” Tate said. “While we continue to rely on these three partners for funding, over time we have expanded our partnership definition to include other educational institutions.” Those include UW and state community colleges.
