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Continuing education has been defined variously. As a specific effort, aside from content, continuing education takes the form of off-campus classes, correspondence course, recorded instructional materials, special short courses or workshops, and so on. In one form or another Washington State University has been involved in continuing education since its inception. Early efforts were chiefly concerned with agriculture. The nature of these programs changed considerably after the establishment of the Agr icultural Extension Service in 1915. In later years an engineering extension program was added, along with general extension, the last dating from 1921. General Extension's effort mostly nearly resembled continuing education as commonly defined.

In the late 1940s, the State College initiated various efforts at off-campus classes, taught chiefly at night. These "branches" were informally known as "Little WSCs." The program at Spokane was the most extensive. It survived in limited form following fiscal cutbacks in 1951 that basically cancelled the larger effort, with a program of night classes that lasted until 1968.

In the years following 1970, distance classes, video-tape instruction and similar programs led to the re-establishment of off-campus classes in various cities around Washington, and even one in an out-of-state location. These classes all involved spe cial subjects, mainly technical, and often were presented at the request of employers. In the years 1977-80, these programs became involved in complex state wide educational planning effort and in so-called "turf wars" that arose as schools with low enrollment sought to deploy their excess faculty members in extended campus programs.