Extension programs in the four universities in Iloilo City: Sense of volunteerism and extent of participation of faculty and students

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to find out the level of sense of volunteerism and the extent of participation of the College Faculty and that of the Fourth Year College Students in the four universities in Iloilo City. The study also aimed to describe the kind of Extension programs implemented, the target population, and the kind of services offered by the respective university extension centers. Furthermore, this study also would like to find out the contributions given and benefits received, the things which encouraged or prevented participation, the problems encountered as well as the reasons for integrating extension as a university function. It was hypothesized that the college faculty members’ level of sense of volunteerism varies according to the selected variables of sex, age, civil status, place of residence, and years of teaching. Likewise, fourth-year college student respondents do not have a high sense of volunteerism when they are grouped according to the selected variables of sex, age, place of residence, and the college where enrolled. It was also expected that there is a great extent of participation from the college faculty and fourth-year college students. This extent of participation is also expected to be influenced by the sense of volunteerism as far as the college faculty and fourth-year college students are concerned. This study utilized a sample survey and interviews to generate a combination of both quantitative and qualitative analysis of data. An inspection of the historical background of extension centers of the four universities involved in this study had also provided much-needed information on the different kinds of programs implemented, the target population, and the services or support given to extension. With the use of the structured questionnaire, the researcher was able to get additional information on the specific activities in the six extension program areas, namely: Health Related Programs, Education Related Programs, Society/Family Programs, Economic/Agriculture Programs, Environment/Engineering Programs, and the Legal/Peace and Order/Political Programs. The study samples consisted of 242 college faculty and 353 fourth year college students in the four universities of Iloilo City, namely: Central Philippine University (CPU), University of Iloilo (UI), University of San Agustin (USA), and West Visayas State University (WVSU). The samples for the faculty and the students were allocated proportionately to the four universities involved in this study by using a stratified random sampling technique for the faculty and cluster sampling for the students. The data collected from the structured questionnaire were processed and analyzed using the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows Version 6.0. A coding manual was first prepared to facilitate the data processing. Frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, t-test for difference xv between means, Pearson Product-Moment correlation, and Cramer’s V were used as the main statistical tools to analyze the quantitative data gathered.