A case study of the development of university extension within the University of California is presented. The interplay between the university proper and the extension division is addressed, including official and unofficial statements of functions, goals, and purposes by the university administration and faculty, and the extension staff. An initial period of conflict in the development of university extension was characterized by alternative ideals and models. Attention is directed to the formative years, the first experiment with extension for credit, a second experiment with the English Plan, and a third experiment with the Wisconsin Model. Additional developments include the acceptance within the university of the university's extension at the time of the national popularity of lifelong learning and adult education; the emergent professionalization of university extension; difficulties during the 1957-1967 period; decentralization of the University of California system in 1968, which also resulted in decentralization of the extension function; and continuing conflicts concerning self-support, part-time degrees, assuring academic quality, and ideological conflict. (SW)