St. Francis Xavier University has long recognized that its knowledge and resources must be made available to the community at large and, in particular, dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged people. Over 80 years ago, a few committed faculty members began an outreach program to local farmers that enabled them to grade and market their wool more effectively. Then the "people's schools" of Rev. Jimmy Tompkins opened the doors of the university to men and women from impoverished fishing, farming and mining communities in the region.

By the early 1920s, Fr. Tompkins and his cousin, Rev. Dr. Moses Coady, had begun pioneering a practice of popular education and community organizing that enabled people to change their lives and their futures. In 1928, the StFX board of governors asked Dr. Coady to establish the university's Extension Department and appointed him its first director. Over the next two decades, the unique and successful extension work of StFX became known worldwide as the Antigonish Movement.