Meeting & Agendas

Everyone introduced them selves.

Class here at the Elgin campus are not making. One reason is the cost of the certificate. The credit courses are actually cheaper if the student lives in district. Marissa explained “sunset classes” if a class is offered 3 times and no one signs up the class is deemed a “sunset” courses no longer offered. If a student graduates with a CE certificate what are their expectations? A student is prepared to manage a farm. In our current program we have pretty abysmal graduation rates. It is not because they fail, it is because it is pretty expensive, it is a pretty intense set of classes. So, it is a rare person who finishes and starts a farm like Travis. We have only had 4 graduates in the 4 or 5 years of the program. Sue would like to see enrollment numbers on a regular basis. Long term goals to have 50 students in 5 years. Marissa said we need a revision on the Entrepreneurship certificate. I agree that not having Small Farm Business Planning is a problem. It has been offered at least 3 times and no one has registered for the class. The changes will help people move thru it. Most students have other commitments and going to school is not a priority. Student who have taken only 2 or 3 classes are not ready to run a farm. I would advise anyone to work on a farm first. The idea with the changes is to make it cheaper and more streamlined to get as many students into the program as possible.

For the AAS Sustainable Agriculture degree changes: Most student pursuing this degree are not going to transfer to a 4-year university. I wanted to reduce some of the core hours to be able to offer more Ag courses. This will be open to more student who do not have the TSI scores. Change AGMG 2386 Internship- Agricultural Business and Management to AGMG 2586 Internship- Agricultural Business and Management same course but will go from a 3-semester hour course to a 5-semester hour course. The course can be taken during any semester. AGMG 2386 will be offered for the 1st time next spring. We will need to come up with written contracts. We will need the committees help in finding farms for the internships. The contracts will be signed by myself (Savannah), the host and the student with clear learning objects/goals. Hilary stated that she thought that the internship is a lot of hours for the students. We are voting for the AAS degree with AGMG 1311 Intro to Agribusiness and AGCR 1341 Forage and Pasture Management. Joy motioned to accept the new degree plan. The committee voted unanimously to accept the degree plan. Students were afraid of Chemistry, so I am replacing it with an AG course

Degree For the AAS Sustainable Agriculture degree changes: Most student pursuing this degree are not going to transfer to a 4-year university. I wanted to reduce some of the core hours to be able to offer more Ag courses. This will be open to more student who do not have the TSI scores

The degree plan changes for the AS in Agriculture Science in the first semester are to make ENVR 1301 Introduction to Environmental Science as the required course and remove the option of/either or of BIOL 1411 General Botany. In semester 2 the change is to offer either/or AGRI 1307 Agronomy for students who will not be transferring to a 4year university and those who will transfer to a 4year university to take AGRI 1307 Agronomy and AGRI 1107 Agronomy Lab. No internship in this degree plan. Joy made the motion to accept the AS degree in Agriculture Science with the changes it was approved by the committee unanimously.

Monday May 18, 2020 1:30 to 3:00 pm.