Report: status of small school turfgrass education programssturf.lib.msu.edu/article/2013jan36.pdf · Scott is a professor of horticulture. 1. It is difficult to get accurate figures

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W E ASKED SOME EDUCATORS at three community col-leges and one 4-year institution

about the status of their turfgrass programs.The questions were:

• 1. What is the trend in your turf pro-gram enrollment numbers—up, down orsteady?

• 2. What are some of the reasons yourstudents give for wanting to study turfmanagement?

• 3. Have you made recently, or are youanticipating making in the near future, anychanges to your program? If so, what andwhy?

• 4. What is your opinion on how turfmanagement will be taught 10 years in thefuture?

CHAD FOLLIS,Mineral Area CollegePark Hills, MO

Follis is a horticulture instructor, green-house supervisor and baseball field manager.

1. Overall enrollment in horticulture isup. Those students wanting turf specific issteady this year.

2. Many of the anticipated answers arelove of sports, love of outdoors, workingwith hands and equipment. In our ruralarea of southeast Missouri, turf manage-ment is still growing and new so there issome aspect of novelty also in the mix.

3. We have increased our end of programtesting to assure employers and 4-year col-leges our students are meeting necessary com-petencies. We also put in a NTEP-stylevariety trial over the past 2 school years. Wenow have 50 bermudagrasses, 13 zoysia and

eight buffalo, two St. Augustine, and twopaspalum. We also installed 100+ cool-seasongrasses. All the basics, KYB, PRG, TTF, FF,Bent and a few outside the norm like faultsalkali, poa triv, poa supina, micro clover. Thestudents got behind this project. It allowed usto teach establishment of the various grassesand gave the students some hands on experi-ence using equipment such as vertislicers, aer-ators, etc. Thanks to all the folks that helpedus with samples of live warm seasons andseed, too many to mention in this space. Weare also trying to work out articulation with acouple 4-year institutions to smooth the tran-sition process.

4. More and more online distance deliv-ery of education. Students don’t want tocome to campus or at least want to limitthe amount of trips per week. We have todetermine how to deliver a hands-on out-side careers driven education via a com-puter screen. How do we engage studentsfully, not just pass along PowerPoint slides?I also see STMA becoming more involvedin how and what we teach in the classroommuch in the model of the GCSAA. I thinkthis will allow for increased matching com-petencies across the industry, whichstrengthens the knowledge base and givesemployers the assurance they are getting in-dividuals that can make a difference in theirfacilities immediately.

TROY MCQUILLEN, Kirkwood Community CollegeCedar Rapids, IA

McQuillen is a turf instructor.1. Numbers are remaining steady, but

something that is changing is the number

of students that are expressing interest insports turf management. Currently I have55 students in the program and I could saythat 70% express interested in golf coursemaintenance and the other 30% are pursu-ing a sports turf career. This percentage isup from past years. I attribute this to in-creased sports turf opportunities in ourarea, having student participate in theSTMA Conference, and shifting more cur-riculum and course competencies towardthe sports turf experience.

2. Usually I ask the same question whena potential student enters my office for thefirst time. I would say the most commonresponse is that the student likes the “handson” portion of the career and the appliededucation. Students also comment onwanting to work outside, having a passionfor the sport, or in some cases have workeda summer job involving a sports turf experi-ence. They come to Kirkwood wantingmore knowledge.

3. Every year the Kirkwood sports turfprogram hosts area sports turf managers fora 1-day advisory committee meeting. Thesemembers provide both curriculum and labexperience suggestions to our program sothat the education and staying competitivewith the industry. Besides the AthleticField Maintenance class, students in ourprograms also take Irrigation Installationand Design, Intro to Turfgrass, Horticul-ture Math, Advanced Turfgrass, and PlantMaterial Maintenance among other classesthat make up the 68-credit curriculum. Re-cently we have made changes to our intern-ship where students are now required tocomplete an internship packet, followed bya presentation that identifies internshipcompetencies they need to complete whileon the internship, and then share that in-formation with the incoming freshmen. Weare also adding more transfer level course-work for those students that have an inter-est in pursuing 2 more years after

Report: status of small school turfgrass education programs

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Kirkwood. These classes include Chem 2,Organic chem, Comp 2, etc.

The advisory committee and I also havebeen discussing the potential of an Ad-vanced Soil Fertility and Chemical Reactionclass. What I really like about the commu-nity college curriculum is that changes arenot difficult to make and the advisory com-mittee keeps up on the same track as the in-dustry.

4. Good question. I see a lot more on-line training for either current credit stu-dents, or as a refresher course forexisting industry professionals. The difficultaspect of online education is the “hands-on”factor. For me I always find it difficult toteach an objective without the hands-on labactivity.

I see 2-year institutions working closerwith universities to make sure our studentshave the best transfer route. (We have madegreat progress already with this). In the nearfuture for Iowa there will be a student short-age. In the state of Iowa the next largest sen-ior classes are now in kindergarten! There

will be a competition for students. I thinkthat high schools need to provide more hor-ticulture courses for students that also in-clude sports turf topics to let students knowthat these [offer] realistic careers.

I also see our curriculum having to makesome adjustment with not only teaching stu-dents about sports turf, but also more course-work on facilities management, engineering,and lots of MATH. Sports turf managers areexpected to perform it all, and we need toback it up with qualified training.

BRIAN SCOTT,Mt. San Antonio CollegeWalnut, CA

Scott is a professor of horticulture. 1. It is difficult to get accurate figures for

the number of students specifically in theturf program due to the way majors are re-ported on. Our typical student usuallycomes in with an unrelated declared major,or as a declared Horticulture Science major.It is quite a process for them to change theirdeclared major and sometimes changing the

declared major impacts their financial aid.So, with that said, I will give you some in-formation based on Certificates, Degreesand general observations. It is also impor-tant to understand that our typical studentis around 30 years old, has a family andworks either part or full time and attendsschool part time. I have students ranging inage from 18 to 70 years old, multi-racial,male and female. A quite eclectic bunch!

I have been at Mt. SAC going on 12years. When I started we did not have a de-gree in Sports Turf Management. I imple-mented the Park and Sports TurfManagement degree in 2003. Since thattime we have awarded seven degrees. Thecertificate in Sports Turf Management, inthe same time frame, has been awarded to33 individuals. This certificate encompassesthe core courses minus the general educa-tion requirements.

In just looking at ‘completers’, there is asteady trend. I can’t say numbers are up ordown. The most certificates we awarded inone year were eight in 2008-2009. The least

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was one in 2004-2005. Degrees have been fairly consistent with 1per year.

My general observations are that the program is gaining inter-est and enthusiasm to a higher degree every year. We have beentaking eight students to compete in the STMA Student Challengeevery year since 2009. Last year we had 12 students participate.When we first started, I had trouble getting four students to com-pete. Now we have tryouts and give them qualifying exams. Idon’t require that they are majoring in Sports Turf Management.In fact, I use the competition as more of a way to promote thesports turf industry. Many of the students have decided to seekemployment in the sports turf industry after they go to the na-tional conference and see what it is all about. By this measure, Iwould say that our program is growing and will continue to do soin the future. Our local industry is consistently seeking peoplewho have knowledge of athletic field management.

2. This past spring (2012), we conducted some student focusgroups to answer this type of question as well as several others.While the students who participated were from various disciplineswithin the Agricultural Sciences Department, I think the answersaccurately reflect how students in every discipline within our de-partment feel.

Participants described several attributes about the programthat are working well and should be maintained:

• Hands on/practical experiences

• Ample industry contacts, networking opportunities, in-formation about trends and job opportunities

• Teachers who are caring, down-to-earth, knowledgeable, andwho convey their love for what they do

• Pride in the program among students and faculty• Variety of classes/new computer-aided drafting course• Good use of limited resources• Everything!Participants also stated what aspects of the program are less suc-

cessful, offering program personnel opportunities to improve by:• Incorporating technology in courses/program• Developing more design/drawing curricula, as well as more

advanced curricula• Using industry trends to drive offerings• Addressing class scheduling/availability• Increasing program’s limited resources• Having more voice-of-the-student opportunitiesThis is all fairly general information. The students who specifi-

cally go into turf management typically like the environment ofbeing around sports and like being outside. Also, it gives them anopportunity to take pride in their accomplishments.

3. We have recently changed our certificate program to bemuch more specialized. For instance, our sports turf certificateused to require 30 units of courses. Now it is 18. Our previousphilosophy in our certificate programs was that we wanted to

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make sure students had a very broad knowledge base for all cer-tificates. Now we feel that it is more important to provide certifi-cates for very specialized subject matters. We also provide morecertificates now (was 9, now 12) and have included a generalHorticulture Science certificate for those who want to go widebut not as deep. We hope this will allow students to achieve cer-tificates in a shorter time frame.

4. I see turf management, just like many other subjects, beingtaught from more of a “soft skills” and thinking on your feetmentality. When I first started teaching, I put so much emphasison the details of the trade (for example, disease, insect and weedidentification; fertilizer programs, etc.). As I have traveled andhad discussions with many turf managers in different regions, itseems like all of the details change from site to site, region to re-gion. It is impossible to consider all of the scenarios. Now, I dorecognize the importance of the details, especially to universitieswho are training researchers. At the community college level,however, I don’t see this as being one of my missions. I sure whatthem to understand the basics, and even the details when I thinkit will be extremely relevant. But I keep asking myself what de-tails I remember from my college education. It was that I wastaught how to think like a diagnostician, how to be a profes-sional on all levels, and how to be resourceful. This sounds prettybasic, but the challenge for the future for me is developing cur-riculum that incorporates these concepts with the technicalknowledge that students need to have when beginning their ca-reers in sports turf management.

DOUG LINDE, PHD, Delaware Valley CollegeDoylestown, PA

Linde is professor of turf management at this 4-year college insoutheastern PA.

1. We are staying steady around 30 total students. That numberhas been around 30 for the past 5 years. Most of our students are19-22 years of age.

2. Like playing golf and want to work outdoors. Like sportsand want to work outdoors on a sports field [are the major rea-sons].

3. I’m sensing in the near future we will have students takemore basic sciences and less specialty classes. This will result in amore broad-based science education that would give them moreflexibility in case of a career change. New graduates have no prob-lem getting jobs upon graduation as long as they have work experi-ence; however advancement to head field manager and headsuperintendent is much more difficult. So some graduates areswitching careers. We also will be redesigning our required intern-ship program to increase the academic rigor.

4. Professors will need to continue to adapt to the learningstyles and preferences of the students. 18-22 year-old students’learning preferences will likely change due to technology, theirhabits, and teaching techniques they witness in high school. Also,students need professors less and less for the information about asubject. They need professors to evaluate information and use it tosolve problems. ■