In the last few years there have been a number of changes in the undergraduate program in PSC. One of the most significant is that we have gradually moved from a system where each faculty member advised some undergraduates to that of having a full-time professional advisor. The impetus for this action was in part due to a transistion from a quarter system to a semester system, and the adoption of a new general education program in 1998. The complexity of advising students through the transition was such that it was simply not practical for each faculty member to learn all of the intricacies. As evidenced by the exit interviews, the students seem to be favorably impressed with the advising program. It is our intention to continue the advising as currently done.
While there are a number of positive points about advising within the PSC Department, there is a concern that if students are all working with one advisor, then there will be limited opportunity to interact with faculty members. To address this concern we are using our introductory course to introduce students to faculty members. We are also attempting to develop a formal mentoring program that will insure students interact with professors in their discipline area. The mentoring program is one of the initiatives stated in the PSC Compact Plan. Overall, the undergraduate programs supported by PSC are effective. Students regularly evaluate department courses and their comments are reviewed at the administrative level and then given to faculty members. Department curriculum committees regularly review curricula and make changes as appropriate. At the last department review there were recommendations made to decrease duplication in coursework, increase the number of options, allow more unrestricted electives, develop an undergraduate major in land and water resources, and re-evaluate co-enrollment of BS and associate degree students in the same courses. In response to these recommendations we have successfully established a program in Environmental Soil and Water Science. We have also attempted to reduce redundancy in undergraduate courses. However, this is an on-going process and is somewhat difficult because of the large numbers of transfer students who come into the department with diverse training and experience. We have probably been less successful at increasing the number of electives due to the general education demands and the number of courses that are critical to the degree programs. Finally we have examined the issue of co-enrollment of associate and bachelor’s degree students in the same courses and have elected not to change. The reasons include no vocational funding from the state to support separate courses, a large number of students who move from the associate program to the bachelors program, and limited faculty available to teach more courses. The department also attempts to adjust programs as appropriate whenever a clear need or concern develops. For example, when the university shifted to semesters and a new general education program, the introductory plant science course was denied general education status as a breadth course in life sciences. In response, we developed a new course (PLSC 3200, Horticultural Science) designed to meet the qualifications of a science depth course. We hoped that it would meet the needs of both our majors, and students from the general studentbody who needed general education courses. Unfortunately, we have found that the course is repetitive for our majors and too detailed for non-majors. We have also found it to be inefficient to teach general education courses that do not meet our primary needs as well. In response, we are currently developing a new introduction to horticulture course that will hopefully meet our needs as well as those of the general education program. Other changes that have occurred include a new course in precision agriculture that addresses the issues of emerging technologies in remote sensing and GIS systems in crop production. We have also established a new professional degree program at the Master’s level in horticultural landscape water management. This new program has also resulted in some ongoing changes to the undergraduate courses in landscape management. As a department we try to maintain the standards and rigor necessary for effective educational programs. At the same time, we try to be responsive to student needs and make appropriate adjustments, as long as they do not reduce program quality.