News
DCB places two programs on hold
Scott Wagar
04/07/2015
Dakota College at Bottineau has announced that it will not offer its forestry and horticulture programs next year due to the decline in the programs enrollment.
The dean of DCB, Dr. Ken Grosz, wrote an e-mail to the college’s staff of April 2 stating the programs would not be offered during the next academic year.
“I am writing this message to inform you that we are placing DCB’s Horticulture and Forestry programs in abeyance or on-the-shelf for the 2015-16 academic year,” Grosz stated. “The students currently enrolled in the programs will be able to complete their degrees through DCB, but new students won’t be accepted into the program for 2015-16.
“It’s important to emphasize that the ‘down’ year should not be interpreted as DCB dropping the majors from the institution’s program inventory,” Grosz added. “Rather, next year will be spent investigating and then implementing ways to make the curriculums more attractive to prospective students. The plan is to bring the programs back in a reconfigured format for the fall of 2016.”
In an interview with the Bottineau Courant, Grosz said that DCB has no choice at the moment but to place the forestry and horticulture programs on hold next year.
“The reason we are doing this is because we really need to take a hard look at them to see how we can make them more attractive to get more students into the program,” Grosz said. “Enrollment at this time is so minimal that our returns in investments are not satisfactory.”
Presently, DCB’s forestry program at DCB has two students, while the horticulture program has one student.
“With numbers like these, we need to do something, and rather then continue on as is and try to get through next year we are just going to put it on the shelf for next year and hopefully get it off the ground for 2016,” Grosz said. “And, I can’t emphasis this enough, DCB is not dropping these programs, we are going to work on them and bring them back as stronger programs.”
Grosz added that over the past years, forestry and horticulture programs have seen a decline in students across the nation in the small number of colleges that offer these programs.
Although the forestry and horticulture programs will close for a year, DCB will continue its beautification program with the city, along with its gardens on the college’s campus.
With the forestry and horticulture programs not being offered next year, the forestry instructor will not be employed with the college, while the horticulture instructor will have a part-time position at the college.
“This individual will keep the greenhouse going and do the work that is done in the summer,” Grosz said. “While this individual will also help us restructure the programs as well.”
At the moment, DCB’s online forestry program, which has four students enrolled in the program, is in discussions of whether or not that program will continue next year.
“We are still having conversation about the urban forestry program and continuing that online next year,” Grosz said.
“We are hopeful our present forestry instructor would continue with that, even though he will not be employed with us, he could be an adjunct instructor in the program, but it is not the same because it is a non-benefit position,” he stated.
Like the forestry and horticultural enrollment numbers, urban forestry numbers are also seeing a decline in numbers.
It is uncertain why enrollment numbers are down from previous years, but some speculate that the higher paying jobs in the oil and gas industry could have something do to with it.