Plant science faces Harper ax

The V Building on Harper College's campus is bursting with vegetation.

Hundreds of plant species are growing in the greenhouse.

In one room, silk flowers are stacked to the ceiling.

Under one lab microscope, a professor studies shrubs damaged by pests.

And so it's gone for more than 40 years at the Palatine community college.

But come spring, the park and golf maintenance and plant science technology program will be gone.

There will be no more lessons on floral design, horticulture skills or golf course management.

College officials say the program is losing money and enrollment is declining. They say in the industry, people are getting on-the-job training instead of learning in the classroom.

But students, teachers and professionals disagree. They say it's an important program that shouldn't be cut.

Students angry

The curriculum covers floral design, horticulture, landscape design, and park and golf course maintenance.

Reid Seidner, a 43-year old from Palatine, now works in quality control for Weber-Stephen Products. Now a student at Harper, he's looking for a career switch to landscape design.

"If they end the program, it will end me trying to do this," he said. "With a full-time job, it's too long of a trip to take the classes elsewhere."

Such courses aren't offered at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines. Students who can't finish up their degrees by next spring will have to attend classes at College of Lake County, Joliet Community College, College of DuPage or McHenry County College.

Matt Brandt, the Harper football team's quarterback, came to the school for landscape design from his home state of Minnesota.

"I was pretty upset," said Brandt, 18. "The teachers know what they are doing and they help you out a lot."

Low numbers, funds

Officials say since 2004, enrollment has declined by almost 40 percent, down to 62 students this semester.

And the program lost more than $40,000 last year.

Administrators evaluate programs every year to make sure they are viable, college spokesman Phil Burdick said.

If a program is deemed in jeopardy, it's placed on the informal watch list, which was the case for this one in the spring of 2005.

After 18 months, Harper decided to eliminate this one, and a few months later, current and former students were notified. Teachers in the department still haven't been told, employees say.

"There isn't much of a job market out there," said Burdick. "And most of the training is done on the job."

He admits that the decision is very data-driven and that the plant science program is an "excellent one."

Program coordinator Joyce Grattoni, who will lose her job next spring, says shutting down the program at this time doesn't make sense.

"Right now, every place I look, people are talking about 'going green' and the environment," she said. "The market is exploding. The base of green technology is horticulture."

She, along with department students and faculty, plan to speak out at a Harper board meeting tonight.

"I believe in this program," said Grattoni, who went through it herself.

Among their complaints is that there are 15 other college departments losing more money than the plant science program.

Burdick says revenue loss is only one of the factors here.

"Our nursing program loses money, but when we look at the job market, that is very strong," he said. "There isn't a demand for those type of jobs."

'There's a shortage'

Dan Dinelli, golf course superintendent at Glenview's North Shore Country Club, is a Harper program graduate.

Dinelli is well-known in the profession and has received awards for his environmentally friendly work at the course.

"There is no question that my classes at Harper made me want to stay in this field," he said.

People assume that in affluent suburbia, most people aren't interested in horticulture and agronomics and would rather go into more white-collar professions, Dinelli said.

"We are always looking for good people who are well-trained to do the work in the field," he said. "There's a shortage of that."

Chet Ryndak, an adjunct professor who has taught for 28 years at Harper, says something isn't right about this decision.

"It's heart-wrenching to see a program like this ending," he said. "What bothers me is that students are now going to have to travel a long distance for these classes. … I am not happy with this at all."

He's now retired, but he used to be the Cook County forest preserve district's conservation supervisor.

The program's cancellation comes at a time when the state is pumping more money into high school agriculture programs. State educators are looking to the suburbs and cities to draw more teens into this field.

"So they are going to get students around here interested in this," said Ryndak, "and then where will they go?"