THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060429
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 63 lines
Like a late-blooming flower, Tidewater Community College's horticulture program - which faced closure last semester because of low numbers of graduates - is shooting up in popularity.
The combined enrollment in horticulture classes this semester is 286, a record high, said Ken Spencer, an assistant professor of horticulture who runs the program. That's 21 percent higher than last semester's 236 - and 36 percent higher than last spring's 211.
``I'm real positive about where we're going,'' Spencer said Wednesday. ``I don't think this year's numbers are just a blip. We've been on our way up since 1993-94.''
In terms of ``full-time equivalent students'' - a state calculation to determine the number of students who are served based on total credit hours - the program has 48 students, up from 40 last spring, Spencer said.
The State Council of Higher Education proposed dropping the program last fall primarily because it averaged five graduates a year - less than the state's recommended total of seven. But after receiving more data about the program's growing popularity, the state agency decided to place it on ``probation'' and reconsider its status next year.
Spencer said he expects 17 people to get associate's degrees in horticulture this year. While he's not sure if he can match that number in future years, he's optimistic it will stay above the state minimum of seven.
Spencer and his students attribute the boom in part to the publicity surrounding the program's fate last semester. ``The program has gotten more exposure, and that's made a big difference,'' said Debbie Taylor of Virginia Beach, who hopes to get a job in landscaping or forestry. ``It's brought more people in.''
Spencer said he has also stepped up his visits to garden clubs and master gardener classes to drum up enrollment.
The increase also reflects the growing interest - and opportunities - in gardening and related fields. ``There are hundreds of jobs out there,'' said Hazel Freeman of Chesapeake, who wants to be a horticulture teacher. ``The better qualified people are, the better product they'll produce.''
Spencer noted the attraction of four state-of-the-art greenhouses, which opened at TCC last year. That made the proposal to close the program even more incomprehensible to Diane Powers. ``In my opinion, it would have been really stupid,'' said Powers, a Chesapeake resident who hopes to work in a greenhouse. ``They have a beautiful facility and they spent money on it.''
The Chesapeake campus is the only place within 100 miles where students can get a two-year degree in horticulture - a point that TCC and its supporters pressed in their campaign to keep the program. This semester, the college is offering 19 horticulture classes, including landscape design, indoor plants and greenhouse crop production.
Four of those classes have at least 20 students. In Spencer's botany class Wednesday, a dozen split up in groups to review the intricacies of stems, including such cells as parenchyma, which store chemicals for energy, and collenchyma, which help support the plant.
Many students joined the program to advance their longtime hobbies. Powers was a bookkeeper for 10 years, Taylor worked in a law office for eight years. Both yearned to get outside and watch the results of their work. ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON/ The Virginian-Pilot
Ken Spencer, assistant professor of horticulture, discusses
chrysanthemums with some of his students in one of the greenhouses
on the Chesapeake campus of Tidewater Community College.