Bruce Hicks is retiring. His position needs to be refilled.

• Modeling Sustainability
• Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement
• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
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• Enhancing a Culture of Inclusiveness

AGS 50 Soil Science currently has a total four section offererd each year. We turn away students in each section, semester after semester. There should be at least one more section added. Currently, we do not have faculty available to staff another section. All qualified faculty are teach two clasesed of overload per semester.

AGS 51 Fertilizers and Plant Nutrition is critical for our CCA and PCA students and is an easy fill. Without additional staffing we cannot offer this class.

We have had to eliminate two sections of AGS 20 Plant Science this year (one per semester) per due to lack of available associate faculty. These sections have filled for many years but without faculty we cannot offer the two additional sections. With a new hire we could easily fill two-four new section per year. The AGS 20 classes have been taught and managed by Robert Landry. Robert has been setting up labs and providing leadership for associate faculty but begining all 2017 he will shift out of AGS 20 into AGS 50. The lack of leadership in this area will make it very difficult for associate faculty (if qualified associate faculty can be located) to teach this class. It is difficult to acquire and retain qualified associate faculty with an agricultural background in areas of animal science, soil science, crop science, plant science, and plant protection. 

At present we offer only what is necessary to maintain our program at a minimum, and we significantly under-serve the CSU-transfer student population (in particular, animal science majors), yet our three full-time faculty members who teach in ag science have an annual teaching load greater than 150%, plus the load from our associate faculty. Two of our full-time faculty teach ag business, so it is critical that we also work toward hiring a full-time ag business faculty member as well. It is difficult to employ qualified, available associate faculty in our service area. To allow our faculty time for curriculum development, managing industry relationships, mentoring students, and the many other responsibilities in a CTE program, it is imperative that we hire an additional full-time faculty member.

A growing component of our program is in ecology of pest and disease and plant nutrition and soil science. With the increased demand for state-licensed Pest Control Advisors (PCA), ag biologists, and Certified Crop Advisors (CCA), we are constantly looking at our curriculum to meet the needs of California's #1 industry, which is agriculture.

Increase the ag staff positions (farm manager, EH technician, and farm shop personnel) all to 100%, 40-hour work week.

• Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement
• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
• Using Data-Informed Processes for Continuous Improvement
• Maximizing Resources to Support Student Learning
• Enhancing a Culture of Inclusiveness

Agriculture does not stop at 5pm or take weekends off. It is critical that our ag staff members get their salaries and work time increased to 100% since their services are critical to the success of the faculty, students, and entire Ag Department. When equipment breaks down, staff must be available to fix and maintain the equipment so classes and labs can use it. These are the key support personnel that allows our department to continue to run smoothly. Faculty don't have the luxury of switching lab activities at the last minute because a piece of equipment is down or crops were not planted, irrigated, fertilized, or sprayed.

In order to prepare students for careers in agricultural consulting (CCAs and PCAs), research as well as outreach/extension, the Agricultural Science Department needs to secure the most up-to-date technological tools for analyzing crop and soil parameters. 

• Modeling Sustainability
• Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement
• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
• Maximizing Resources to Support Student Learning

With the addition of two new Plant Protection and Plant Nutrition courses in AGS/EH, we offer a 42 unit Program approved by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation that will allow a student along with 2 years of related work experience to quality to take the state licensure exam to become a Certified Pest Control Advisor. For careers in agricultural consulting including Certified Crop Advisors (CCAs) and PCAs, research as well as outreach/extension, the Agricultural Science Department needs to secure the most up-to-date technological tools for analyzing crop and soil parameters to add rigor to the program.

To support our classes, our students and staff need new and safe equipment, tools, and vehicles to work in the crops, orchards, and vineyard areas on the college farm. Accessibility for transportation and restroom facilities needs to be addressed.

• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
• Using Data-Informed Processes for Continuous Improvement

Some of the Farm Shop tools and equipment have reached the end of their useful lives. Many are in need of significant repairs, which justify simple replacement, since they are being used to train students in their use. Student and staff safety is our #1 responsibility, followed by training with modern equipment and technology.

We believe that using industry standard equipment is vital and our students need this exposure to maximize their employment potential, including the use of GPS technology on our tractors. Equipment needed includes hand power tools such as weed eaters, chain saws, all-terrain-vehicle (ATV), rotor hammer, and MIG welder, and large farm equipment including a new ag pickup truck, hay baler, hay squeeze, and hay rake. Simple hand tools needed include T-post drivers and tool box of both metric and standard hand tools. We also have a need for a portable restroom and sink facilities for students who work on the farm far away from restroom facilities on main campus, and for students with physical disabilities.

The Ag Department is one of the few programs that can generate funds through its farm-inclusive curriculum. By providing modern equipment, the farm can generate additional dollars for the Ag Department, which maintaining important connections to current ag industry practices through hands-on work experiences in classes and lab settings.

The need for vehicles come from the fact that ag faculty need to use the Ag van during the week for lab trips, and the van is regularly in use by three ag faculty. Three of the six fulltime faculty have a commercial driver's license for driving the current 15-passenger van, so it would be appropriate to request funding for a 12-passenger van and a new pickup truck so all of the faculty can use a van or truck for field trips instead of depending on the pool of vans in Facilities, and this would reduce the congestion placed on the one van currently in place.

The Ag Department has three clubs (Ag Ambassadors, Hort Club, and Friends of the Refuge) which use the van and truck for off-campus field trips and conferences and having transportation is critical to the success of these club activities. Many of the trips are for recruitment to high school ag and FFA programs, and the Ag Department will be applying for Student Equity funding to increase the diversity of our current student population (e.g., African American, Asian, and Hispanic students). Many times we tour ag facilities who insist that we accept donated plants, and having a new ag truck would be useful to haul supplies and materials to labs.

A request for an additional ATV comes from the number of disabled students entering our program. We plan on working with the Butte College Veterans Office and Brian Shobe of the Farmer Veteran Coalition to apply for Student Equity funding and a USDA grant to secure resources to encourage and recruit US veterans to the Ag Department. Having improved transportation and recruitment materials will increase our chances of increased diverse populations at Butte College (e.g., veterans, African Americans, Asian, and Hispanic students).

There is a need for  construction of a new ag facility which includes an additional farm shop, farm manager's office, ADA compliant classrooms, pavilion, and kitchen.

• Modeling Sustainability
• Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement
• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
• Maximizing Resources to Support Student Learning

 Our farm classroom is in need of an ADA-compliant, accessible facility with classrooms, pavilion, farm repair shop, farm manager office, kitchen, and restrooms. We are proposing a feasibility study to determine the costs and need for the Ag/Farm Facility, which could be estimated at $3,000,000.

Increase the allocation of federal work study dollars. These dollars are used to temporarily hire student assistants and provide valualbe hands on experience for our advanced students.

One thing all agriculturalists pride themselves on is their real-world, boots-on-the-ground, hands-on experience. We want to give our students as many of these opportunities as we can, and offer paid work experience positions to students. These positions include both farm and ag science student workers.

• Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement
• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
• Maximizing Resources to Support Student Learning

Farm and ag science lab activities require the support of students for setup, in addition to farm, shop, and EH staff. There isn't enough time to go around to assist with all of the purchasing, pickup, and setup of labs, so increasing our paid student work force would not only assist our staff, but would provide valuable work experience opportunities for our ag majors.

The Product Process Technology proposed AS degree program offers a beneficial learning opportunity for Butte College undergraduates aspiring to a variety of industry processing careers and should be attractive to many who are interested in welding, fabrication, computer science, drafting, agriculture, and how they all play important roles in the processing industries and their regulatory agencies in California. This is an important program that will be a pioneering venture in California where agriculture is the number one industry valued in over $45 billion in revenues, which will provide our graduates with opportunities to capture those revenues into expanded ag product manufacturing programs with state-of-the-art technologies while being well-informed of regulatory frameworks. 

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The advisory committees of the Agriculture, Welding, Drafting, and Computer Science have directed us to improve student opportunities in fabrication skills and procedures in Product Process Technology, our proposed new AS degree. We are in the process of evaluating our curriculum to determine the best fit for these enhancements, also looking for outdated information and techniques which could be removed from curriculum. Instruction in these four areas will require some additional equipment, facilities, instructors, and courses. This would generate FTES for the college, meet industry needs, and provide students with another educational/career pathway with abundant prospects and the potential for high skill, high wage employment. 

This is an additional opportunity to recruit a more diverse population into these areas (e.g., women, minorities, and disabled students).

All of our students benefit when our staff and faculty participate in current industry meetings, inservices, and conferences. Three of our staff hold required applicator's licenses which must be renewed every two years, and these staff must attend mandatory training to keep up these licenses. Two of our faculty hold PCA and CCA licenses which also must be renewed every two years. 

It would be to the benefit of the department and college as a whole to have faculty participate in data analysis training and software purchase, have the data tools, and expertise to use these tools, to conduct meaningful program reviews, unit planning, and implement Student Learning Outcomes.

• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
• Using Data-Informed Processes for Continuous Improvement

Ag Department staff need to attend ag industry conferences, meetings, and inservices to maintain currency in their disciplines, classrooms, and labs. With the ever-changing needs and technology of industry, it's critical to the success of our students that all staff are current in their disciplines.

As researchers and scientists, there is tremendous opportunity to learn more about our student population, their majors, their backgrounds, and potential recruitment sites, and connect that information to careers and funding opportunities. Having the additional research tools, training, and data analysis software will helps you construct a narrative and interactively share findings in ways colleagues and decision makers can readily understand and act upon.

The classrrom computer in LS 137 is used extensively by faculty, day and day out. Unfortunately, this computer is outdated. Please replace with new desk top computer.

• Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement
• Supporting Student, Faculty and Staff Success
• Maximizing Resources to Support Student Learning

The computer does not support modern software.