College of Agriculture

(Including School of Human Resources and Family Studies)

NOTE: See also the College of Agriculture's WWW site.

NOTE: This document was generated from the 1995-1997 UIUC Programs of Study. Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, but be advised that requirements may have changed since this book was published. Errors may have also been introduced in the conversion to a WWW document. Thus for items of importance, it might be wise to seek confirmation in the paper version or from a live human being.


104 Mumford Hall
1301 West Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801
(217) 333-3380

Contents


Introduction

Situated in one of the world's
richest agricultural regions, the College of Agriculture has a long history in scholarship, professional education, and career preparation in agricultural and food sciences and their relationship to natural resources and the environment. As the land-grant agricultural institution for the state of Illinois, the college traces its heritage of public service to the enrollment of the first agriculture student at the Illinois Industrial University in 1868. Undergraduate students in the college can choose from among fourteen curricula and numerous study options in eight college departments, with more than 450 courses available in a broad range of agricultural, human ecology and environmentally related disciplines. Several cooperative programs with other colleges on campus exist and individualized programs of study may be designed to meet the student's particular educational needs, academic interests, and career goals.

Extensive farms, field sites, greenhouses, laboratories, and other research facilities are conveniently located on the Urbana-Champaign campus, affording excellent opportunities for college students to gain "hands-on" experience with on-going studies in agriculture, child development, dietetics, food processing, and many other fields. The college maintains a large collection of books, periodicals, audiovisuals, and other educational resources in its Agriculture and Home Economics Libraries; and microcomputers, data-processing equipment, and access to the campuswide mainframe computer system are available to supplement and enrich classroom studies.

The College of Agriculture is recognized nationally and internationally for its distinguished faculty, innovative programs of study, and pioneering achievements in teaching, basic and applied research, extension education, and international programs. The college will soon complete a major building program designed to enhance its position of national leadership in the agricultural, human, and environmental sciences. State-of-the-art facilities, including some that are under construction and those completed within the past five years, add greatly to the teaching and research capabilities of the college, particularly in the challenging new fields of biotechnology and genetic engineering. A new $30-million Plant and Animal Biotechnology Laboratory was dedicated in 1991. A $17.5-million Animal Sciences Laboratory construction and remodeling project was completed in 1993, and extensive remodeling has been completed in the Agricultural Bioprocess Laboratory, the National Soybean Research Laboratory, and other coll ege facilities. Plans are underway to construct a new library, computer center, and alumni center for use by students, faculty, and alumni.

The College of Agriculture offers career preparation and education in several fields of biological, physical, and social sciences. The academic units and curricula offerings are listed in the following section.


Departments, Offices, and Curricula

Agriculture

The Office of Agricultural Communications and Education offers courses in agricultural communications media and methods, information program planning, rural-urban communications, teaching of college-level agriculture, extension education, extension communications management, and other topics. Students in the agricultural communications major prepare for careers in agricultural writing and editing, radio and television broadcasting, advertising and marketing communications, public relations, and photography.

The Department of Agricultural Economics offers a core program plus specialized courses to prepare students for one or more of the following areas: agribusiness management, farm management, agricultural and food policy, agricultural finance and accounting, agricultural marketing and price analysis, commodity brokerage and the futures markets, natural resource economics and community development, international agricultural development and trade, agricultural law and taxation, and rural sociology.

The agricultural education program, administered through the Office of Agricultural Communications and Education, allows students to follow one or more of the three specialty options: science and management, horticulture and natural resources, and agricultural mechanization. Upon successful completion of an option in the agricultural education major, a student is qualified for an Illinois secondary teaching certificate and for employment in the Cooperative Extension Service and in many agribusiness fields.

The Department of Agricultural Engineering offers courses in agricultural engineering and agricultural mechanization. The agricultural engineering courses cover the principles of engineering science and design used to solve a broad spectrum of engineering problems related to agriculture. Areas of specialization include food and process engineering, off-road equipment design, bioenvironmental engineering of plant and animal facilities, and the protection of soil and water resources and of soil and water quality. The agricultural mechanization courses cover agricultural technology and agribusiness management and focus on such technical specialities as machinery, electronics, computers, automatic controls, materials handling, buildings, waste management, grain and food processing, ventilation and heating, and soil conservation.

The Department of Agronomy offers courses in both crops and soils. Instruction includes courses in plant breeding and genetics; biotechnology and genetic engineering; crop evaluation; crop protection; production and evaluation of cereals, corn, soybeans, and forage crops; crop physiology; design of field experiments; weeds and their control; the origin and development of soils; land appraisals; soil conservation; soil chemistry; soil physics; soil fertility and fertilizer use; soil management; and soil microbiology. A special option in crop protection is available to students interested in a broad, comprehensive approach to controlling diseases, weeds, and insects, plus managing cultural practices to maximize yields. An option in agroecology addresses ecologically based management of cropping systems, stewardship of the environment, and substantial food production systems.

The Department of Animal Sciences offers courses in the areas of animal evaluation, behavior, genetics, nutrition, physiology, meat science, and other courses related to the application of scientific principles to animal agriculture. Courses involve studies with beef and dairy cattle, horses, poultry, sheep, swine, and companion-animals.

The Department of Food Science offers courses in the application of biology, engineering, chemistry, physics, microbiology, and nutrition to the processing, formulation, packaging, and distribution of food. Two undergraduate curricula, food science and food industry, are offered.

The Department of Forestry curriculum offers options in forest science and wood products. The forest science option prepares students for all phases of the management of forest properties (private or public, large or small) for the production of valuable wood products and for watershed protection, wildlife habitat, recreational enjoyment, and other benefits. The wood products option is concerned with the properties of wood as a raw material and its manufacture into useful products.

Courses in the Department of Horticulture provide instruction in floriculture, landscape horticulture, turf, pomology, vegetable crops, and subjects common to all these divisions, such as crop production, plant propogation, plant genetics, plant materials, plant anatomy and morphology, and the physiology and ecology of horticulture plants, as well as special problems in experimental horticulture. Courses related to cultural and business management are additional offerings.

The courses offered by the Department of Plant Pathology are designed to prepare students for graduate work in plant pathology and to provide supplementary training for students specializing in related fields such as agronomy, food science, forestry, horticulture, and plant protection.

School of Human Resources and Family Studies

The School of Human Resources and Family Studies is in the College of Agriculture. At the time it was established in 1974, the school incorporated the former Department of Home Economics, which had been in existence since 1874. Today the school contains three divisions and offers the following programs: consumer sciences (consumer economics, textiles and apparel, marketing of textiles and apparel); foods and nutrition (dietetics, foods and nutrition, foods in business, restaurant managment); and human development and family studies.

The unique focus of the school is the study, within an interdisciplinary context, of vital issues affecting the health and well-being of individuals and families. The mission of the school is to generate and provide knowledge so that people may both shape and achieve the greatest benefits from their environment under conditions of continuing social, economic, physical, biological, and technological change.

The mission is accomplished by (1) identifying critical problems of concern to individuals and families at local, state, national, and international levels; (2) generating knowledge through basic and applied research to help individuals and families live more healthy, productive, and personally satisfying lives; (3) preparing individuals for professional positions and leadership in the public and private sectors; and (4) providing educational programs to families through the Cooperative Extension Service.


Requirements

ADMISSION

Besides meeting the general admission requirements of the University, students entering the College of Agriculture as freshmen must have taken, prior to entry, 8 semesters of English, 4 semesters of algebra, 2 semesters of plane geometry, 4 semesters of laboratory science, 4 semesters of social studies, and 4 semesters of a foreign language.

Applicants for freshman admission are evaluated on the basis of their ACT scores and high school percentile ranks. A portion of the applicants are required to submit a Professional Interest Statement as well. Detailed information may be obtained in the Admissions Information brochure contained in the admission application packet.

Applicants who have earned 60 semester hours of baccalaureate credit at other institutions may be considered for transfer admission. Such applicants are evaluated on the basis of their transfer grade-point averages. Some variation may occur in the grade-point average required for transfer admission into the various curricula. Applicants are encouraged to consult the Admissions Information publication for specific grade-point average requirements.

GRADUATION

The number of hours required for graduation varies between 120 and 130 for all curricula within the college. Included in the total must be all courses prescribed in the given curriculum and a sufficient number of electives to obtain the total number. The student should consult the College of Agriculture Student Handbook for a listing of credit restrictions that apply in evaluating elective credits toward graduation.

A student who has transferred to the University from another educational institution and who is a candidate for a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Agriculture must complete at least half of the required agriculture or human resources and family studies semester hours in residence. A transfer student from a four-year college must also complete the senior year, not less than 30 semester hours, in residence at the University. A transfer student from a community college must complete at least 60 semester hours at a senior college and at least the last 30 semester hours at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Each candidate for graduation must have a grade-point average of not less than 3.0 (A = 5.0), including grades in courses transferred from other institutions, and a grade-point average of not less than 3.0 in all courses taken at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC PROGRESS

In addition to maintaining prescribed academic performance levels, a student in the College of Agriculture is also expected to make progress in courses required in his or her academic major. Each student is required to have at least one College of Agriculture course in the program each semester, except in cases in which the specific curriculum does not make that desirable. Students not complying will be denied additional enrollment.

GENERAL EDUCATION

The UIUC senate adopted a revised set of general education requirements in 1989. The eight categories included in the approved document included English composition, quantitative reasoning, foreign language, natural sciences, humanities and the arts, social and behavioral sciences, cultural studies, and perspectives on women and gender. Because of budgetary considerations, it has not been possible to implement all categories immediately. As of August 1994, the following categories with implementation guidelines for College of Agriculture students have been adopted:

A. English composition

(1) Composition I. This requirement may be fulfilled by the satisfactory completion of one of the following selections or an equivalent: RHET 105; RHET 108; RHET 100, 101, and 102; RHET 103 and 104; SPCOM 111 and 112; or ESL 114 and 115.

(2) Composition II. This requirement is met by completing an approved writing-intensive course. (Student should consult the 1994-6 College of Agriculture Student Handbook for current listsings of acceptable courses within each category.)

B. Quantitative reasoning

The quantitative reasoning requirement for College of Agriculture students must be completed with a college-level mathematics course. Students should consult the requirements for the specific academic program to identify the appropriate course.

Although not implemented from the 1989 guidelines, the following additonal general education categories remain in place from former campus general education guidelines.

--Humanities--6 semester hours (Student should consult the College of Agriculture Student Handbook for current listings of acceptable courses within each department.)

--Social science--6 semester hours (Student should consult the College of Agriculture Student Handbook for current listings of acceptable courses within each department.)

--Natural science--6 semester hours chosen from biological science and physical science categories (Student should consult the College of Agriculture Student Handbook for current listings of acceptable courses within each department.)

Course Placement

All students admitted to the College of Agriculture are required to complete mathematics, chemistry, English, and foreign language tests during the precollege testing program.

Mathematics: All students in a College of Agriculture curriculum who entered college in the fall 1992 semester and beyond are subject to campus quantitative reasoning requirements. Although mathematics requirements vary by curricula, students are required to take at least one college-level mathematics course beyond college algebra and trigonometry. Based on their performance on the mathematics placement test, some students may be encouraged to take a college algebra course for no graduation credit prior to enrollment in the upper-level course.

Chemistry: To take CHEM 101, a student must have a satisfactory score on the Chemistry Placement Test and a mathematics placement score that demonstrates competency beyond college algebra. Students who have not had high school chemistry or who do not score high enough on the Chemistry Placement Test must take CHEM 100 before taking CHEM 101.

English: Minimum English requirements in all College of Agriculture curricula include a semester of composition, a semester of public speaking, and a semester of advanced writing. Freshman students will fulfill the first two parts of the requirement by completing RHET 105--Principles of Composition and SPCOM 101--Principles of Effective Speaking; or SPCOM 111 and 112--Verbal Communication.

Foreign Language: Foreign language is not a graduation requirement in the College of Agriculture. However, the foreign language placement test is required in case students elect to continue study in that language for elective credit.


Special Programs

SCHOLARSHIP INFORMATION

The College of Agriculture recognizes entering students who have outstanding scholastic records with scholarship assistance not based on financial need. Entering freshmen are eligible to compete for $4,000 Jonathan Baldwin Turner Scholarships. A student who ranks in the upper 10 percent of his or her high school class at the end of the junior year or who has an ACT composite score of 27 or better is encouraged to submit a scholarship application. Interviews are conducted between the junior and senior year in high school. Transfer students with the most outstanding academic records at the institutions of previous attendance are recognized each year with $500 transfer student scholarships. Additional information and scholarship application forms may be obtained from the Office of Academic Programs, 104 Mumford Hall, 1301 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801.

Additional scholarships within the college, to recognize academic merit, are awarded to continuing students based on their record earned at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. See Financial Aid for a description of financial assistance available based on demonstrated financial need.


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