Peralta Community College District
Annual Program Update Template 2010-2011
Each discipline will complete this form to update program reviews developed in 2009-2010. These will
be reviewed at the college level and then forwarded to the district-wide planning and budgeting
process. The information on this form is required for all resource requests – including faculty staffing
requests – for the 2011-12 budget year.
I.
II.
Overview
Date Submitted:
10-18-2010
Dean:
Tom Branca
BI Download:
10/07/2010
Dept. Chair:
Chris Grampp
Discipline:
LANHT
Campus:
Merritt
Mission
The Landscape Horticulture Department’s mission is to help students attain
knowledge, skills, and broad-based outlooks needed to succeed as professionals,
as stewards of the land, and as responsible citizens. To accomplish these goals the
department provides open access to educational programs, support services, and
community outreach in a rigorous, diverse, and culturally rich learning environment.
Student Data
A. Enrollment
Fall 2008
Fall 2009
Fall 2010
Census Enrollment (duplicated)
829.0
971.0
871.0
Sections (master sections)
29.0
31.0
26.0
Total FTES
97.18
129.45
84.89
Total FTEF
6.45
6.77
5.81
FTES/FTEF
15.07
19.11
14.61
Enrolled
770.0
873.0
N/A
Retained
648.0
723.0
% Retained
84.0
82.0
N/A
N/A
770.0
585.0
75.0
122.0
15.0
873.0
638.0
73.0
150.0
17.0
B. Retention
C. Success
Total Graded
Success
% Success
Withdraw
% Withdraw
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N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
III.
Faculty Data (ZZ assignments excluded)
Fall 2010
Contract FTEF
Hourly FTEF
Extra Service FTEF
Total FTEF
% Contract/Total
1.63
3.88
0.3
5.81
28.06
IV. Faculty Data Comparables F2010 (ZZ assignments excluded) (Z assignments excluded)
Contract FTEF
Hourly FTEF
Extra Service FTEF
Total FTEF
% Contract/Total
Alameda
Berkeley
Laney
Merritt
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
1.63
3.88
0.3
5.81
28.06
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V.
Qualitative Assessments
CTE and Vocational: Community and labor market
relevance. Present evidence of community need
based on Advisory Committee input, industry need
data, McIntyre Environmental Scan, McKinsey
Economic Report, licensure and job placement rates,
etc.
The Landscape Horticulture curriculum
prepares students for a broad range of public
and private sector job opportunities, including
landscape design, landscape contracting,
irrigation design and installation, nursery
management, maintenance, and more. Typical
jobs include preparing designs for residential
gardens, drawing up irrigation plans, making
water-use calculations, installing irrigation,
maintaining gardens and commercial
landscapes, pruning shrubs and small trees,
working in horticultural nurseries, propagating
plants, installing simple landscape structures
and flatwork, working for parks, golf courses,
and regioanl preserves, and planting new and
existing gardens. Typical professional licenses
and certifications that our students – upon
completion of classes and subsequent
internships – include Landscape Contractor,
Certified Landscape Technician, Certified
Water Auditor, Certified Arborist, Certified
Pesticide Applicator, Certified Nurseryman,
Certified APLD Landscape Designer, Certified
Irrigation Design (CID) and Certified Irrigation
Contractor (through the Irrigation Association, a
group which offers 6 certificates), and more.
It is difficult to quantify the employment status
of the nearly 900 students enrolled in our
program each semester. However, based on
the data sheets every student fills out, on
informal instructor surveys, on attendance and
participation in our Landscape Design Forum
class (a professional practice seminar), on
postings to our Landscape Horticulture Yahoo
group, on the Pruning Club membership list, on
the frequent use of our job board, and on the
six landscape design groups that have formed
in the past ten years, we can estimate with a
fair degree of accuracy that:
• 55-60% of our students are currently working
in the field part or full-time, and are either
taking classes of the first time, or returning to
learn new skills.
• 25-30% of our students are making a career
change and possibly have some recent
experience in the field.
• 10-15% of our students are starting their first
career.
The current economic downturn
notwithstanding, job prospects for landscape
professionals in the Bay Area are excellent.
There are currently more than 2800 registered
landscape architects in California, many of
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whom practice in the Bay Area. The Oakland
ATT Yellow Pages lists 42 professional firms
alone, a number which is several times bigger if
the greater metropolitan area is counted. The
numbers grow considerably when related
professions are included. ATT lists 590
landscape contractors and 626 landscape
design consultants in the Walnut Creek,
Lafayette, and Concord areas, 171 landscape
contractors and 213 design consultants in the
San Francisco area, and 219 landscape
contractors and 423 design consultants in the
San Rafael area, all locations potentially served
by Merritt College students.
Transfer and Basic Skills: Describe how your
course offerings address transfer, basic skills, and
program completion.
Transfer and basic skills:
Several of our classes meet University of
California and California State University
articulation requirements, and we presently
have six landscape design classes in the
articulation process with UC Berkeley.
The great majority of our classes are
requirements or electives for our AS Degree
and our four certificates. Thus, students
enrolled in our program are making progress
towards degrees and tangible professional
goals. Over the previous two years we have an
82% retention rate, and a 73% success rate.
All of our instructor (2 full-time, approximately
26 part-time) are also landscape professionals.
Our faculty includes two licensed landscape
architects, two licensed landscape contractors,
two licensed arborists, two APLD Certified
Designers, one International Professional
Propagator’s Society member, two former
nursery owners, one Master Florist, two Bay
Friendly Certified designers, one Certified Pest
Applicator, and more. This pool of certification
contributes directly to our students’ ability to
obtain basic and advanced skills, whether they
are moving from school into professional work,
or coming for continuing education. While our
classes serve the needs of entry-level students,
many practicing professionals come to our
department to obtain specialized training in
irrigation, construction, CAD, freehand drawing,
plant ID, soil chemistry, and more. It is not
uncommon to have licensed architects, civil
engineers, landscape architects, contractors,
arborists, and nurserymen(sic) in our classes.
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VI. Strategic Planning Goals
Check all that apply.
Describe how goal applies to your program.
Advance Student Access, Success & Equity
Engage our Communities & Partners
Build Programs of Distinction
Create a Culture of Innovation & Collaboration
Develop Resources to Advance & Sustain Mission
STUDENT ACCESS: As a CTE program we
focus our curriculm on reaching out to students
in or interested in the landscape profession, in
teaching state of the art professional practices,
and supporting students in all walks of life in
their educational and career pursuits.
ENGAGE COMMUNITIES: Our department
reaches out to the community through helping
under-funded institutions and organizations
with landscape projects, hosting communitybased seminars (such as the Permaculture
Convergence, the Master Gardeners, and the
Associaiton of Professional Landscape
Designers) at our facility, and assiting in job
placement with public and private firms. Our
Permacuture and vegetable areas grow food
which we donate to under-served community
groups.
BUILD PROGRAMS: We currently offer one AS
Degree and four Certificates of Achievement,
and are in the final stages of developing an AA
degree in Landscape Architecture.
CREATE CULTURE: All of our instructors are
practicing landscape professionals, and well
versed in state of the art practices and laws
surrounding water conservation, regional and
recycled materials, green roofs, food
production, and sustainable maintenance
practices.
DEVELOP RESOURCES: We regularly update
course outlines, develop new curriculum paths,
and hire new instructors to stay current with
emerging professional trends in landscape
horticulture. We have developed data bases
and email lists to monitor our student's needs
and requests, and send out information about
new courses, symposiums, and training. We
offer a wide variety of fee classes to
supplement our regular curriculum. We have
upgraded our IT equipment to allow teachers to
use the internet in class, and make the best
use of digital presentations and infomration
dissemination. We offer internships allowing
students to specialize in particular types of
training. We are regulalry replanting our
grounds to develop eco-systems, demostrate
new plant cultivars, and grow food.
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VII. College Strategic Plan Relevance
Check all that apply
New program under development
Program that is integral to your college’s overall strategy
Program that is essential for transfer
Program that serves a community niche
Programs where student enrollment or success has been demonstrably affected by extraordinary
external factors, such as barriers due to housing, employment, childcare etc.
Other
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VIII. Action Plan

Please describe your plan for responding to the above data. Consider curriculum,
pedagogy/instructional, scheduling, and marketing strategies. Also, please reference any cross district
collaboration with the same discipline at other Peralta colleges.
Include overall plans/goals and specific action steps.
The Landscape Horticulture Department is the only one of its type in the Peralta Community College
District, and offers perhaps the greatest range of classes among all similar programs in the greater Bay
Area. Our goal is to serve the widest possible community. We have one AS degree, and four Certificates
of Achievement, the most recent one being in Permaculture. We are also in the final stages of creating
an AA Degree in Landscape Architecture. Each of our certificate and degree programs is highly
successful. We currently have nearly 900 enrollments, and classes regularly reach their maximum
before the semester even begins. As a result we are finding it harder and harder to schedule all of our
courses due to limited classroom space.
To meet our educational goals, to accommodate our facility and staffing needs, and to encourage future
growth, we are seeking College support in several ways. To upgrade our facility we need: new
classroom space; a student center with a library, computer and Internet access, and a kitchen; new
desks and drafting tables; increased storage and shelving; better classroom and outdoor lighting; more
parking; improved paths and walkways; new growing grounds.
To upgrade our faculty and staff we need one to two new full-time instructors (one to replace the
instructor who just retired, and one to teach new design and emerging technologies classes); a part-time
clerical assistant to mange fee-based classes, the library; another full-time grounds keeper to help
manage our 7.5+ acre facility; a part-time greenhouse technician to manage our 5,000 s.f. glass house..
To insure future growth we need funding to help realize our departmental master landscape and
facilities plan. This document, which we have recently updated, includes plans for two new classroom
buildings, enlarged growing grounds, a public gathering area, a student center and gathering space, and
general infrastructure improvements.
The two areas where we are seeing the greatest growth are in Landscape Design, and Permaculture.
Our Landscape Design curriculum is one of the broadest of any community college in the state. We are
steadily adding new courses to cover the wide scope of this fast-growing profession (several studies
show a 16% growth of this field in the next ten years, a rate nearly 50% above average for all
professions in California). Our Permaculture program is also expanding, especially in the area of edible
landscapes and community food sourcing. These two programs will attract numerous students in the
next decade, and we need to be ready to serve them.
We are continually upgrading our curriculum by revising course outlines, adding SLOs and
assessments, creating new classes in emerging technologies, and converting older classes and
specially classes to fee-based formats. We are currently reworking our Nursery Management Certificate
to better reflect and serve the needs to students and the industry. We have submitted a Measure A
request to support the construction of a tissue culture lab, and are seeking funding for curriculum
development to support this effort. We are also seeking funding for a modern outdoor propagation area.
Two of our faculty, with the help of volunteers, are upgrading our Native Hill near the entry to our
grounds; this area will serve as a demonstration area for new species and eco-systems, and affirm the
importance of regional identity and sensitivity in the field of landscape horticulture. We will soon begin
creating an Australian Hillside, and then create additional gardens based on Mediterranean climates
throughout the world. We are requesting curriculum development funding to implement and complete
this need as well as funding for plants and irrigation.
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To insure program visibility and respect, we are constantly striving for comprehensive and effective
community outreach. We are currently reconstituting our advisory committee to reflect state-of the art
industry representation and practices. This committee will have representatives from the design,
contracting, nursery, maintenance, and permaculture industries. We have several community programs
and partnerships that have proved rewarding to all parties involved; such groups get the benefit of our
services, and our students get “real-world” experience. Our plant sales have brought tens of thousands
of people to our facility since we started them in the 1980s. We host symposiums and conferences at
our facility, and most local nurseries know about our program, recommend us to their customers, send
staff to us to take classes, and employ our graduates. We help place our students in jobs at design and
contracting firms, nurseries, park departments, maintenance companies, public agencies, and with
homeowners seeking specialized help on their home grounds. We have had numerous students transfer
to university BA and MA programs. The University of California Landscape Architecture Department
regularly sends students to us to take irrigation, construction, and plant ID classes, and solicits our
recommendations of promising graduate students.
Another of our goals is to attain national recognition and status as an educational Arboretum. We
already serve as a living laboratory for students, staff, faculty, and the Bay Area community, and such
elevated status would increase our visibility. To achieve this goal we will need the above described
funding for additional staff, curriculum development, maintenance, and expansion.
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IX. Needs
Please describe and prioritize any faculty, classified, and student assistant needs.
• One new full-time faculty member to replace one who just retired (highest priority).
• One full-time grounds keeper to assist in classroom labs, propogation and growing, and maintenance
around our 7.5+ acre facility (second highest priority).
• One part-time clerical aide to manage fee-based classes, expand our library, coordinate events, and assist
with marketing (third highest priority)
• Four student aides to help in our lab classes, which often have 30-50 people enrolled (fourth highest
priority).
• One part-time greenhouse technician to manage our 5000 sf glasshouses (fifth highest priority)
Please describe and prioritize any equipment, material, and supply needs.
• Upgrade electrical throughout the Department
• Improved ADA access to lab areas.
• Relocation of lath area to the back of facility as well as redesign and construct new nursery/propagation
area.
• Rebuilding of all wooden gates surrounding the facility.
• Repair of all leaking water main valves around the facility.
• Removal/relocation of walk-in refrigerator from H-105.
• Installation of white boards along with current blackboards.
• Enlarge present restrooms to accommodate current student population.
• Installation of an outdoor shower for chemical decontamination.
• Renovation of greenhouse heating systems for propagation.
• Repair of greenhouse controls.
• Nursery carts for plant propagation.
• Pesticide storage sheds.
• Chairs/Tables/Lamps for Horticulture library.
• Additional desks for students in H108/H101
• New drafting tables and chairs for H-105.
• Improve the signage on the grounds to illustrate plant materials.
• Add to the plant materials collection for plant materials classes.
• Improve the access on all paths throughout the facility for students in lab classes.
• Restripe parking lot and reconfigure tennis courts and surrounding area to accommodate addition parking
for students.
Work slated for Fall semester, 2010 (but not started)
• Complete overhaul of HVAC systems.
• Ceiling mounted audio visual for all classrooms.

Please describe and prioritize any facilities needs.
• Upgrade electrical throughout the Department
• Improved ADA access to lab areas.
• Relocation of lath area to the back of facility as well as redesign and construct new
nursery/propagation area.
• Rebuilding of all wooden gates surrounding the facility.
• Repair of all leaking water main valves around the facility.
• Removal/relocation of walk-in refrigerator from H-105.
• Installation of white boards along with current blackboards.
• Enlarge present restrooms to accommodate current student population.
• Installation of an outdoor shower for chemical decontamination.
• Renovation of greenhouse heating systems for propagation.
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• Repair of greenhouse controls.
• Nursery carts for plant propagation.
• Pesticide storage sheds.
• Chairs/Tables/Lamps for Horticulture library.
• Additional desks for students in H108/H101
• New drafting tables and chairs for H-105.
• Improve the signage on the grounds to illustrate plant materials.
• Add to the plant materials collection for plant materials classes.
• Improve the access on all paths throughout the facility for students in lab classes.
• Restripe parking lot and reconfigure tennis courts and surrounding area to accommodate addition
parking for students.
Work slated for Fall semester, 2010 (but not started)
• Complete overhaul of HVAC systems.
• Ceiling mounted audio visual for all classrooms
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X.
Course SLOs and Assessment
Fall 2010
Number of active courses in your discipline
166 (110 credit classes,
56 fee-base classes)
Number with SLOs
80 (credit classes only)
% SLOs/Active Courses
50% (66% for regularly
taught classes)
Number of courses with SLOs that have been assessed
25
% Assessed/SLOs
31% (most of our classes are
taught by PT faculty,
and aren't offered every
year)
Describe types of assessment methods you are using
We are using the "Closing the Assessment Loop" guidelines as set forth in the 2010 Merritt College Student
Learning Outcomes Assessment Notebook
Describe results of your SLO assessment progress
Our SLO assessments have revealed a high degree of compatibility between learning outcomes and the
methods that our instructors use to achieve these outcomes. A great deal of this success can be
attributed to the fact that all of our faculty are, or have recently been, practicing landscape professionals,
and teach skills and content that mirrors skills and content required for professional practice.
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XI. Program Learning Outcomes and Assessment
Fall 2010
Number of degrees and certificates in your discipline
1 AS degree
1 Certificate of Proficiency
3 Certificates of
Achievement
Number with Program Learning Outcomes
4
Number assessed
4
% Assessed
100% for Fall, 2010
classes
Describe assessment methods you are using
We are using the "Closing the Assessment Loop" guidelines as set forth in the 2010 Merritt College Student
Learning Outcomes Assessment Notebook. These include insuring consistency of SLOs, PLOs, and
ILOs, and evaluating assignments and greading rubrics. We generated these at a Landscape
Horticulture faculty meeting.
Describe results of assessment
All of our Fall 2010 instructors have closed the assessment loop on their current classes. The results reveal
a high degree of compatibility between our course outlines, SLOs, individual instructor assessment
methods, our Program Learning Outcomes, and the College's Institutional Learning Outcomes.
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