Kirkwood dropping horse science degree after 41 years

Huddled in a Cedar Rapids barn this week, where she's spent the last year and a half learning to train and care for horses, Whitney Thomson extolled Kirkwood Community College's horse science credit program.

'It's really good,” said Thomson, 20, who moved to Eastern Iowa from Missouri last year for the degree program. 'We learn a lot from the staff. They have great classes.”

Thomson grew up in a family of breeders and trainers and said after graduating in the spring with a degree in horse science technology she hopes to continue her equine education and eventually start her own horse-centered business.

So when she heard this week that Kirkwood plans to eliminate the credit program after the last of its current batch of students graduates in spring 2016, Thomson was disappointed. For starters, she said, ending the program could reflect poorly on her degree.

'We don't want to leave here and have it seem like our degree is not credible,” she said. 'We work hard and turn in papers and do a lot of labor. We want to leave here and be able to find jobs.”

Thomson said she also feels a horse science degree program still is in demand - not just by students but by equine-related businesses both in Iowa and nationally, though she acknowledged the industry might be slowing.

'But there are still tons of jobs,” Thomson said. 'Every one of us could walk out of here and find a job.”

Officials with the Cedar Rapids-based community college said they're dropping the program, in part, due to employment shifts in the industry and graduation rates.

The Kirkwood program had about 80 students at its peak eight years ago, but those numbers have been declining, with 26 students graduating in the past three years. Of those graduates, 15 are known to be working directly as a rider, trainer, or general stable employee, according to Scott Ermer, dean of Kirkwood's Agricultural Sciences Department.

The about 45 students currently enrolled in the two-year program - including both first- and second-year students - were notified Monday of the closure, which means no new applications will be accepted.

Future Kirkwood students will be able to take equine-related courses, like horse riding and training, but those classes will be offered under the 'continuing education” model, which means they won't be applied toward a degree but will instead provide career development and personal enrichment opportunities.

The degree program also is expensive and losing money annually, said Kirkwood Vice President of Student Affairs Bill Lamb. Moving the curriculum to the continuing-education category will shift program costs from Kirkwood to the students, as they will have to provide their own horses and other materials, Lamb said.

The college currently spends about $500,000 a year to house and care for the program's 30 horses and to provide educators, classrooms, and stable space. Balanced with tuition revenue, Lamb said, the net loss is about $350,000 a year.

'Horse science is a pretty expensive program to run,” he said.

Once the last students graduate, Kirkwood will eliminate its horse herd, meaning it also will save on some necessary facility upgrades were it to continue housing the animals, Lamb said. Without horses, the pasture lands won't need to revamped, and Kirkwood won't need to add a sprinkler system to its barn for insurance purposes - both upgrades that would have cost about $200,000, according to Lamb.

Kirkwood has offered its horse science credit program since 1973, and it's been based out of the school's Iowa Equestrian Center since 2001, Lamb said. When it's not being used by students Monday through Thursday, the center hosts events, including horse expositions, dog shows and related activities.

'They do events 46 weekends out of the year,” Lamb said. 'So one of the other advantages of eliminating the program is that we will be able to use the facility for that during the times we aren't using it now.”

The goal is to turn the center into a moneymaking venture for Kirkwood, Lamb said. And that seems to make the most sense with the decline in student interest and equine industry jobs, according to Lamb.

'The horse science industry has changed,” he said. 'The employability for graduates has really declined. The kinds of wages earned by graduates has declined. So this seemed like a good time to rethink that program.”

But Thomson said she and some of her peers want Kirkwood to reconsider.

'I think they should continue the credit program but re-evaluate it,” she said. 'This came out of the blue. If we had known, we could have done something together to make it better rather than just shutting it down.”