dent studies, which have become
outlets for students’ various expectations of the program. Four participants, for example, are conducting
a budget analysis of a local farm’s
winter crop of microgreens.
Beyond weather, the program
faces another challenge: a $19,000
deficit. “We were willing to run it
at a loss to get it going,” says Ms.
Belliveau. But she is hoping for
20 students next year, to balance
the budget. In the future, the pro-
gram could enroll up to 30, she
says. “The mantra of a continu-
ing-education dean is, You need
more.”
The two other programs have
become self-sustaining, almost. At
Michigan State, tuition and produce
sales cover staff salaries and farm
operations. But budget cuts at Santa
Cruz’s Center for Agroecology &
Sustainable Food Systems, which
runs the apprenticeship, have forced
it into some fund raising.
“The fees that we charge don’t
cover the costs,” says Jonathon
Landeck, assistant director of the
center. Thanks to an anonymous
donation, though, next year’s tuition
will be only $6,000.
program’s approximately 1,400
alumni, a few dozen grow locally;
several hundred others run community and schoolyard gardens and
small farms from San Francisco to
New York. Ms. Pierce says young
farmers joke about the two degrees
of Santa Cruz: Everybody knows
somebody who knows a former apprentice.
Vermont’s organizers want to
help expand that network. They
have sowed two more acres in peas
and oats to prepare the soil for a
larger teaching farm. At the North-
east Organic Farming Association’s
winter conference and other meet-
ings, they will recruit more stu-
dents.
Higher Education Moves to the Cloud
Package With a Price
Paying in part to work—hard—
can raise tensions. On the farms at
Santa Cruz and Michigan State, apprentices labor alongside hired undergraduates.
“‘Wait, why am I paying to be
weeding for four hours?’” Ms.
Pierce says the programs’ partici-
pants sometimes complain. “People
like to get frustrated with weeding.”
The farmers and educators be-
hind all of the training programs
worry about costs because students
can’t use federal or state aid if
they’re not earning academic credit.
But even as administrators look for
donors to finance scholarships, they
defend their model.
Compressing fieldwork and in-
struction saves students time, says
Like land and equipment, train-
ing is an investment for aspiring
farmers, says Jeremy Moghtader,
director of Michigan State’s pro-
gram. “What they’re paying for is
the fact that we’ve created an in-
tegrated, well-structured teaching
and learning environment.” Down
the line, he says, the lessons may
save the students expensive mis-
takes.
Universities can readily fit valu-
able resources into a package, says
And the programs are produc-
ing farmers. Of the Santa Cruz
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