Should There Be Agronomy Majors with a Specific Curriculum? 1

SHOULD there be Agronomy Majors with a specific curriculum ?—this question has been a headliner in the minds of many Agronomy educators and college of agriculture deans of instruction for more than 50 years. I propose to summarize various answers to this question based on: (a) direct correspondence with nearly 50 leading agronomy teachers and deans of agricultural college instruction at various colleges and universities where agronomists are trained, (t>) direct visits to nine colleges of agriculture and their teaching staffs to study agronomy and/or college of agriculture curriculum changes, and (c) curriculum changes favoring a specialized program for agronomists at the University of Illinois. At the outset it would be well to emphasize that there is considerable confusion and misunderstanding concerning the definition of specialization or majors in agronomy. What has been termed specialization by one agronomist may mean 50 different things to 50 other agronomists. Indeed, I was shocked to find high agronomic specialization opportunity at a midwestern university where I was told that there was recently a definite shift to more generalization. Most of our differences of opinion regarding specialization and majors in agronomy are largely semantic in nature. I feel that there is ample opportunity for a student to specialize or generalize in agronomy at all nine colleges and universities which I visited this past summer. There are varied ways of achieving each at different institutions.