Pierce College Dairy Is Going; Some Fear the Farm Is Next

In a move that supporters of the Pierce College farm fear is the beginning of the end, the college dairy will be closed down this summer and milk production classes will end, the school’s vice president said Friday.

William E. Norlund, vice president for administration, said the expense of the dairy, coupled with waning student interest, prompted the administration to cancel the program, which has existed since the founding of the college in Woodland Hills in 1947.

“The primary consideration about anything is the educational program,” Norlund said, “and last fall, out of four dairy classes, they had to cancel three for lack of enrollment and the other was just marginal.”

In the spring semester, there were more cows than students, 40 to 16, teachers said.

A small school farm store near the dairy, which has had fewer and fewer college-generated products to sell, also will close, Norlund said.

In the fall, the college will complete its new master plan, which will study use of college land, including the 250 acres designated for farm operations. Community supporters of the farm and members of the agriculture faculty said they anticipate more cutbacks to the farm following that study.

Local homeowners have long supported the farm as a scenic alternative to the development they fear would replace it.

Bob Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, called the decision to end the dairy program hasty and shortsighted. He said maintenance has been allowed to slip at the farm, which has contributed to student disinterest.

“This is just part of the orchestration that has been taking place during the last two to three years to eliminate enough of the important things at the Pierce College farm to the point where they don’t need that land. Then, they’ll sell it off,” he said.

The poultry operation at Pierce was shut down two years ago, said Mick Sears, chairman of the agriculture department. A Wall Street Journal article earlier this year used the Pierce College farm program as an example of how colleges are not preparing the nation’s future work force by continuing programs geared to an earlier agricultural era.

Norlund said he did not know whether other farm programs would be cut later this year, but added that administrators are reviewing all programs to meet budget cuts throughout the Los Angeles Community College District. Pierce College must return $100,000 to the district this year, and in the coming year shave $1 million off its current budget of $27 million.

Enrollment in dairy classes had declined steadily in the past few years, Sears said, from 107 students in 1987-88 to 36 for both semesters this year, so most of his colleagues were not surprised that the program was cut.

“It was not unexpected, but it’s foreboding,” he said. “The real reaction is, ‘OK, what’s next?’ ”

Sears speculated that the rest of the large-animal program--which includes classes in caring for swine, sheep, cattle and horses--will be “looked at through the same magnifying glass.”

The dairy was expensive, Sears and Norlund agreed. The $2,000 monthly income from selling the 500 gallons of milk produced weekly usually covered the cost of the high-priced feed required by dairy cows, they said. But herdsman and veterinary bills cost the college about $50,000 a year.

Other programs at the college--such as art and chemistry--fail to support themselves too, Norlund said, but they have higher student enrollments.

“From a financial standpoint, it doesn’t make a great deal of sense to try to run a commercial enterprise, which is what it would be without students, and to run that commercial enterprise at a loss,” he said.

Sears said serious efforts were made to reduce dairy program costs by luring a milk processor to sponsor it or by reducing the size of the herd, but neither appeared viable.