Position Description: The Department of Horticulture and Crop Science at The Ohio State University (hcs.osu.edu) invites applications for an Assistant Professor tenure-track position as State Extension Specialist for soybean and small grains. This is a 12-month, 75% extension and 25% research position located at the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.

If you are going to be here for the quarter to semester switch (Summer, 2012) you are a transition student, here’s what you should be doing now:

1. Get those science and math GEC’s done before the conversion if you’ve been putting them off.  The courses will be longer with more material covered under semesters.  That goes for any other course you’ve been dreading.
2. If you are thinking you might want to switch to one of the Sustainable Plant Systems specializations and have not taken biology yet, take Biol 113.  Biol 101 and Pl Bio 101 will not count in the new major.
3. Start preparing yourself mentally for taking FIVE 3 hour courses a semester instead of THREE 5 hour classes.  A common mistake for students moving from quarters to semesters is to not take enough classes. You’ll need a minimum of 121 hours to graduate under semesters, so if all courses were done under semesters that’s 121÷ 8 = 15.1 hrs/semester.
4. You will most likely have classes all 5 days a week.  It will be harder to schedule those Mondays and Fridays off.
5. About half of your courses will meet only on M, W, F and the other half of your courses only on Tu and Th so if you miss a M and/or W, you’ll miss 1/3 to 2/3 of those M,W, F courses.

For the past several months H&CS faculty and staff in consultation with students, alumni, industry personnel have been developing courses and majors that will be implemented at the time of the conversion. The H&CS semester majors and courses have been proposed and are now starting the review and approval process which starts with the department’s review and approval, followed by the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Science’s review and approval, then the University’s (course approval stops here), and ultimately the OSU Board of Trustee review and approval of majors.

The proposed majors are:

1. PROFESSIONAL GOLF MANAGEMENT (PGM)   The PGM major will look very much like the quarter version but with the semester version of courses. - Draft requirements
2. SUSTAINABLE PLANT SYSTEMS (SPS)

The SPS major will have 4 specializations that a student will select at the time of choosing the major:

• Agronomy - Draft requirements
• Horticulture - Draft requirements
• Landscape Design and Management - Draft requirements
• Turfgrass Science - Draft requirements