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An effective way to learn most practical skills is through first-hand experience. Nowhere has this principle been applied to a greater extent than in vocational agriculture. Supervised agricultural experience (SAE) programs have long satisfied the practical aspect of agricultural education by providing students with a wide variety of learning experiences. These programs continue to enjoy broad support from students, parents, and educators. Sutphin and Newcomb (1983) reported that 98% of respondents to a national survey of agricultural educators and administrators believe that SAE should be required of all high school vocational agriculture students. A recent national study of agricultural education recommended that all students participate in worthwhile SAEs while enrolled in vocational agriculture (National Research Council, 1988). Arrington and McGhee (1988) reported that over 50% of the 1983 vocational agriculture program completers in Florida believe there should be more emphasis on SAE in the program.

Graduate student enrollment in the plant sciences has decreased over the past several years, and there is increasing interest in recruitment/retention strategies. Before successful strategies can be implemented, however, the status of current plant science graduate programs needs to be determined. Survey data on graduate student demographics, research area, support levels, current recruitment strategies, and career opportunities were collected from 23 plant science graduate programs. Overall, 55% of graduate students in plant sciences were male and 45% were female; about 60% were domestic and 40% were international. Cellular/molecular biology and breeding/genetics were the two disciplines that had the greatest number of graduate students and the greatest number of job opportunities. Most programs cited financial support as the biggest obstacle to recruitment. However, stipend number, the guarantee of multiple years of support, the funding of tuition waivers, and health insurance costs also impact student numbers. As more of these costs are shifted to faculty, there appears to be an increasing inability and/or reluctance to invest grant funds (which support 60% of the plant science graduate students) in graduate student education. These data suggest that the decline in plant science graduate student enrollment may be due to shifting of more of the total cost of graduate training to faculty, who may be unable/unwilling to bear the cost. There is also a clear shift in the research focus of plant science graduate students, as postdoctoral and career opportunities are weighted toward molecular biology/genetics, leaving the more applied plant science areas particularly vulnerable to low graduate enrollment.

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