Prior to the 1960 , s, technician- 

 training programs had been started 

 and then discontinued by certain 

 senior universities or colleges. 

 Professional-level programs 

 evolved from such a beginning in 

 some cases (Dana and Johnson 

 1963, Chamberlin n.d. unpubl.). 

 But in 1985, technician training 

 was conducted by community 

 colleges, junior colleges, or 

 technical colleges in the South for 

 the most part. 



The major function in these 

 institutions is resident instruction. 

 Faculties are usually small with 

 heavy teaching loads that leave 

 little time for other activities 

 (Moser, personal communication). 

 Only five of these institutions 

 indicated they were involved in 

 continuing education on limited to 

 moderate scales. By 1985, the 

 Society of American Foresters had 

 recognized 8 of the 14 as meeting 

 or exceeding minimum standards 

 for forest technology programs 

 (Elliott 1985). 



The 14 institutions and certain 

 program characteristics of each are 

 listed in table 2 in order of year of 

 first graduation. 



Other Characteristics of 

 Professional-Level Programs and 

 Program Units 



The senior universities exhibited 

 considerable diversity in 

 organization, fields offered, and 

 cooperative relationships. 



Organization — At the 12 land-grant 

 institutions in particular, many 

 current forestry and forest- 

 products programs originated in 

 agricultural departments, colleges, 

 experiment stations, and extension 

 services. In a number of cases, the 

 teaching of forestry and farm- 

 forestry courses for agricultural 

 majors or the conduct of forestry 

 research by one or two agricultural 

 or forestry faculty under the State 

 agricultural experiment station and/ 

 or extension forestry projects 

 under the State Agricultural 

 Extension Service (today the 

 Cooperative Extension Service) led 

 to the establishment of a forestry- 

 forest products academic 

 department (Chapmen 1935, 

 DeVall 1978, Clapp 1980 unpubl., 

 Saylor 1979, Trulove 1984, 

 Maughan 1939, Dunn and Holladay 

 1977). 



Initially, then, such programs were 

 tied to and subordinate to 

 agriculture. As they have grown 

 and matured, the tie has remained, 

 by and large. Organizationally, 

 however, they have moved toward 

 a parallel and equal rather than 

 subordinate relationship to 

 agriculture, especially in the 

 resident instruction function. 



Unit titles are indicative. In 1985, 

 one land-grant forestry-forest 

 products unit was a "college"; 

 seven were "schools," some of 

 which had status equivalent to a 

 college; only four retained the 

 "department" designation. Two of 



