The March 8th article about Penn State changing the operation of its student-run farm gave the impression that the decision is final. I hope this is not the case.

There is a core group of students, faculty and staff dedicated to the preservation of the Circleville student-run Farm. It is difficult to express all the time and effort that has been put into the creation and development of this unique learning center.

Now the Agricultural Administration plans to "restructure" it into a piece of land that as yet undetermined amount of faculty will bid for its use. The administration's major intent is to increase faculty involvement and enhance student experiential learning.

The administration is unwilling to answer logistical questions such as how many and how much these grants will be? Therefore, let me speculate how these grants may be used.

If all the $75,000 (allocated by the state legislature specifically for Circleville Student Farm) was divided into grants of $5,000 then there would be 17 faculty involved. This is assuming that no funds would be siphoned off for administrative costs. It is difficult to determine how many students would be involved.

Unfortunately, Jonda Crosby, the present Farm manager, and Cheryl Keller, the Farm's office manager, have been terminated so there will be no overall coordination of these grants.

That means that each faculty has to budget into their proposal the cost of hiring personnel to prepare for their classes or to find time to do it themselves.

This could mean much overlap and competition for necessary equipment. This does not sound like an efficient use of human or other resources.

If the real intent is to enhance student experiential learning, why not support the present Circleville Student-run Farm with the necessary "modern" facilities that would encourage more involvement. (At present, there is no water, sewer or classroom facilities.)

Totally eliminating the student-managed concept only reduces the possibility of enhancing student experiential learning.

Quality of experiential learning, not just quantity of students involved is important.

Students need to be able to synthesize the theoretical information provided in the classroom with the practical handson operations of a farm or an agricultural industry in order to clearly make management decisions so essential in today's competitive world.