{"id":223660,"date":"2025-01-27T07:01:55","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T12:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=223660"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T18:06:08","slug":"sustainable-plant-and-soil-systems-major-becomes-plant-science-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/01\/sustainable-plant-and-soil-systems-major-becomes-plant-science-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Plant and Soil Systems Major Becomes Plant Science in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sustainable plant and soil systems major offered by the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR<\/a>) will be renamed \u201cplant science\u201d beginning in the summer 2025 semester.<\/p>\n

This change comes after an in-depth market analysis of employment opportunities, benchmarking against other universities and programs across the nation, and a survey of students, faculty, and staff in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture<\/a>. These activities indicated a desire for a major name that was more aligned with industry needs and for better understanding by prospective students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a variety of career options when graduating with a degree in plant science,\u201d says Sydney Everhart, department head. \u201cBoth the name and program were thoughtfully redesigned to enhance recognition of the degree by employers, prospective students, and those who might consider national rankings. This is an exciting time to be considering coming to UConn for plant science.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cornerstone of the plant science program is the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience through courses with labs, field studies, and internships. The degree prepares students to tackle real world challenges in plant systems, from topics like bioremediation, environmental restoration, and sustainable agricultural plant production practices in the greenhouse, field, and across landscapes.<\/p>\n

The core focus of the degree will remain learning about plant science, plant production, biotechnology, and cultivation. Graduates will have a foundational understanding of plant biology and soil management, learning how to optimize plant growth and health in a variety of environments. The program emphasizes hands-on skills, teaching students how to identify and manage pests, diseases, and weeds, and apply sustainable practices to improve agricultural and horticultural systems.<\/p>\n

Students in the renamed plant science major will continue to be able to take courses towards a concentration in environmental horticulture, sustainable agriculture, or turfgrass science.<\/p>\n

Students with a plant science degree may also have an easier time navigating the post-graduation employment landscape, as this is a broad degree name that provides flexible alignment with a variety of plant science affiliated careers and fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe move away from SPSS is going to be good for the department. Most students, including myself, find it hard to explain what SPSS is to people outside of the major,\u201d says Robert Eselby \u201925 (CAHNR). \u201cThis name change will help realign the identity of the major with the focuses of the students within it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This name change will also allow UConn\u2019s program to be recognized in national rankings of plant science programs. This was not possible in the past as the unique major name did not allow UConn\u2019s graduates to be included in elements necessary for the rankings.<\/p>\n

Students currently enrolled in the sustainable plant and soil systems major will have the name of their degree updated for degrees awarded in fall 2025 and moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter over 100 years with ‘plant science’ in the name of our department, it is exciting to have everything align \u2013 including the bachelor\u2019s degree name, graduate program, and associate\u2019s degree program,\u201d says Everhart. \u201cWith many new faculty in our department, we have bold plans to offer new concentrations and courses in the next couple of years that will continue to provide graduates of our program with a strong foundation and cutting-edge skills to equip them to succeed in their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow <\/em>UConn CAHNR<\/em><\/a> on social media<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With this change, the major name is more aligned with industry needs and for better understanding by prospective students<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":209090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2224,2303,2235,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-223660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cahnr","category-plant-science-landscape-architecture","category-today-homepage","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 05:36:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223660"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242367,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223660\/revisions\/242367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/209090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223660"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=223660"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=223660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}