Program to offer four-year degree
By Kyle Wittenbraker
Staff Reporter

Avery Kibbe will be one of the first students to graduate from TCU with a bachelor of science in ranch management.

TCU has decided to allow students to major in ranch management, which will allow Kibbe to graduate with the degree at the end of next year. He completed the certification program last year, but under the old rules, his hours did not count toward a degree plan, he said.

Bryan Vassuer, director of the Institute of Ranch Management, said a ranch management major will be offered in addition to the one-year ranch management certification program. The program and the major consist of 12 courses that take nine months to complete.

Ranch Management courses combine in-class instruction with field trips to ranches. Courses cover everything from care of livestock to ranch business practices.

Ranch management classes will count as science hours, and the degree will be a bachelor of science in ranch management, Kibbe said.

James Link, director of the ranch management program, said offering the degree will help retain students.
“The main thing is every year we had students working on a four-year degree that had to go somewhere besides TCU to get it,” Link said.

Students who plan to major in ranch management will declare themselves pre-ranch management majors through the College of Science and Engineering their freshman year, Vassuer said. The students will then take university core classes during their freshman and sophomore years before applying to the program and interviewing with faculty before their junior year, he said.

A conditional acceptance will be granted to students, and they will then take courses toward a minor in business, Horn said. During their senior year, students take regular ranch management courses. The major will be offered beginning in Fall 2004.

Transfer students will be considered for the major on an individual basis, Vassuer said.