Redlands Community College – Darlington Agriculture Education and Applied Research Center

Abstract

In 1999 a neglected, state-owned, 110 acre site in El Reno, Oklahoma was transferred to Redlands Community College. Today that same site is The Darlington Agriculture Education and Applied Research Center, a vibrant campus that is home to approximately 100 students, multi-million dollar research projects, internationally recognized facilities and an impressive list of national and international commercial partnerships. None of which would be possible without Oklahoma state’s research and education network, OneNet. When asked what the OneNet network has meant to its programs, the President of Redlands Community College, Dr. Larry Devane said, “Access to the OneNet network is critical to the instruction activities of our Darlington campus. It facilitates our community and network connections to the 4-year research institutions in the state that also connect to OneNet and helps us to fulfill our commitment to our rural students by delivering distance learning to the state’s high schools.”

History

Redlands Community College (RCC) located in El Reno is a two-year college whose mission is to provide a student-centered environment committed to academic excellence strengthened through service and civic engagement. The college has 2,400 students from 19 states and 3 nations. There are three campuses: the Main Campus, The Royse Ranch and The Darlington Agriculture Education and Applied Research Center. The Darlington Campus has 107 students.

Redlands first began using the Darlington campus in 2002 and it has continued to grow with students and projects requiring facility expansion to five buildings and a fiber optic network ring to connect them. The college is well known for its progressive curriculum and strategic partnerships and initiatives.

Campus Programs and Economic Development

Programs at Darlington made possible by the OneNet network include: viticulture, enology, equine science, goat science, dairy science, and animal reproduction. Private partnerships made possible by the network include both national and international companies. Students benefit from the experience of working with state-of-the-art technology through the school’s national/international partnerships. These partnerships have either directly or indirectly produced over $4.2M in grants and equipment donations.

The viticulture program was started with funding from NSF’s VESTA program which funded 6 universities/colleges in the country. Most of the students in the program are non-traditional students who either work full-time in or own vineyards. The viticulture program has been in a number of publications. One goal of the project was to increase the number of wineries in Oklahoma. Since the program began, the number of Oklahoma wineries has grown from 1 to 53 and the wineries have generated $277,000 in Wine Excise Tax revenue in two years. Redlands is currently part of a $2,920,000 NSF Regional Center. RCC and its partners plan to apply for status as a National Center in 2012. The viticulture professor is also the head of the OK Grape Growers Association.

The enology program has also been very successful. Using only grapes grown in Oklahoma, the students have created a successful winery called Chapel Creek Winery. Wine-taster Gary Vaynerchuk rated the student-made Cabernet Sauvignon a 91. This year, Chapel Creek Winery will use its own grapes to make wine in limited quantities as part of the educational process. All proceeds from the wine sales are returned to the program.

One of the partnerships contributing to the $4.2 M in grants and equipment is the Archer Daniel Midland’s Alliance Nutrition Partnership. This program performs nutritional feed trials for goats to promote estrus synchronization. USDA’s Forage & Livestock Production Research Unit scientists collaborate with Redlands’ agricultural faculty and assist with the college’s beef herd and equine program. Most of the Unit’s student aids are enrolled at Redlands, which facilitates the transfer of newly developed technologies to students earning degrees in life sciences.

By strategically selecting research programs, RCC has achieved international recognition. A private/public partnership between the DeLaval organization in Tumba, Sweden and Redlands Community College allowed RCC to be the only U.S. test location for its state-of-the-art goat dairy science equipment. Each goat is micro-chipped. As she moves into the milking station, her number is electronically recorded and her milk production is monitored. RCC was instrumental in the development of the monitoring software, which enables producers to analyze the variables of milk production. This facility will train technicians around the world on the latest goat dairy science technologies. This partnership has lead to a prestigious Grade A certification by USDA and RCC sells the milk, cheese and soap from the operation. The revenues from the sale of products go back into the campus programs. In addition to revenue from the sale of dairy products, on-line auctions hosted at the campus to sell breeding does have generated revenues to date of $357,000.

The animal reproduction program’s partnership with IMV Technologies in France has allowed RCC to buy commercially unavailable, state-of-the-art reproductive equipment at cost. The facility is key to research on goat genetics and is well known internationally.

Experiment in the Animal Reproduction Lab

Under its strategic partnership programs, The Darlington Campus students have completed 15 applied research projects in 4.5 yrs and their work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals. Project sponsors include ADM, Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Evergreen Feeds, NIH-Bridges to Baccalaureate Program, USDA-ARS, and RCC Center of Excellence.

All RCC classrooms are fully interactive with a computer at each seat. RCC receives and sends distance-learning classes for its students. Amanda Evert, Agriculture & Equine Science Division Director, uses technology in the classroom daily. “I undertake projects in my classroom that incorporate technical skills necessary for our students to successfully enter and compete in the workforce. With access to OneNet, the network’s capabilities are never a question or a constraint on what we are able to achieve. I am able to plan my curriculum knowing the networking capability is there to support us.” The access provided by OneNet is particularly important when students in Mrs. Evert’s classes use the Auburn University’s Second Life program to learn poultry science. Second Life provides the students the opportunity to conduct poultry science experiments without requiring RCC to build labs and facilities to house poultry.

Interactive Classroom

In addition to providing college courses, RCC serves approximately 700 high school concurrent students. Distance learning allows these students to put their studies to immediate use on the family farms which in turn benefits the local economies.

The school’s VP of Grant Development, Dr. Penny Coggins and the President, Dr. Larry Devane have been very progressive and entrepreneurial in developing private partnerships. Now that RCC’s reputation has been established as a leader in agricultural business and technology, these partnership opportunities are more frequent. The partnerships have also made it easier to recruit top faculty like livestock judging coach, Dr. Clay Elliot. Under his direction, the livestock judging team won first place in the Collegiate Livestock Judging – Junior Division at the 2009 National Western Stock Show.

RCC is fortunate to have the support of the state’s Vice Chancellor of Workforce and Economic for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. The state office is a source of seed money to initiate an economic development project within the state. Once selected, each recipient must provide reports on how the money was used and the outcome. RCC has been selected for The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education’s Economic Development Grant for the Partnership Recognition Program (2006, 2007, and 2008). RCC was also one of the educational institutions recognized as having contributed to the state’s economic development. The Darlington facility has also earned the Center of Excellence classification.

Network Technology

In 1999, the Darlington facility was transferred by the Legislature to Redlands. The facility had been vacant for some time and in need of repairs and clean-up. In 2002, Redlands began to office some of the staff at the Darlington facility and soon realized that the lack of a telecommunications network on the campus would keep them from launching any type of educational activities from that site. At the time, the campus was outside of any commercial telecommunications service area. Redlands Community College contacted OneNet, Oklahoma’s research and education network. OneNet immediately stepped in to provide the campus with wireless connectivity via their tower and equipment. The initial investment in networking was $11,500.

The wireless connectivity worked well until the following spring, when the signal became erratic. OneNet helped identify the problem of budding trees that were interfering with the signal. RCC constructed a 40 ft. tower on campus so that the trees would not interfere and OneNet provided the technical resources for the wiring and connectivity. As operations grew on the campus, RCC soon reached capacity on the wireless network. OneNet was again called upon to help deploy a Motorola Canopy, which currently provides 3Mbps bandwidth. The campus is currently expanding its network capacity again with an upgrade to a new LOEA Wireless Fiber solution, which will provide the Darlington Campus with 1.24Gbps bandwidth back to RCC’s main campus and then to OneNet.

While OneNet connects most of its institutions with traditional dedicated access lines, From OneNet’s perspective, the wireless project was something OneNet wanted to test and since their mission is to serve research and education institutions, the project was a perfect fit. “The decision to test wireless technology at Redlands was a no-brainer, “said Kurt Snodgrass, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education’s COO for IT, “Redlands is our shining star.”

Thanks to the Following Contributors

Redlands Community College

Dr. Larry F. Devane, Ph.D., President
William B. Baker, Vice President of Academic Affairs
Jack Bryant, Vice President of Workforce and Economic Development
Amanda Evert, Agriculture & Equine Science Division Director
Matthew Hamilton, Director of Technology
Scotti Charmasson, Animal Reproduction Laboratory Coordinator for the Center of Excellence
Sam Nusz, Artificial Insemination Coordinator for the Center of Excellence
James Turner, Dairy Technician Assistant for the Center of Excellence

Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

Ken Ferguson, Chief Financial Officer, OneNet
Kurt Snodgrass, COO, OneNet & Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Telecommunications, OSRHE
James Deaton, Director of Technology & Chief Technology Officer, OneNet
Connie Lake, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Workforce and Economic Development, OSRHE

Project Contacts

Jen Leasure, The Quilt, jen at thequilt.net
Carol Farnham, MIDnet, Inc., cfarnham at signa-solutions.com