Baruch Faculty Senate Calls for the Elimination of Unelected Pathways Committees

On Thursday, April 4^th, the Baruch College Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling on 80^th St. to put a stop to the extra-governmental Pathways Common Core Course Review Committees that have been used to approve Pathways courses. This is in response to a letter from Vice-Chancellor Alexandra W. Logue of March 8^th announcing that this unelected body would continue to operate, despite earlier claims that these committees were only temporary. Thursday evening the Executive Council of the PSC passed a similar resolution and on Tuesday, April 9^th, the University Faculty Senate will also vote. The text of the resolution and the Vice-Chancellor’s letter are below. We encourage the Brooklyn College Faculty Council and other governance bodies across CUNY to consider similar resolutions.

Resolution Objecting to the Extension of Pathways Common Core Course Review Committees

Whereas, at Baruch College none of the appropriate curriculum and governance bodies have approved any pathways-compliant courses;

Whereas, the CUNY Bylaws give jurisdiction over curriculum to appropriate faculty bodies at Baruch;

Whereas, the central pathways committees have wrongly usurped the role of these legitimate faculty groups;

Whereas, although these committees had expired, the CUNY Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) is now extending the life of these committees until the end of June 2013, and

Whereas, if the pattern holds OAA is likely to make these committees permanent,

Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Baruch Faculty Senate objects to OAA’s further extension of these extra-governance curriculum committees and calls for their permanent end.

Passed April 4, 2013

From: academicaffairs <academicaffairs@mail.cuny.edu>

Date: March 8, 2013 11:26:06 AM EST

Subject: Nominations for Reconstituted CCCRC

Dear Colleagues,

As you may know, the members of the Pathways Common Core Course Review Committee, which has consisted of approximately 120 full-time faculty divided among eight subcommittees (one for each area of the Common Core), have completed their terms of service.  However, in accordance with the Board of Trustees June 2011 Pathways resolution, we need to continue to review additional courses that campuses wish to have as part of the Common Core.  Having considered the many factors involved in the CCCRC review process, including the differing numbers of courses that have been being submitted to the different Common Core categories, I have decided that, through June 30, 2013, there will be three committees in operation: (1) a STEM committee that will review all courses submitted to the three Common Core categories of Life/Physical Sciences, Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning, and Scientific World; (2) a committee that will review all courses submitted to the two categories of World Cultures/Global Issues and  US Experience in its Diversity; and (3) a committee that will review all courses submitted to the three categories of Creative Expression, English Composition, and Individual and Society.  Each of these three committees will have one representative from each undergraduate college, should a qualified nominee be available, and one of the committee members for each of the three committees will serve as committee chair.  The overall chair of all of the committees will continue to be Sociology Professor Phil Kasinitz of the Graduate Center.  Thus there will be a total of 58 faculty continuing to review courses through the end of June.  At the end of the term of these three new CCCRC committees (June 30, 2013), we will assess the performance of this new structure, as well as the projected future CCCRC workload, to decide how to constitute the CCCRC going beyond June 30, 2013.

At this time I am asking for your nominations for the members of these three committees.  Nominees should be tenured associate or full professors or, in rare circumstances, tenured assistant professors.  Please nominate as many people as you feel are qualified, with your preferences indicated among them if you wish.  Given that we will be trying to balance disciplinary expertise within the three committees, please feel free to nominate people from a range of disciplines appropriate to each committee.  In addition to being experts in one or more disciplines, nominees should be dedicated committee members, should be respected by their colleagues, and should be good communicators.  Committee members will receive a stipend for their service.

Please confirm the willingness of your nominees to serve before you nominate them.  Then please send to pathways@mail.cuny.edu , by 5 pm Thursday, March 14, the list of your nominees.  For each nominee please indicate the committee for which the person is being nominated; the full name of the nominee; and the nominee’s rank, tenure status, email address, phone number, and disciplinary expertise.

Please let me or Associate University Provost Julia Wrigley know if you have any questions.  Thank you very much for your help.  We greatly looking forward to receiving your list of nominees!

Sincerely,

Alexandra W. Logue

Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost

The City University of New York