Brooklyn College PSC-CUNY

David Arnow from the Computer and Information Sciences Department at Brooklyn College has expanded his assessment of CUNY First on the PSC web page . In addition, the PSC has encouraged members to write comments about their experiences. Some have echoed David’s assessment and a few others have tried to offer helpful suggestions for managing a bad situation.   Now that many BC faculty have used it for the first time to post grades, it might be a good time to read about other people’s experiences and sound off about your own. Here are a few select comments: Such a terrible choice. Submitted by Anonymous on May 21, 2013 - 12:44pm. Dogged HEO staff members have been putting in 13-14 hours days to try to get CUNYfirst to work, basically trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. This on top of implementing Pathways. The system is repeatedly “down.” Even when it is working, it takes about 15 minutes or more to use it to advise a student, whereas in the past, academic ...

From Academe May-June 2013 The Road to Pathways By Sandi Cooper   To regard teachers—in our entire educational system, from the primary grades to the university—as the priests of our democracy is not to indulge in hyperbole. It is the special task of teachers to foster those habits of open-mindedness and critical inquiry which alone make for responsible citizens. —Justice Felix Frankfurter, Wieman v. Updegraff In 1998, as I came off my first four-year term as chair of the University Faculty Senate of the City University of New York, the new board chair, Benno Schmidt, was asked for his view of faculty rights and authority. Here was an individual who had been a high administrative officer at Yale and Columbia as well as a law professor. In sum, his answer was, “To carry out trustee policy.” If that is shared governance, then what is authoritarianism? As individuals responsible for the broad oversight of an institution, the selection of top management...

Last week the College Council at Medgar Evers College (MEC) failed to pass 27 newly revised Pathways-compliant degree programs despite threats and intimidation by the administration. The Pathways framework and related General Education Program will be on the agenda for a vote at the May 20 College Council meeting, and is expected to fail there as well. MEC is one of several schools that has not passed a Pathways framework and has rejected PW-compliant curricula. Top CUNY administrators were perhaps hoping that with a new administration in place at MEC they could cajole faculty into playing along with Pathways. Senior CUNY administrators have been a regular presence on campus and faculty leaders have been told that there would be dire consequences for the college if they failed to toe the line. Similar to the threats used at QCC and less publicly at other campuses, faculty were told that if they did not pass Pathways there would be no courses for entering students to register for a...

  Last week LaGuardia was notified that the CUNY Central Office had rejected the Social Science Department's proposed revisions in its A.A. program in Psychology to accommodate the Pathways curriculum. The problem was two courses, both part of the existing A.A. program, that the Psychology faculty inserted in the Required Core in the "Life and Physical Sciences" and "Mathematical and Quantitative Reasoning" categories: SCB203, Human Anatomy and Physiology, and MAT120, Elementary Statistics.   The University objected that these were STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses and therefore could not be included in an A.A. curriculum.   The University*s decision left the Psychology faculty with two choices. They could, on the one hand, convert the program to an A.S. degree, which would require approval by the CUNY Board of Trustees and the State Education Department.   This lengthy process could not be accomplished before Pathways goe...

There are currently problems with telephone and internet voting in the PSC referendum on Pathways. The problem is at the American Arbitration Association. The PSC is aware of the problems and working with AAA to deal with them. If you would like to vote electronically, hold onto your ballots, rather than mailing them in. Hopefully, you'll be able to vote electronically on Monday. We'll post an anouncement when the problems have been resolved.

City Limits Retiring CUNY Head to Be Paid for Six More Years Posted by Jarrett Murphy | May 8, 2013 According to minutes from the April 29 meeting of the CUNY board of trustees, outgoing Chancellor Matthew Goldstein, who will retire on June 30, will undertake a "study leave" for a year at his current salary of $490,000. Once that's done, he'll retire for five months, then return as "chancellor emeritus" for five years at a salary of $300,000 a year. "During his study leave, retirement leave and tenure as Chancellor Emeritus, Dr. Goldstein shall perform such teaching and other non-policymaking duties as shall be determined by the Board of Trustees," the minutes read.   According to the New York Post , Goldstein currently receives a $90,000 housing allowance in addition to his salary; the minutes do not say that that will continue.   Calling Goldstein "a true visionary" the minutes praise his "emphasis on...

May 8, 2013 Dear Colleague:  Tomorrow, May 9, voting begins in the first No Confidence referendum in the union’s history. Don’t miss the chance to be part of it. A vote of No Confidence is historically the most profound rejection of political direction a voting body can deliver. If we have an overwhelming turnout and a large majority voting No Confidence, we reposition the faculty to demand that the incoming CUNY administration rethink and replace Pathways. The referendum is about two things: the quality of a CUNY education and the professional authority of faculty in decisions on curriculum. We take a major step toward reclaiming both if we deliver a resounding vote of No Confidence. [Click here to find out how to vote.]  The success of the referendum depends on you. Don’t sit this one out. Don’t disregard it because you feel you have already voiced your opposition to Pathways. This vote is different. A definitive re...

As implementation of Pathways moves forward it is becoming increasingly clear how it is degrading educational standards. By strictly limiting the number of hours per course and the total number of courses required for General Education, colleges are being forced to make untenable choices about what to keep and what to sacrifice. What’s worse is that in some cases the local administrations are making these choices themselves, despite the clear directives of faculty governance. At Brooklyn College , the Provost has eliminated general education requirements related to foreign languages, speech, and ESL. He made these decisions in the context of a Pathways framework that required that the college eliminate some of its existing requirements in order to comply with the Chancellor and Board’s grand plan. Faculty have been aware of these potential trade-offs inherent in the Pathways system for some time. That’s why the Faculty Council has been so adamant in resisting it for over a y...

Dear Full-Time Faculty Members: Voting in the referendum on No Confidence in Pathways begins this Thursday (May 9). The union’s goal is to enable all full-time faculty to vote and to maintain absolute secrecy of the ballot. To ensure both ease and secrecy of voting, we have asked the American Arbitration Association (AAA) to run the referendum. Voters must follow the simple procedures the AAA has put in place. Do not discard the ballot mailing from the AAA. The ballot mailing contains your unique Personal Identification Number (PIN), which you will need to vote by telephone or by using the internet. The PIN, issued randomly by AAA, ensures confidentiality. You will also be able to vote by mail by enclosing your marked ballot in the envelopes included in the mailing. AAA will mail out the voting material on May 8 th . If you have not received the envelope marked “Urgent!—Referendum: No Confidence in Pathways Ballot Enclosed—Please Forward“ by Monday May 13 th , pleas...

Last month the Provost unilaterally ended the college’s foreign language requirement . This was done as part of the Provost’s implementation of the Chancellor’s Pathways initiative. Pathways gives colleges the option of requiring foreign languages, but only for students admitted as freshman or possibly those transfer students without an associates degree. This is known as the College Option . The Provost did not include that requirement in the Pathways framework that he developed. Instead, foreign language courses are given as an optional choice. The Provost changed the requirement despite the explicit rejection of the Pathways framework by Faculty Council. In fact, it directly contravenes a Faculty Council resolution passed in May of 2012 that established a framework for implementing Pathways in the event that it went forward despite faculty opposition. That resolution called for the implementation of a language requirement for all direct admit and non-Associate degree transfer...

  Political and community leaders gathered at the PSC Thursday morning for a briefing on Pathways and its negative effects on our students. City Council members Leticia James and Daniel Dromm pledged to work with other Council members to bring a resolution opposing Pathways to the Council, along with formal hearings. Community reps and student leaders agreed to work together to develop a broader mobilization plan to stop Pathways, which they view as the moving of the K-12 austerity education agenda to public higher ed.

As students become more aware of the nature of Pathways they are increasingly speaking out. Recently student leaders have been joining with faculty to oppose Pathways in governance settings. Students Senators at LaGuardia, BMCC, and Queens have all voted for moratoriums on the implementation of Pathways. Last week students at Baruch College , including the head of the CUNY University Student Senate (USS) spoke out in a new video about the ways Pathways will degrade their education, their degree, and their futures (see above). Here at Brooklyn , student leaders have started to ask tough questions about Pathways and student newspapers have produced articles critical of it. We urge you to vote “no confidence” in Pathways in the coming weeks. Pathways is bad for faculty, bad for our students, and bad for higher education.

In another victory for administrative incompetence at CUNY Central, Brooklyn College faculty learned this week of another capability we used to have that CUNY First will eliminate. For the last several years BC faculty have been able to access student photos along with their class rosters. This feature is extremely useful in large class sections and some faculty even produce seating charts to help them remember student names more quickly. It can also be a big help when evaluating class participation. CUNY First in its drive to commonality at the lowest common denominator cannot reproduce this function. Perhaps more importantly, CUNY First will not produce rosters with the email addresses that students actually use, since it will only display official CUNY email address assigned to students when they are admitted. Since almost all entering students already have email addresses, this is extremely counterproductive. To its credit ITS at Brooklyn College is developi...