On March 8, 2011, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty of City College passed the following resolution  unanimously:

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Resolution on Student Transfer

Whereas, The CUNY Central Administration has only recently disseminated a Draft Resolution for transfer reform, a version of which it plans to submit to the Board of Trustees for approval later this spring; and

Whereas,  Section 8.6 of the By-laws of the Board of Trustees stipulates that “The faculty shall be responsible, subject to guidelines, if any, as established by the board, for the formulation of policy relating to…curriculum…”; and Sections 8.7 and 8.8b make it clear that this responsibility resides with the faculties and their governance bodies on the individual campuses; and

Whereas,  The City College CLAS Faculty Council, while sharing the goal of removing unnecessary impediments to student transfer, may, given appropriate opportunity for review and communication with the College’s sister institutions, formulate alternatives or major adjustments to the Draft Resolution; now therefore be it

Resolved, That the CLAS Faculty Council of The City College calls on CUNY Central to postpone consideration of its Draft Resolution on student transfer until the faculty governance bodies at The College and its sister CUNY campuses have had sufficient time to review it and the data and analyses on which it is based, and thus to formulate considered responses.

On March 3, 2011, the Faculty Council of Brooklyn College passed the following resolution:

BROOKLYN COLLEGE

OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

FACULTY COUNCIL

March 8, 2011

Resolution on Student Transfer

Whereas, The Brooklyn College Faculty Council appreciates the spirit of the Draft Resolution on the creation of an efficient transfer system, as proposed by the CUNY Office of Academic Affairs (OAA); and

Whereas, The Draft Resolution raises many issues, including the authority of local faculty governance bodies, curricula at different schools and degree levels, and the quality of general education; and

Whereas, It is absolutely necessary that the faculty governance bodies of each individual school or college examine the various issues involved in the standardization of curricula and credit totals mandated by the Draft Resolution; and

Whereas, This process will take time and cannot be rushed; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the OAA withdraw its Draft Resolution so the faculty governance bodies on the individual campuses can have the time they need to study the issues involved and propose possible modifications or alternatives before the OAA presents any such resolution to the Board of Trustees.

On March 3, 2011, the Baruch College Faculty Senate passed the following resolution  unanimously:

Resolution I: Pathways[1] Will Weaken Baruch’s Curriculum and Lower Its Academic Standards.

Whereas:

• Baruch’s general education requirements and Tier III minor requirements have been praised as educational innovations by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education;
• The Pathways¹ proposal to cut General Education will weaken Baruch’s academic standards by reducing its general education core and the Tier III minor;
• At the February 3^rd meeting of the Baruch College Faculty Senate, Vice Chancellor Logue affirmed that CUNY has no interest in managing the curricula of individual campuses;
• That curriculum is not only the content of individual courses, but also the number of credits and distribution of credits in an academic program;
• The Undergraduate Student Government of Baruch College, recognizing the contribution of the Tier III minor to the quality of their education, passed a resolution in support of the Tier III Minor in its current form;

Resolved:

• The Pathways Proposal as it now stands should be withdrawn, because it will weaken the curriculum and lower the academic standards of Baruch College.
  

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[1] See http://www.cuny.edu/pathways

On March 3, 2011, the Baruch College Faculty Senate passed the following resolution  unanimously:

Resolution 2: CUNY Can Improve the Transfer Process By Implementing Better Operational And Information Resources.

Whereas:

• Students transferring within CUNY have difficulties transferring all their credits to the ‘receiving’ college;
• Frequently the difficulties transfer students face come not from curricular rigor but from:
  • insufficient advisement resources in the sending colleges, leading students to not take courses they need, and conversely, to take courses they do not need;
  • lack of online transcript information provided to the admissions offices of the receiving college to accept students who have taken appropriate pre-requisite courses;
  • inadequate and out-of-date online course catalog descriptions available to those who evaluate transfer credit, including department chairs;
• Of the students transferring to Baruch from CUNY community colleges, 52 % arrive with more than 60 credits, on average with seven credits more;
• At the February 3^rd meeting of the Baruch College Faculty Senate, Vice Chancellor Logue stated that CUNY’s information systems were inadequate for providing transfer transcript information to the individual campuses;
• ‘Pathways’ agreements have existed between all six community colleges and Baruch on existing curricula for almost five years, but the CUNY transfer system precludes implementing these agreements;
• The ‘Transfer Report’ of October 2011 does not sufficiently take these operational deficiencies into account;

Resolved:

• CUNY should implement sufficient operational and information resources to address the obstacles to transfer before weakening curricular and educational standards.

On March 3, 2011, the Baruch College Faculty Senate passed the following resolution  unanimously:

Resolution #3: CUNY Has Not Sufficiently Investigated Existing Data That Should Be Integrated into the ‘Transfer Report’.

Whereas:

• Baruch College has accumulated several years’ worth of learning outcomes assessment data on Baruch students’ oral communication, written communication, and critical thinking skills;
• These assessment measures have been used to assess the effectiveness of courses in helping students acquire these skills;
• These assessment measures include information on whether students started Baruch as freshmen or as transfers;
• Until the Faculty Senate meeting of 2/3/2011, the CUNY Office of Academic Affairs was not aware of the Baruch data’s existence and had not evaluated the data in the context of the Pathways proposal;
• Effectiveness of education is as important as the speed of graduation;

Resolved:

• Further development of the Pathways Proposal should be delayed until the assessment measures have been evaluated;
• These measures should be included in a revised ‘Transfer Report’ from the CUNY Office of Academic Affairs;
• These assessment measures should be included in the design of the proposed Pathways intervention.

On March 3, 2011, the Baruch College Faculty Senate passed the following resolution  unanimously:

Resolution IV: CUNY Should Disclose the Public Feedback from the CUNY Community

Whereas:

• The website for public feedback to the Pathways does not provide any information about the submitted feedback to the CUNY community;
• We believe that the great majority of the CUNY community is opposed to the Pathways Proposals as now formulated;
• We believe that the great preponderance of the public comments are opposed to the Pathways Proposals as now formulated;
• CUNY is a public institution that is subject to the Freedom of Information Law;

Resolved:

• The postings of public comment on the Pathways site should be available and clearly visible for all to see.