At CUNY, Concerns That Overhaul of the Curriculum May Erode Academic Gains

Now the university has proposed a major overhaul that would guarantee the smooth transfer of credits by creating a common framework for general education courses — a so-called core curriculum — at all of its two- and four-year colleges. It would also reduce the number of core credits needed for graduation at virtually all of the four-year colleges.

But for many faculty members at CUNY, the plan collides with the university’s defining effort during that same period: raising admission and academic standards at its 11 four-year senior colleges.

Professors at those campuses, from the College of Staten Island to Lehman College in the Bronx, say the reduction in required core credits will erode the liberal arts foundation of the degrees the colleges award, and threaten the increased respect and enhanced student performance the university has worked so hard to win.

The proposed change has pitted many professors against several student organizations that have endorsed the plan, and set off a rare systemwide public relations war. Administrators have fanned out to half of the 18 undergraduate campuses to sell the plan, known as the “Pathways Project.” Professors have signed petitions and faculty senates have passed resolutions, in one instance circulating a list called “Top Ten Reasons to be Concerned about the CUNY Pathways Project.”

The proposal comes as leaders at every level of government are calling for strategies to lift sagging college graduation rates. And it follows similar moves at the State University of New York and other public universities around the country over the past 10 years. The thorny issue will be taken up in June by the university’s board of trustees, which is still reeling from a much-criticized move this month to withhold an honorary degree for the playwright Tony Kushner, a decision the board later reversed.

Many professors acknowledge that the snarls in transferring credits are a serious problem.

“But our position is that all of these real transfer issues are not to be solved by undermining the quality and breadth of general education,” said Sandi Cooper, a professor of history at the College of Staten Island and chairwoman of the university’s Faculty Senate. “We have struggled to tighten up requirements and standards, and spent years revising general education. We are trying to defend the quality of the degree.”

The overhaul would set the number of required general education credits at 42. The requirement now varies from campus to campus, with some senior colleges exceeding 60 credits. Brooklyn College, for example, requires students to amass 48 credits of core coursework.

“I don’t see a way that you could cut six credits out of our general education curriculum without making it a very different, and lesser, curriculum,” said Matthew E. Moore, chairman of the college’s philosophy department. Others have warned against a wholesale acceptance of transfer credits from CUNY’s two-year institutions, saying the courses there may not match the rigor of those at senior colleges.

Alexandra W. Logue, the university’s executive vice chancellor and provost, said limiting the core requirement to 42 credits would not diminish quality, but would give students flexibility — a chance to specialize more, or explore elective courses.

“Forty-two credits is actually on the high side, nationally,” she said. “When you get up to this very high number, approaching 60 credits, there isn’t room to change your major and still graduate on time, and it makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to double-major.”

Students say that making it easier to transfer credits and lowering core requirements would help them graduate on time. With many students juggling jobs and even young children, the added time and expense of making up for unaccepted credits can be a burden.