SUNY Interim Provost Demands that 2-Year Career Degrees Meet Same Credit Limit Requirements as Transfer Degrees

On Friday, September 6, 2013, at 5:00 p.m., SUNY Interim Provost Elizabeth Bringsjord issued her response to the Faculty Council's Resolution regarding A.A.S. and A.O. S. degrees and the SUNY Board's Resolution on Seamless Transfer Requirements.

 

Although A.A.S. and A.O.S. degrees are not transfer degrees, the Interim Provost has decided to ignore the recommendations of the SUNY Student Mobility Committee and the Faculty Council and apply the mandates of the Seamless Transfer Requirements Resolution to our 2-year career degrees.  Specifically, our A.A.S. and A.O.S. degrees are supposed to be reviewed and revised to meet the 64-credit cap either by September 2014 or September 2015 depending on whether the revision is considered a major or minor revision--unless they have received a waiver.  All waiver requests are due by January 1, 2014.

 

Here are the links to the Faculty Council Resolution and the Interim Provost's Response:

 

Faculty Council Resolution on A.A.S./A.O.S. Degrees

 

Provost's Response to Faculty Council Resolution on Career Degrees

 

 

SUNY CoW opposes Credit-Bearing MOOCs

SUNY CoW Petition opposing credit-bearing MOOCs in Writing

The SUNY Council on Writing has issued a resolution opposing awarding credit to MOOCs purporting to "teach" writing.  They argue that this type of "massive" instruction is counter to current pedagogical theories and the teaching of writing and that there is no peer-reviewed research supporting the successful use of MOOCs in writing instruction. 

They further echo the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) statement opposing machine scoring of student writing along with the NCTE recommendation that writing courses should have a class size of no more than 20.  SUNY CoW is particularly concerned with the implications of credit-bearing MOOCs fulfilling the SUNY Gen Ed category of Basic Communications in our SUNY's Seamless Transfer environment.

SUNY CoW is now amassing signatures on their petition.  If SUNY faculty are interested in signing the petition, click on the link above for the complete text of the resolution.  There you will be given the opportunity to sign the petition.

The Faculty Council has not yet taken a position on this resolution, so if you have any questions or comments regarding this issue, contact us or post them as comments below.

SUNY Voices Shared Governance Award

For the first time ever, SUNY will be accepting nominations from campuses for a Shared Governance Award.  As a part of SUNY's strategic plan, the SUNY Voices initiative was developed in order to strengthen shared governance at the local level, with SUNY System Administration, and throughout SUNY.  Celebrating Shared Governance is a part of that initiative.

Do you have a shared governance process or system worthy of celebration?  If so, consider nominating your campus for this award.  Unfortunately, the deadline for this year's award is November 12, 2013, but this will be an annual award.  So if you can't make the deadline this year, start working on it for next!

Both the Faculty Council and the University Faculty Senate worked with the SUNY Provost's Office to develop this award, so if you have any questions, feel free to contact us or post your questions here, and we will find the answers for you.

For more information, go to:
SUNY Shared Governance Award Policies and Procedures

SUNY Threatens Remediation at Community Colleges

For those of you who are not familiar with non-credit remediation courses because they are often run through our continuing education programs, NYS Education Law allows for state funding of non-credit remediation courses offered at community colleges when

"instruction concerned with diagnosing, correcting or improving such basic skills as oral and written communications, reading, analytical concepts and general study habits and patterns, to overcome in part or in whole any particular marked deficiency which interferes with a student's ability to pursue an educational objective effectively."

SUNY has the authority to approve these courses for state funding.  Such courses have included writing, reading, GED preparation, computer skills, and ESL courses.  Although THERE HAS BEEN NO CHANGE IN THE LAW, SUNY is proposing to re-interpret the law and force community colleges to re-submit all of their NCR courses for re-approval for NCR courses by January 1, 2014.  (Click on links below to see the draft of SUNY Memo and the FCCC response.)

The implications of this policy shift for our ESL students, our adult students, and our under-served populations are anything but clear.  If community colleges are democracy's colleges, if a democracy is built on an educated citizenry, we must be careful to defend our principles of open access and success for all people within our communities, no matter their race, class, gender, age, etc.

SUNY Memo to Presidents:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5nax1fYKFPDWXZGZWtTWExpMVk/edit?usp=sharing

FCCC Response to MTP
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5nax1fYKFPDbVprM3lZTjJVWjA/edit?usp=sharing

New Chancellor's Award for Adjunct Teaching

A new Chancellor's Award, for adjunct teaching, was developed in conjunction with the University Faculty Senate and the Faculty Council of Community Colleges. policies and procedures for award call for nominations nomination allocations