Senate updated on gen-ed
Salins says SUNY curriculum "will be implemented" on time

By MARA McGINNIS
Reporter Assistant Editor

Attending the SUNY Faculty Senate meeting last Friday-the first in 10 years to be held at UB-Peter Salins, SUNY provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, updated the senate on initiatives in his office and addressed specific faculty concerns about the new SUNY-wide general-education curriculum and distance-learning issues.

In response to concerns about the new general-education requirements raised by Judy Adams-Volpe, director of Lockwood Library and SUNY senate representative for the university centers, Salins supported the new requirements and said that they "can and will be successfully implemented."

The SUNY Board of Trustees in December 1998 adopted a general-education curriculum for the system's four university centers and 13 four-year colleges that requires candidates for bachelor's degrees to complete at least 30 credit hours of coursework in mathematics, natural science, social science, American history, western civilization, other world civilizations, humanities and the arts, foreign languages, basic communication and reasoning, and information management.

While trustees left the responsibility for establishing specific course requirements and program content to each institution, SUNY faculty members at the time chided the board for not making the curriculum available for comment by faculty prior to the trustees' adoption. Several faculty members voiced additional concerns at Friday's senate meeting.

Some concerns stemmed from what many feel has been a "rushed" process-with campus general-education program proposals due to system administration no later than Jan. 31 and the new program scheduled to be implemented in Fall 2000. Others worried about transfer students from community colleges and waivers.

Salins said the colleges and university centers will be required to offer 30 credits as outlined by the Advisory Task Force on General Education, while community colleges will have to offer at least 21 of those credits. He explained that students transferring from a community college will be expected to complete the additional nine credits at the transfer institution.

Volpe noted that "all of the university centers are retaining in place their own general-education requirements, which are stronger than what SUNY is requiring at this point."

Salins said the task force will review each institution's program proposal to decide if it is in compliance with the SUNY curriculum. "I fully understand the difficulty of doing (the new general-education program), but I think when we get through we will be pleased with the results," he added.

Volpe also raised concerns about distance-learning issues, support for graduate students and the increase in the numbers of adjunct professors and graduate students and its impact on teaching effectiveness. She said many faculty members are concerned about intellectual-property rights and copyright issues concerning courses designed specifically for distance learning, and pointed out that "dialogue and policy development is greatly needed within SUNY at this time" regarding these issues.

Salins agreed that intellectual-property issues need to be addressed and that rules must be developed collectively. He recommended that campuses purchase distance-learning courses from the institutions at which the course originated through some agreed-upon financial arrangement, allowing institutions that create such courses to generate some revenue.

In his report, Salins cited recent progress and success with such initiatives as the SUNY-wide Mission Review, the SUNY Learning Network, the University Research Initiative and SUNY Connect. He also said there have been considerable efforts to enhance communication between campuses and the provost's office, citing his office's "dramatically improved" Web site at http://www.sysadm.suny.edu/provost/, which includes updates on recent programs and initiatives.