From: Call, Diane B.
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2012 4:13 PM
To: _Faculty (Including CLT’s); _Adjuncts
Cc: _Cabinet Members; _Deans
Subject: Pathways and our English Department
Over the last year, our faculty and administration have partnered to implement the University’s Pathways initiative to create a common core of general education courses. Across the University and certainly at QCC, our students, and their academic success have been the major impetus for this effort.
In the many discussions on and off campus since the University Board of Trustees adopted this policy in June 2011, at QCC we have engaged in a collaborative process to implement our approach to the Pathways general education core of thirty credits in eight categories.
The debate on our campus has challenged us to explore strategies to structure and deliver courses for effective student learning within a structure of three credits and three class hours a week. Queensborough faculty are characterized by excellence in their disciplines, innovative pedagogy in their classrooms, and a fierce support of academic rigor.
Colleagues in our department of English have been leaders in these endeavors, and as President and a former adjunct in the department, I respect and value their contributions to our campus community, evidenced by the allocation of seventeen new faculty lines to the department over the last year. Our proposal of En 101, 102 and 103 to represent our only course offerings in the Pathways category of Composition and Rhetoric underscores our view of their potential to meet that category’s learning objectives. Discussions within the department and, most recently with Vice President Steele, have centered on ways to offer their three composition courses, now three credits and four class hours hours a week, as three credits and three class hours a week, through significantly reduced class size, and/or a variety of instructional support structures and activities.
The most recent discussion with the English Department faculty raised concerns within the administration about the possible outcomes of not having the three courses included in the common core. The potential consequences as described in Vice President Steele’s email illustrate the worst case scenario –one we are prepared to work mightily to avoid.
It is my belief that through continued communication and collaboration with our faculty, a constructive resolution to ensure student learning will be achieved. It is my hope that you will join with me in this effort.
Diane Call
