Michael Capel

Defying the state higher education establishment, trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY) system on December 15 passed a resolution requiring a core curriculum—including courses in American history and Western civilization—for all undergraduates. The new policy, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, makes SUNY one of the largest public universities in America that has a mandatory core.

The core will require students at the 17 four-year colleges in the system, beginning with the freshman class entering in fall 2000, to pass ten courses, including at least one each in American history, Western civilization, and mathematics. The other subject areas are communication and reasoning, foreign languages, humanities and the arts, information management, natural sciences, social sciences, and non-Western civilization.

The December 15 resolution outlines the implementation of the curriculum. After specifying the subject-area requirements, it charges, "The faculty of each institution will retain the responsibility for establishing the specific course requirements and content of a General Education curriculum reflective of the best practices in American higher education."

It goes on to say, "Individual campuses are encouraged to allow faculty to develop more than one curriculum which meets the General Education Requirement."

The move caps an ambitious effort by a new group of trustees and allies in the administration, appointed by Governor George Pataki since he took office in January 1995, who have vowed an activist approach to improving the quality of education in the fledgling SUNY system.

Core curriculum ‘long overdue’

Candace de Russy, who has taught European languages and literature at several small Catholic colleges, has led the reform effort on the board since her appointment in 1995. In a New York Times feature, Dr. de Russy expressed delight at what she characterized as a long-coming victory both for students and taxpayers of New York. "I will be forever grateful for the strong liberal arts foundation I was given," she said, describing her background at St. Mary’s Dominican College in New Orleans, The Sorbonne, and Tulane University. "I want to bring that great advantage to students today."

The new plan reflects what has always been a priority of Pataki’s. The governor "has always backed the raising of academic standards," Dr. de Russy told Campus Report. "[He] has put into place a group of trustees with diverse talents [and] the initiative has been ours."

"I think that the public is increasingly aware of the knowledge deficit on the part of our college graduates," she added. Thus, the action represents "fulfilling our statutory duty to the state."

SUNY Provost Peter D. Salins, a Pataki ally, called the plan a "radical [and] long-overdue step from the public perspective."

The major challenge for the board of trustees was to balance their mandate to ensure the quality of the system with the sanctum of decentralized academic freedom.

Predictably, faculty at the schools opposed the plan. Professor Vincent J. Aceto, president of the SUNY Faculty Senate, objected to what he called "an oppressive laying-on of a specific canon for all of the state university." He added, "What they’re trying to do is micromanage what has historically been the responsibility of the faculty."

Trustees and other observers frustrated with the erosion of standards at SUNY and elsewhere counter that faculty have neglected to tend to the broad, fundamental educational goals that universities should have—and, indeed, once had. Stephen Balch, president of the National Association of Scholars, notes that students at most SUNY schools can graduate without taking a single course in philosophy, literature, or foreign language. Some schools even allow students to graduate without taking any courses in math or science.

Above all, Balch writes in a New York Post Op-Ed, "The faculty will not attend adequately to these needs without guidance from above," as they concentrate on their own disciplines. "Preoccupied with their scholarly specialties, general education is not typically a matter that rouses their enthusiasm."

Moreover, SUNY spokesman Jon Sorenson adds, the plan is similar to a report prepared by the Faculty Senate itself. The January 1998 Final Report of the SUNY University Faculty Senate and Faculty Council of Community Colleges Joint Task Force on General Education recommends "establishing system-wide general education goals" but making it "the responsibility of [individual] campus faculty for general education’s curricular content, pedagogy, and academic standards."

On November 30, over 100 SUNY professors sent a letter to the board endorsing "the adoption of a board resolution setting forth general education standards," again to be implemented by faculty.

Other professors objected to the plan on academic freedom grounds as well, but what is seemingly more objectionable to them is the traditional, Western bent of the core courses. Aceto criticized the "mainstream" focus of the requirements. "This is probably the best idea of 1955," he sniffed.

Of course, a vigilant faculty could potentially nullify the trustees’ intent. Joseph A. Varacalli, a professor at Nassau Community College, a SUNY school, said in a letter to the New York Post: "I think [proponents of the plan] overestimate[ ] just how much curriculum reform, in and of itself, can reverse the downward trend in American higher education. . . . Simply put, the engine for the lowering of standards is the post-1965 hiring of faculty who so unthinkingly imbibed of modern-day politically radical and philosophically subjectivist worldviews."

Indeed, since the resolution leaves it up to the faculty to design the actual courses and decide which ones will fulfill the various requirement areas, there has been much concern that faculty could "water-down" the core curriculum.

De Russy, wary of such a possibility, notes the provisions of the resolution that ensure compliance. Provost Salins has final authority over the curriculum, so that he can ensure that the trustees’ mandate is being met. In fact, his office is in the process of an on-going "Mission Review" of SUNY academics. This, de Russy explained, will provide the means to evaluate the implementation of the core.

In addition, SUNY will be conducting outcome assessments of student learning and will provide rewards for faculty who deliver a core education of high quality. The campuses’ budget shares and their presidents’ salaries will also be tied to their success in implementing the core.

A new trend?

Even better news for educational traditionalists is that the SUNY action appears to reflect a trend that may be taking shape throughout academia. New approaches to education have also affected the City University of New York (CUNY) system. It is separate from the SUNY system, but Gov. Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani between them appoint a majority of its trustees. CUNY Vice Chancellor Herman Badillo, who was appointed by Giuliani, is seeking to end remedial education courses in the system.

A story in the Chronicle of Higher Education notes changes in higher education systems elsewhere across the country. In California, Governor Pete Wilson’s appointment of Ward Connerly and other conservatives to the Board of Regents brought about the end of racial preferences and quotas. Connerly says that at first, his fellow Regents were reluctant to join him in his activism, for fear of alienating students and faculty. However, that has changed gradually, as the public is "demanding change."

John F. Munger, appointed to the Arizona’s Board of Regents by former Governor Fife Symington and recently elected chairman, has pressed for an end to race-based programs. In Virginia, former Governor George Allen appointed a new slate of members to the Board of Visitors who promised to get more involved in administrative matters. Above all, says Tom Carroll, chairman of the New-York-based Center for Excellence in Higher Education, "I fully expect SUNY’s action will increase the pressure to raise general-education standards in other states."