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FSEC discusses budget cuts, general education
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer
The impact of the passage of the 2008-09 New York state budget on UB was the topic of conversation during President John B. Simpson’s remarks at yesterday’s meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
Simpson told senators that UB’s operating-funds budget would be reduced by 2.9 percent. He also reported that SUNY is planning to cut an additional $2 million—or about 1 percent of the UB’s annual budget—as part of a plan to reallocate funds from UB, Stony Brook and SUNY Downstate Medical Center to Albany, Binghamton and the system’s comprehensive colleges.
“It won’t surprise you that I’m doing everything I can to prevent this,” Simpson said. “This [cut] is for what [SUNY] claims to be some understandings that were put into place 10 years ago about funding associated with their paying campuses that do research.”
On the bright side, Simpson said that “substantial” funding remains in the capital budget to provide the resources to complete construction of the new engineering building on the North Campus and renovations of Acheson Hall on the South Campus for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, as well as construction of new buildings on the downtown campus supporting efforts related to clinical and translational research and the Educational Opportunity Center.
“The irony,” he added. “is they’re giving us one-time money to build, while at the same time they’re taking away the money to heat, light and staff those buildings.”
In other business, Michael Ryan, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, and Andreas Daum, associate dean of undergraduate education and professor of history, College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), talked about the first phases of a review process for UB’s general education curriculum. The project is not a required part of UB’s regular assessment process, which ensures compliance with state general education guidelines, but rather one that will define UB’s general education curriculum in terms of the goals and values of the university, Ryan said.
“It’s my sense that part of the [state-mandated] assessment is actually a larger assessment,” he said. “Looking at the program itself—not just the components and how they might comply with certain mandates, but thinking in a more holistic sense about the value and the aim, goals and learning outcomes of a general education program—it’s my view that a purposeful, cogent, rigorous program needs to be defined, delivered and reviewed by the faculty.”
Daum urged senators to view general education not as an administrative challenge, but as an “intellectual challenge,” including making a case to students about how they’re served by a strong general education program. He also talked about using the general education program to highlight connections between various disciplines.
“We suggest that we elevate ourselves above the world of technical details—of transfer credits, transfer students, articulation, cognate classes, substitute classes—and begin rethinking the very purpose or goals of our general education program,” he said.
Among senators offering comments was Melvyn Churchill, professor of chemistry, who voiced concern that general education could repeat basic knowledge that students should have acquired in high school. Ryan responded that UB’s admissions standards go a long way toward preventing the matriculation of students who require significant remedial education. In addition, Jeri Jaeger, associate dean for undergraduate education, CAS, pointed to the significant differences between the learning experience of a student in high school versus a college course.
“If you take an American history class when you’re 14 and you take another one when you’re 20, you’re likely to get a lot more and different kinds of things out of it,” Jaeger said. “I don’t agree with the idea that once you hit 18 you should just specialize from then on. We need to provide a complete liberal arts education at a much higher level.”
Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science, urged Ryan and Daum to consider implementing a timetable for their evaluation process and to remain mindful of the importance of resources and funding in terms of a lasting transformation of the general education curriculum. He pointed out that significant revamping of the undergraduate curriculum has been attempted in the past, including the creation of special undergraduate colleges in the 1980s, but noted that in each case, a lack of financial support ended the initiatives.
Although Daum said the first step remains engaging faculty in order to gain a greater sense of clarification about the mission and goals of UB’s general education program, he noted that a task force and timetable could be put into place over the summer. A real sense of where UB is heading in its general education mission—as well as actions toward resolving some of the more technical aspects of the program’s implementation—could come about as soon as the end of the 2008-09 academic year, he added.