In Support of General Education and Faculty Governance at CUNY

On May 2 CUNY's Board of Trustees will vote on an amendment to Section 8.6 of the Bylaws which will downgrade faculty's responsibility for setting curriculum and other academic policies to the making of recommendations on such policies. On June 27 CUNY's Board of Trustees will vote on a resolution to create a homogenizing framework for general education which will severely restrict both the autonomy of individual campuses and the number of credits devoted to general education. Correction (April 15): The proposed Bylaw amendments are being formally announced on May 2; the vote on them will occur on June 27, along with the general education resolution.

The effects of these resolutions will be to wrest control over the curriculum away from faculty and to substantially reduce the rigor of CUNY's general education programs and thereby much less adequately prepare our students for their careers.

We urge the CUNY Board of Trustees to respect the University's historical adherence to the norms of faculty governance, and to preserve the high quality of general education at CUNY, by rejecting both of these resolutions.