Senate endorses most proposals of Task Force on Undergraduate Education
Recommends the establishment of School of Arts and Sciences over College of Arts and Sciences
Archived article from Mar 6, 2006
By Ashanti M. Alvarez
In a marathon four-hour meeting Feb. 24, the University Senate made 39 recommendations to President Richard L. McCormick concerning the future of undergraduate education at Rutgers. Most of the senate’s proposals concurred with the original proposals of a special undergraduate education task force.
Barry Qualls, who chaired the Task Force on Undergraduate Education, said the senate’s recommendations were “remarkably commensurate” with the task force recommendations. McCormick and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Philip Furmanski convened the task force in 2004 as part of the Initiative on Undergraduate Learning and Life. McCormick asked the senate – made up of more than 180 students, faculty and administrators – to review the task force proposals.
“Both the work of the senate and the work of the faculty council have enriched this process because their discussions have provided different contexts for the work of the task force. It’s been a really beneficial process of campus governance,” said Qualls, who is dean of humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick and has been on the English faculty at Rutgers since 1971. “I regard the senate recommendations as evolutionary, a refinement of the task force report.”
Some task force recommendations met little opposition from senators, such as a mandate to make the Rutgers undergraduate application reflect the academic rigor of the institution, to continue emphasizing diversity in the admissions process, and to recruit and enroll more out-of-state students.
Others lent themselves to lengthy debates, such as whether the liberal arts colleges should be renamed “campuses.” Although the original task force introduced this notion, the senate recommended that the liberal arts colleges be renamed “residential colleges,” with their students enrolled in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences-New Brunswick/Piscataway.
Where the task force outlined a proposed curriculum for arts and sciences students, the senate decided to leave that issue to various school faculties. The senate also went into greater detail than the task force about the roles and duties of residential college deans.
A key goal of the undergraduate education initiative is to enrich campus life by reconnecting and engaging faculty with students; providing students across campuses with equal access to programs, services and facilities; and recruiting high-quality students. One of the task force’s main charges was to think about what it means to have a Rutgers degree and to think about creating the best opportunities for students.
McCormick will consider the task force report, the senate and faculty council recommendations, alternative proposals from faculty and administrators, and public comments to inform his own recommendations, which he will present to the Rutgers Board of Governors. If approved by the board, many of the reforms could take effect as early as the fall of 2007.
“I commend the senate and the university community for an extraordinary discussion of undergraduate education,” McCormick told the senate. “I take my own responsibility very seriously to digest all I’ve heard. ... Because I have been so heavily engaged in the conversation and present at virtually all of the discussions, I have a good idea of where I am headed and it should not take me long to bring forth my recommendations.” McCormick added that his recommendations would not be “terribly surprising” and would clearly reflect the discussion in which the campus community has been engaged.
The senate and the task force agreed on:
• one undergraduate degree-granting unit for all arts and sciences students in New Brunswick/Piscataway.
• a single general honors program for all qualified undergraduate students.
• a single admission standard and process for all arts and sciences students.
• incentives to faculty for participation in all aspects of undergraduate education.
• a vice president for undergraduate education reporting to the executive vice president for academic affairs and overseeing the residential college deans.
continued...
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