The Board of Trustees of the City University of New York passed a resolution last year mandating a new general curriculum (the �Pathways Initiative�) to be used throughout CUNY. Faculty throughout CUNY are concerned about this because it was done in violation of the Board�s own bylaws, and also because its requirements are so lax, particularly in the areas of foreign languages and lab science, that many CUNY courses will not transfer to outside colleges. As Hunter College alumni, our greatest concern is that the quality of the Hunter College undergraduate degree will be threatened.

At a meeting on March 13, 2012, the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association of Hunter College passed the following resolution expressing our disapproval.

Board of Directors

Alumni Association of Hunter College

Resolution on the Pathways Initiative

Whereas, the Alumni Association of Hunter College has represented the graduates of the college since 1872, and

whereas, in 1972 the Alumni Association established a Hall of Fame to celebrate outstanding alumni of the college and

whereas, Hunter alumni take pride in our degrees as essential elements in our successful and useful lives, and

whereas, From the college�s beginnings in 1870, Dr. Thomas Hunter, founder of the college, insisted that subject mastery take precedence over professional training� as a school for teachers, and

whereas, Hunter�s broad and rigorous general education requirements have been the natural outgrowth of this approach, and

whereas, Hunter College has always enjoyed a reputation for high standards and rigorous Liberal Arts and Sciences preparation, and

whereas, Hunter College has also had a reputation for and tradition of outstanding undergraduate instruction by a highly regarded faculty and

whereas, the Pathways Initiative purports to facilitate transfer among CUNY colleges but does so by means of a simplified, eviscerated general education curriculum and

whereas, this curriculum is being constructed at the behest of the CUNY administration without the participation of the faculty Discipline Councils, and

whereas, the Hunter College Senate, the Hunter College Faculty Delegate Assembly, and various academic departments have expressed their disapproval of this initiative and

whereas, the responses of CUNY�s presidents, including that of Hunter�s President Raab, express major reservations with many of its key features and

whereas, the Pathways Initiative is designed to increase rates of degree completion throughout CUNY but will make it possible to receive an undergraduate degree without studying a foreign language, studying literature, or receiving more than three hours of instruction in a laboratory science, among other things, and

whereas, recent research shows that low expectations and a lack of rigor in undergraduate education lead to unfavorable outcomes in the long term for alumni, and

whereas, we want our future fellow alumni to have the same quality of undergraduate education from which we have benefited as alumni of Hunter College, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association of Hunter College strongly disapproves of the Pathways Initiative and calls upon the University to support transfer strategies that are based upon intercampus faculty agreements with administrative cooperation.

March 13, 2012