Resolution Smackdown!

Faculty nix attempt to kill remediation a year early at City College

by Rob Wallace

In a mid-December joint session of the Faculty Senate and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Council, faculty voted against a resolution that called for forgoing a one-year reprieve for remediation classes at CCNY. The resolution was rejected 49-22.

The reprieve was originally provided for by the New York State Board of Regents on November 22. At that time, the Regents voted to accept a plan crafted by CUNY's Board of Trustees for ending remediation classes at CUNY's 11 senior colleges and transforming the colleges' SKAT tests into entrance exams.

Several studies, including CUNY's own, show the Board's plan could, in due time, reduce the number of Black, Latino and Asian students attending senior colleges by as much as 50%. A recent New York Times article showed transfer students prepared well enough initially to be accepted into universities like NYU and the University of California had been blocked from entering CUNY senior colleges this year because they failed one of the SKAT tests.

The Regents instituted one change in the Trustees' plan, permitting City College and Lehman College-with more minority students than the other senior colleges-another year before remediation classes are ended. In interviews with the Messenger, several students and faculty characterized the Regents' one-year delay as a scrawny bone thrown to placate remediation proponents who had so passionately lobbied the Regents to reject the Trustees' plan.

Round One

On December 16 faculty convened in a lecture hall on NAC's first floor to vote on a resolution to turn down the one-year delay offered by the Regents.

The joint meeting of the two major faculty decision-making bodies began with short presentations for the resolution by Mathematics professor Ray Hoobler, who first proposed the resolution, and against by Psychology professor Bill Crain, a Messenger contributor.

Professor Hoobler argued that the College's reputation, already hammered by politicians and the media, would suffer more damage if it were to be perceived as a last bastion for unprepared students. For Hoobler, CCNY must take into consideration the image it presented off-campus, even as the College opposed the Board of Trustees' plan.

Moreover, Hoobler continued, most students would not benefit from a one-year delay. And those who flunked one SKAT test could enter the CCNY upon the successful completion of programs like Prelude to Success and summer immersion programs. CCNY should therefore phase out remediation before the Fall 2000 semester, Hoobler concluded.

Professor Crain, on the other hand, argued that CCNY should not reject the extra year for remediation by emulating the goals and methods of those intent on closing education off to minority students. To Crain, remediation works. Crain pointed out that while serving a greater proportion of minority and poor students than any other senior college, CCNY graduates more students who subsequently earn Ph.D's than any college in the New York area.
Lastly, Crain argued the fight to save remediation is not over as a complaint against the Trustees has been filed with the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and a federal lawsuit may be in the works. Voluntarily removing remediation would weaken those efforts, Crain concluded.

Hot Debate

The floor was subsequently opened to audience members. Among them included CCNY Interim President Stanford Roman who argued in favor of the resolution. Roman declared that CCNY students deserved educations of the highest standard. Roman worried that the students allowed during the one-year reprieve would only be pushed out once remediation ended, a situation he said he could not in all good conscience allow. Roman did not address whether these students were adult enough to decide on their own whether to attend City for the one year if properly informed of the situation by the College.

Roman also described how the administration was prepared to institute the phase-out in the fall. Several programs were to be instituted to deal with the phase-out. These included a year-round Freshman Immersion Program, currently held in the summer only, a high school outreach drive to recruit and prepare students for CCNY-level work, and Prelude to Success, wherein students who failed the SKATs could still attend CCNY classes and take remediation classes on campus taught by community college faculty.

Professor Elizabeth Starcevic of the Romance Languages Department and chapter chair of the PSC, the faculty and staff union, disputed Roman's contention the administration was prepared to implement the phase-out in the fall. Many questions are not answered, she pointed out, including how many adjuncts, tutors and full-time faculty would be needed and how they would be paid, how these programs would be institutionally supported, and the likelihood strapped community colleges would be willing to provide CCNY precious faculty. Many of the likely supportive programs on-campus, like admissions and high school outreach, are either underfunded, understaffed, or on-paper only, Starcevic explained.

Moreover, Starcevic continued, the administration is currently in disarray, with key administrators recently departed, and is having enough trouble just getting the new SIMS computer system together, among other problems.

Professor Ayoka Chenzira, chair of the Communications Department, declared she sensed there was a social worker attitude pervading remediation proponents' arguments, as if students of color would be against higher standards.

Math Department chair Jack Barshay and Dean Bill Herman of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences declared that their departments, which run the remediation programs at CCNY, were prepared to implement the phasing out of remediation this fall.

Professor Larry Hanley questioned the English Department's preparedness since, as the department's vice-chair, he had never been consulted. Another faculty member, who requested anonymity, told the Messenger that Herman never fully consulted the English Department before telling the faculty at the vote the department was prepared.

"Herman manufactured this. It was his way to try to sway the vote. The Dean divined getting rid of remediation early was what the administration wanted and pushed for it," said the faculty.

Hanley, the Messenger's faculty advisor, went on to point out that the estimated 350 students who would be denied entrance to City for one year if the reprieve was rejected are living people with dreams and desires of their own. Even one year at City could mean the world to them, Hanley continued.

The 350 number is a rough estimate of CCNY students who flunked at least one SKAT test in 1998, and who would have been denied entrance if the end of remediation had been instituted then.

Carol Lang, a staff member in the English Department, pointed out that the question of "image" was a political problem, as it is Mayor Giuliani and other remediation foes who are besmirching CUNY's "image." So any concession on remediation would be a political concession to Giuliani, Lang declared.

Adjunct lecturer Susan Diraimo spoke about how she was able to enter CCNY as a student in the 1970s only because of the Open Admissions policy and remediation. She said she took the resolution as a personal affront.
Cristine Cocheo, Noah Berg, and Sayfullah El of the Undergraduate Student Government spoke out against the resolution.

After the debate, blank ballots for the vote were handed out to all full- and part-time faculty who attended the meeting. The final tally showed the resolution rejected 49-22.

Vote Binding?

During the debate Math professor Bernie Sohmer, faculty representative to the CUNY Board of Trustees, offered his opinion that the Board of Regents' vote would likely bind CUNY to permitting City College the extra year. Accepting Professor Hoobler's resolution to end remediation early would not likely pass legal muster, Sohmer stated.

But would rejecting the resolution be binding on the CCNY administration? President Roman made statements implying that the administration would move forward on ending remediation regardless of the vote's outcome.
For Professor Crain, the vote was binding, as according to the Board of Trustees' by-laws, faculty are responsible for decisions about curricula on the campuses.

But according to Professor Ned Scheier of Political Science, who moderated the debate, remediation was more a question of admissions policy, under administrative purview, and not strictly a curricular matter. "The Faculty Senate can serve in an advisory role on this point, but in the final analysis, the administration can trump us," Scheier told the Messenger.

For Scheier, the President's statements about ending remediation were "ambiguous." Scheier told the Messenger he has "heard nothing to the effect that the president would get rid of remediation."

But, Scheier continued, "We don't usually hear from across the street," referring to the Administration Building across Convent Avenue from the NAC Building. When asked whether the administration is not in the habit of consulting the faculty, even after the change from Yolanda Moses, Scheier said, "Yes. There's not much collegial interaction."

When asked whether this was the case at other CUNY campuses, Scheier replied, "No, nor at other universities."
Charles Decicco of the administration's Public Relations office told the Messenger, "We don't have any plans to advance the end of remediation by a year."

Aftermath

After the vote, Math professor Walter Daum, who supervises the remedial math program, told the Messenger that "The Math Department is not ready to implement a plan." A plan for math courses that would fit the trustees' decree was presented in December, but full discussion of it had yet to take place within the department.
Still, the one year's grace provided by the regents and faculty votes does not address the ramifications of ending remediation. More than 350 students will be affected."People in the [Math] Department are angry. The departmental sentiment is that it's now an impossible task to teach because of the wide set of skills that would be missing," once the current regimen of remediation ended, Daum said. The math SKAT test requires an eighth grade level of ability, but the first class the Math Department offers is a eleventh grade level pre-calculus course, Daum explained.

And without classes to deal with this problem, other programs in the College could be adversely affected. "The Engineering School has always been terrified of students not being calculus-ready, so maybe in that way they're happy to get rid of remedial students. But what about the students who pass the SKAT but can't do calculus? Engineering will be saddled with more students calculus-unprepared. It's a classic example of lowering standards with 'higher' standards," Daum stated.

For the record, Robert Wallace, an adjunct lecturer in Biology, participated in the vote.