By Melissa Traynor
Monday’s faculty senate meeting reviewed several committee reports, including the academic standards that recommended lower residency credit requirements to 30.
The senate passed a recommendation calling for such a revision of the residency credit guidelines with most of the Senate in favor, none opposed and nine abstentions.
As a major debate during the meeting, the residency requirements discussion centered on the proposal presented by biomolecular sciences chair James Mulrooney of the academic standards committee.
He said that after reviewing the residency standards at other peer universities that rival CCSU in size and academics, the committee found that the others only maintained a 30 credit or lower minimum for credits earned at their institutions in order to be degree- eligible. CCSU now has a 45-credit minimum, which mainly affects transfer students. University of Connecticut is a similarly located university that requires 30 credits in residency for a student to be graduation eligible.
Among the concerns raised were, if the proposal to lower the requirement was not accepted, transfer students may be dissuaded from transferring to CCSU. The lower residency requirements might make CCSU seem an equally attractive option in comparison to peer schools, said Liz Hicks, associate director at the center for advising and career exploration.
According to Mulrooney, there are students who directly benefit from such a proposal passing soon.
He knows of two nursing students who are waiting for a requirement like this to be lowered so that they can graduate this semester and do not have to return for one extra course in the fall. Other faculty pointed out that a lowered residency credit requirement may help students who are facing a strained situation, given the economy.
The CCSU Provost was not immediately convinced.
“I would like to have the opportunity to run these numbers,” said Provost Carl Lovitt. “… I don’t have a clear sense of the impact this is going to have. I don’t know how many more students will want to go here.” Lovitt added that this is the first time he’s seen this proposal and that something like this may improve the graduation rate, but he could only speculate.
The senate could not amend the proposal to stipulate that it went into effect immediately, but some faculty raised concerns that there should be some type of effective date mentioned in the proposal.
“Most majors on campus are large enough and have enough upper-level credits that for students to complete that major, they need to be here,” Mulrooney said. “There are very few majors that are so small – like philosophy comes to mind, which is exactly 30. So somebody has to do all their gen eds and brought in some extra credits would only have to take 30 credits.”
“It sounds attractive,” Lovitt said,”but like a lot of things it may have an unintended downside.”
Among other committee reports, the faculty senate discussed one by the University Planning and Budget Committee after a presentation by Lawrence Grasso of the accounting department.
Grasso said that the UPBC met Feb. 3 to hear different presentations by department representatives as to how to approach budget cuts on three different levels; the presentations reflected the types of cuts that departments would prefer themselves if faced with 6, 12 or 13, or 20 percent budget cuts, according to Grasso. This way, he said, suggestions could deflect across-the-board cuts.
He said that the UPBC committee’s recommendations are based on those initial presentations. The committee’s key recommendations for cuts have to do largely with administrative affairs: the UPBC submitted their recommendations to President Jack Miller that include forgoing over $2 million in lock replacements, turf for the football field and athletic scholarships.
The following notes and announcements were made:
- AAUP’s quarterly chapter meeting is on Thursday. The CSU AAUP President Dave Walsh will be there to discuss the CSU budget.
- The Board of Trustees academic affairs committee will meet Monday, March 29 at 11 a.m. in the Bellin Gallery, student center.
