Hi,

At Baruch today, we met in a special meeting of the general faculty and voted on two resolutions, both of which rejected Pathways. Tomorrow, we will meet in individual colleges to discuss this matter and I expect to vote on similar resolutions. The faculty here is overwhelmingly against Pathways. So are the students–the USG (student body) president addressed the faculty today to say that students have been strongly opposed to Pathways, as they feel it will dilute the value of their Baruch degree.

I agree that it is useful to meet as a group of CUNY composition/writing program directors. Yet it seems to me that at this point working for Pathways is a very vexed enterprise, perhaps an exercise in futility. The problem isn’t that it’s merely wrong administratively, but that it is also intellectually flawed. Curricular changes need to come from the people who know best what the students are like and what the students need and want–the faculty. This top down approach has sown only resentment and dismay.

In addition, the committee we are on, with its 120-odd handpicked members, is also troublesome. The $2,000 we are being paid to serve on it seems more and more like a buying off.

Frank Cioffi
Director of Writing
Professor of English
Baruch College