CONNOR HOFFMAN
Special to The Leader
In December 2012, the SUNY Board of Trustees adopted a new policy called “Seamless Transfer.” The main purposes of Seamless Transfer is to make it easier for students to transfer to a different university, so that students can complete their associate’s degree within two years. Seamless Transfer is intended to standardize the SUNY education system, and in order to do that, most campuses must make changes.
One main change is a 64-credit limit on an associate’s degree and a 126-credit limit on a bachelor’s degree. This policy also makes it so that each general education course is accepted across the SUNY system. Another change is that now students must declare their major by 30 credits into their two-year degree, or by 60 credits if they have a four-year degree.
Every SUNY campus is expected to submit their curriculum changes to SUNY by Dec. 1, 2014. Seamless Transfer states that students should be able to finish general education requirements within two years which, according to the Fredonia website, is not something for which the university feels strongly.
“While our reasoning for the spread of general education requirement over four years is based upon best education practices and sound education research,” the Fredonia website states, “we must comply with the dictates of this ‘Seamless Transfer’ requirement.”
The main committee in charge of implementing these necessary changes is the General Education Revision Committee, which is composed of professors from different disciplines as well as a student representative. The Fredonia General Education Revision Committee has proposed three main changes: changing around the senior capstones, increasing cluster core requirements and opening up the vision of course clusters. Course clusters are either classes that are suggested to be taught back-to-back or courses that are connected under a theme.
In order to make transferring easier the SUNY system invested in a new program called DegreeWorks, which was implemented this semester. This is an online application that allows students to audit and see their degree progress. It’s just one of perhaps many changes to come.
Most seniors graduating Fredonia have to complete a senior capstone that their program requires. Some of these senior capstones require a service-learning aspect of their capstone, but not many of them have this.
Fredonia.edu states “We propose that Senate take on this idea and make it a campus-wide graduation requirement, rather than a requirement within the General Education program.”
Fredonia is considering changing how it deals with course clusters so that students can complete their general education requirements within two years, as the Seamless Transfer initiative encourages. Assistant Provost of Curriculum, Assessment and Academic Support Lisa Hunter says she thinks this would benefit transfer students greatly.
“It’s the hope that [transfer students are] going to be excited about it, and that it will create a smoother process for them,” said Hunter.
“I think that all 64 campuses coming together and agreeing on what foundation courses will be included in the Seamless Transfer , I think that was a huge undertaking because all the campuses had to work together”said Hunter
Hunter mentioned how Seamless Transfer provides a challenge with what institution changes their classes to match a different university’s classes.”If a particular course contains different elements different from another institution who changes? Who changes to make sure that the content in that course is going to be equivalent” said Hunter.
Not everyone believes that Seamless Transfer is going to be beneficial to the SUNY education system. The main opponent of the policy is the United University Professions (UUP), a union that represents SUNY employees. UUP has published a document titled “Seamless Transfer/Core Curriculum: Impact on Public Higher Education,” which states all of their objections and the possible effects. Longer degree completion time, standardization of general education and weaker curriculum are all possible negative effects of Seamless Transfer, according to the union’s document.
UUP believes this will happen because Seamless Transfer is planning for students to be able to finish their general education requirements in two years. As UUP mentions in this document, this could lead to longer degree completion time because it does not give uncertain students enough time to figure out their major. Less time to decide on their major could mean a longer time to degree completion, since they were rushed to finish their general education classes.
UUP is very upset with the thought of a standardization of general education courses. They believe that standardizing the courses is not the answer to quicker degree completion time. They also believe that, with standardization, this will make the classes weaker and less diverse. UUP believes that, since the courses would have to be standardized, professors would have less freedom to design the courses they teach.
In less than a month, Fredonia will see exactly what this new SUNY policy will bring to curriculum. The December deadline will arrive soon and Fredonia will have to decide how it wants to integrate the Seamless Transfer Initiative.