Senate Bill No. 0304-08
UNIVERSITY SENATE
UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Introduced by: Undergraduate Academic Council
Date: November 20, 2003
FORMAL ELIMINATION OF
THE GENERAL EDUCATION HONORS PROGRAM
IT IS HEREBY PROPOSED THAT THE FOLLOWING BE ADOPTED:
1. That the General Education Honors Program, which has been defunct for several years
but never formally voted out of existence, be eliminated.
2. That this change become effective immediately.
3. That the bill be referred to the President for approval.
RATIONALE:
The General Education Honors Program was approved by the University
Senate in Spring 1988. From Fall 1988 until the last Honors Tutorial (T Jst
275, 6 students) was offered in Fall 2001, a total of 830 students enrolled
in the program. At is peak, in the late 80's and early 90's, around 20-30
students a year graduated with "Honors in General Education" and another
10 or so students completed that program and honors in the major,
graduating as "University Honors Scholars."
Initially, a full array of many "popular" courses, including courses required
for many of the most commonly selected majors, were offered with the
accompanying three-credit tutorials, mostly from Arts and Sciences but
also from Political Science and, on occasion, the School of Education. A
principal feature of the program was to lead freshman and sophomore
students doing 3.5 or better work at the University to consider honors
programs in their majors.
In the mid-90's, departments were less and less forthcoming with courses
for the program, offering students fewer choices, including several the
average honors student might consider a bit "obscure." Only Political
Science, Psychology, English and Africana Studies fairly consistently
participated in the program, though History and Judaic Studies also
remained common contributors.
Shortly thereafter, the U Uni "Great Ideas" courses were created, open
only to Presidential Scholars. Although Presidential Scholars were never a
majority of those who began or those who completed General Education
Honors, "Great Ideas" siphoned off a significant enough number of
additional students.
It became clear a "critical mass" of honors students (as defined by their
work at the University) was no longer present to support the program, and
it was agreed in Undergraduate Studies that references to the program
should be dropped from the Undergraduate Bulletin.
The last full cohort of students who had the opportunity to complete the
program graduated in Spring 2000; 28 students from that class had taken at
least one tutorial, but only 7 completed the program, plus an additional
three students who graduated in Summer 2000. Through the generosity of
faculty willing to work one or two students in "individual tutorials" a few
additional students who had already finished at least one of the tutorials
the program were able to complete the program. The last student to
complete "Honors in General Education" should have graduated in Spring
2002 (and did graduate in Fall 2002, after resolving an incomplete grade.)
The program being de facto defunct and there being no student left on
campus with the program in progress, the Undergraduate Academic
Council recommends that it be formally terminated. The Office of
Undergraduate Studies will work to accommodate any subsequently
readmitted student with the requisite average who withdrew from the
University after having completed one or more of the tutorials.
