By Joe Suszczynski
The Student Government Association managed to pass a resolution proposed by Senator Chris Marcelli who opposed the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities proposed transfer and articulation policy drafted by the Board of Regents.
Marcelli motioned for the senate to pass his resolution. If passed, President Bergenn would address the resolution to Faculty Senate.
“I think it’s a really bad idea,” Marcelli said. “I like the goals that they are trying to reach with it; I don’t think anyone disagrees with the goal of making it easier to transfer your credits, but to me what this proposal is going to do is limit the freedom of the individual institutions to decide on their own curriculums.”
According to the draft, the policy will have a core curriculum in each undergraduate program. The goal is to have students be competent in skills such as communication, quantitative and statistical reasoning, critical thinking, empirical problem solving, and personal and social responsibility.
Under the Board of Regents policy, the transfer associate degree will include no more than 64 college level credits and baccalaureate degrees will have no more than 128 college level credits unless an exception is approved by Board of Regents.
If a transfer student has 60-64 credits, equivalent to an associate’s degree, then at least 36 credits will be transferred. If an associate’s degree is earned, the transfer student will be granted junior status at each of the Connecticut State Universities and Charter Oak State College.
Articulations are to be completed by July 1, 2013. The top five majors by enrollment will have the articulation completed and approved by the relevant curricular committees and be publicized by July 1, 2012. Faculty committees from community colleges and the universities will review the major program articulations every five years starting in the fall of 2013.
A majority of the senate said that it was difficult to vote on the passing because they were unfamiliar with the draft proposed by The Board of Regents. Senator Marcelli said that he acknowledges that the draft and resolution happened unexpectedly, but actions needed to be taken.
A fifteen minute recess was called so the senate could get a better understanding of the policy and would be able to vote on the resolution.
Senator Shelby Dattilo spoke in favor of the resolution, saying that she was very nervous that the Board of Regents were passing such a draft.
“I think that the Board of Regents is making a valiant effort trying to address the issue of transferring and making it easier,” Dattilo said. “But I think they are not in the right place to do this.”
Senator Kim Towler said that she agreed with Dattilo’s viewpoint and spoke in favor of Marcelli’s resolution.
“This is not good enough,” said Towler. “I’ve heard everybody speak saying there are problems with it. Why would we vote for something that’s not good enough and say that everything is fine when it’s not?”
Senator Sky Morrell said she did not agree with Marcelli’s resolution and the senate needed to see both sides of the story and do a background check on other universities with the same policy being proposed.
“We need to see both sides of the story before we can actually make an informed decision on this,” Morrell said. “We need to know for sure that it has failed somewhere else or if it is doing well somewhere else.”
Vice President Liz Braun said that this policy was taking the right step in the direction for transfer students. Braun also made notice of other state universities having a similar policy, with positive reception.
Senator Jamie Canny motioned to end the debate. Marcelli’s resolution was eventually passed with 10 yes votes and six no votes, along with two abstentions.