Alexandra W. Logue - Pathways to Reform: Credits and Conflict at The City University of New York

Pathways to Reform

Pathways to Reform

CREDITS AND CONFLICT AT THE
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

Alexandra W. Logue

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS

PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright 2017 by Alexandra W. Logue

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press

Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock,
Oxfordshire OX20 1TR

press.princeton.edu

Jacket image courtesy of Alamy

Jacket design by Faceout Studio, Derek Thornton

All Rights Reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Logue, A. W. (Alexandra W.), author.

Title: Pathways to reform : credits and conflict at the City University of New York / Alexandra W. Logue.

Description: Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017019498 | ISBN 9780691169941 (hardback : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: City University of New YorkCurricula. | General educationNew York (State)New York. | Education, HigherNew York (State)New York.

Classification: LCC LD3835 .L64 2017 | DDC 378.747/1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017019498

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Minion Pro text with Helvetica Neue Condensed Display

Printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To the memory of William G. Bowen,
who inspired this work,
and
To CUNY students,
past, present, and future

All net royalties received by the author from sales of this book
will be donated to
The City University of New York
to support undergraduate student financial aid

Contents

Illustrations

Publishers Note

The late William G. Bowen, commemorated in the dedication to this book, served for many years as an invaluable informal adviser to Princeton University Press in the area of higher education. This volume inaugurates a new series in his honor, in recognition of his signal contributions to the Press and to the field. We are grateful to Dr. Bowen for bringing this work, whose author he admired, to our attention. We offer our sincere thanks for his assistance in this and countless other matters.

Peter Dougherty

Director

Princeton University Press

Acknowledgments

There is no way to express adequately the gratitude that I feel to the hundreds of people who helped Pathways and this book about it come to be. In terms of the establishment of Pathways itself, I must acknowledge here the stupendous support that it received from former City University of New York Board of Trustees Chair Benno Schmidt and former CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. Other than these two exceptional leaders, I will let the book itself serve as testimony to the great many contributions, small and large, humdrum and courageous, that a great many people directly made to the project. As you read about each of them, know that what they did was sometimes very hard, that doing it was a choice that they made, and send them your heartfelt thanks to accompany mine.

Here I will just give my thanks to those people who directly contributed to the existence of this book, and to a few people whose place in my past guided me in my actions concerning Pathways. However, I do want to emphasize that, although all of these people taught me and helped me, all opinions and errors expressed in this book are entirely my own.

Firstin every wayI must thank William Bowen, former president of Princeton University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as founding chair of Ithaka Harbors, Inc. This book was his idea and he helped me obtain a grant from the Spencer Foundation that was essential in its preparation, for which I am exceedingly grateful.

As I was completing the Pathways project, Bill was working on a book with Eugene Tobin (senior program officer for higher education and scholarship in the humanities at Mellon and former president of Hamilton College), published by Princeton University Press, titled Locus of Authority: The Evolution of Faculty Roles in the Governance of Higher Education. Bill had been a huge supporter of Pathways from the beginning, and he saw what happened during the establishment of Pathways as an excellent example of why change is very difficult in higher education. I was so involved in the project itself, and so exhausted from it, that I could not see its implications for higher education as a whole. But Bill and Gene first had the idea to include a chapter about CUNY with a section on Pathways in Locus of Authoritya fascinating chapter about the history and governance of CUNY written by Martin Kurzweil, director of the educational transformation program at Ithaka. Then, in fall 2013, just as I was starting my study leave from my position as the CUNY system executive vice chancellor and university provost, Bill had the vision that an entire book should be devoted to CUNYs Pathways initiative, a vision that he transmitted to me and that I began to work on actively as I began my new position as a research professor at the CUNY Graduate Centers Center for Advanced Study in Education. Through Bill, I was also able to have wonderful discussions about Pathways with Gene, as well as with Earl Lewis, president of the Mellon Foundation.

In addition, Bill helped smooth the way for Ithaka to assist me in obtaining and organizing materials for the project. These tasks were all conducted under the protective wing of Ithaka S+R, the part of Ithaka that conducts research and provides guidance to institutions of higher education and other academic entities with regard to technological and economic transitions. As an organization that has JSTOR at its core, Ithaka is chock-full of people who know a great deal about storing and organizing information, and I was extremely fortunate to have their assistance. Deanna Marcum, and now Catharine Bond Hill, have served as managing director of Ithaka S+R since I began work on this book. Deanna, the Ithaka S+R managing director when this book project began, in particular ensured that I received the help that I needed from many Ithaka members concerning information retrieval, organization, and storage, including help from Johanna Brownell, Dermont Bruce, Malgorzata Chrzanowska, Daniel Eads, Dale Hermann, Nancy Kopans, Deborah Longino, Heidi McGregor, Marlon Palha, Clara Samayoa, Liam Sweeney, Kate Wulfson, and Martin Zapata. And, of course, providing overall support, was always Ithakas dynamic President, Kevin Guthrie. Conversations with him and with Martin and Deanna about Pathways were always helpful.

Bill also made the initial contact for me with Princeton University Press, resulting in my meeting the incomparable Peter Dougherty, director of PUP. Peter believed in this book and trusted in my approach to it from the very beginning and through to its publication. At the same time, he did not hesitate to share with me what about the manuscript he thought could be improved, and I believe that the book has benefited a great deal as a result. Many others associated with PUP have contributed significant effort to bringing this book into existence, including Mark Bellis, Shaquona Crews, Ashima Dayal, Adam Fortgang, Julia Haav, Lauren Lepow, Debra Liese, Theresa Liu, Stephanie Rojas, Laurie Schlesinger, and Jessica Yao.