In a move that the City University of New York’s faculty union characterized as “extraordinary retaliation,” the English department at the system’s Queensborough Community College was warned last week that it could see sharp cuts in course offerings, adjuncts’ jobs, and possibly full-time positions next fall because of a dispute between faculty and administrators over whether weekly course hours in English composition classes should be reduced from four hours to three.
The staff cuts and course eliminations were listed in a letter from a college vice president that is cited in the statement by the union…
The letter … came a day after the department voted to reject the administration’s plan to begin offering three-hour composition courses next fall. Ms. Steele wrote that because the department’s existing four-hour composition classes do not align with the systemwide Pathways initiative for standardizing common-core classes across CUNY’s campuses, the courses will not be offered next fall, and Queensborough students will have to take them at other campuses…. (continued)
