Petition for a Moratorium on CUNY's Pathways Curriculum

A Message from the CUNY Faculty and Staff

This is a watershed moment for higher education.  The “reform” agenda that brought relentless testing and widespread privatization to K-12 schools has surfaced in higher education.  Forty years of public policy focused on access to college is being replaced by a single-minded demand for increased graduation rates—whatever the cost in academic quality. 

The battle for educational quality is being fought hard by faculty and staff at The City University of New York (CUNY), long a focal point in struggles for educational justice. 

CUNY’s educational mission is under attack.  Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and the CUNY Board of Trustees, led by Benno Schmidt, Jr., are trying to impose a diluted system of general education, “Pathways,” that seeks to save money at the expense of students’ learning.  Facing intense faculty resistance, the CUNY administration has resorted to threats and intimidation.  Under the pretext of easing student transfer and increasing graduation rates, Pathways will deliver a minimal curriculum for CUNY’s working-class students: it removes science lab requirements, limits foreign language requirements, and cuts back on faculty time with students in English classes.  Pathways is an attempt to move students through the system more quickly even as budgets are cut—by reducing academic requirements. Pathways is austerity education for an austerity economy.

With your help, we can defeat Pathways and achieve a victory for educational quality that could have national implications.  Please add your voice to ours and take a stand for the integrity of higher education. 

Barbara Bowen
President, Professional Staff Congress/CUNY

Terrence Martell
Chair, University Faculty Senate


This petition was created by Professional Staff Congress/ CUNY and The CUNY University Faculty Senate. The Professional Staff Congress/CUNY is the union that represents more than 25,000 faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY Research Foundation. The University Faculty Senate is the faculty governance body in academic matters of university-wide concern at The City University of New York.



1-25 of 6075 signatures
Number Date Name Feel free to share your ...
6075 8 hours ago Margaret Queguiner I am currently a French and foreign language methods instructor. I formally taught French in a NY state high school. We need to fight to make learning a language other than English a priority in our...
6074 10 hours ago alan feigenberg we must resist this stream of attacks on faculty and students to downgrade cuny.
6073 11 hours ago Francoise Piron
6072 12 hours ago Onslaught Fenley
6071 14 hours ago Robert Peckham In order to streamline administrative process, CUNY will wind fewer of the foundational courses which hone the skills that employers seek. Do we want to feed that myth that Ivy-leaguers are automati...
6070 14 hours ago Francsca Duso
6069 14 hours ago Carlos Madan At a time when we should be strengthening requirements, this makes absolutely no sense. It's nothing more than putting Quantity ahead of Quality.
6068 14 hours ago Christine Adams
6067 14 hours ago David Graham The degradation of the CUNY and SUNY system began with the elimination of the French program at SUNY Albany. This move will lead to the continued destruction of language programs at the middle schoo...
6066 15 hours ago Adriana Velasquez
6065 15 hours ago Pamela Reynolds "The limits of my language are the limits of my world."
6064 16 hours ago Vanessa Policano
6063 16 hours ago Veronica Miller
6062 16 hours ago Laura Martin
6061 16 hours ago Maria Serrentino How shameful. By limiting requirements, we are now creating a generation of non-critical thinkers!!
6060 16 hours ago Mirtalita Matos "Pathways " - A penny wise but dollar foolish agenda ! How will a limited education program equip our students to compete in a global market? Languages is the "Pathway" to a successful and competit...
6059 17 hours ago virginia wezwick World Language studies are imperative for living in and competing in a global society.
6058 17 hours ago virginia wezwick World Language studies are imperative for the global society we live in and compete in on many different levels.
6057 17 hours ago Francy Carey
6056 17 hours ago AnnMarie Caruso
6055 17 hours ago Christina Perciballi-Boyle Limiting foreign language studies will LIMIT student's abilities to compete in the job market and LIMIT our nation's ability to keep up with the rest of the world.
6054 17 hours ago Stacey Humphreys I am a public school teacher
6053 18 hours ago Paula McCallum
6052 18 hours ago Rafael Ovalle Pathways undermines faculty self-governance.
6051 18 hours ago patrizia marrero
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