TESTIMONY
Lorraine Cohen on the Impact of Budget Cuts and Administrative Decisions on Public Higher Education and Student Placement
2:03:40
·
4 min
Lorraine Cohen critiques the budget cuts to community colleges and the implementation of a placement algorithm that adversely affects student placement and preparation.
- Cohen, a retired professor from LaGuardia Community College, emphasizes the negative impact of budget cuts by Mayor Adams.
- She critiques the governor's admissions policy for not adequately preparing students for college-level work.
- Highlights the university administration's use of an index for student placement, which has marginalized faculty in developmental education and ESL.
- Cohen calls for more support for programs that benefit the majority of CUNY students requiring developmental education.
- Urges the chancellor to consult with faculty experts to address and resolve issues with the algorithm's implementation.
Lorraine Cohen
2:03:40
My name is Lorraine Cohen.
2:03:42
I'm a retired professor of sociology in the social science department at LaGuardia Community College.
2:03:48
I taught there from 1993 to 2022.
2:03:53
As such, I spent approximately 29 years of my career at CUNY.
2:03:57
I also got my PhD at Q And A and my BA at SUNY.
2:04:03
Among the many leadership roles that I played at the college, I was a department chair and chair of the LaGuardia chapter bar union, the professional staff of congress.
2:04:13
During my time at LaGuardia, I witnessed a dramatic decline in investment in public higher ed.
2:04:18
Mayor Adams recent budget cuts to community colleges are just one example.
2:04:24
The governor's desire to bring more students to Q And E is a commendable plan, but we must be able to serve the students who do return.
2:04:32
While the governor's plan focuses on automatic admissions for high performing students, the reality is that most students who are admitted to CUNY needs some form of remediation as they are not fully prepared to do college level work.
2:04:47
With insufficient funding from the city and state, We cannot hope to keep these students from dropping out.
2:04:55
We know that money matters.
2:04:57
ASF students do well.
2:04:59
They have free tuition, a laptop, money for transportation, and more educational advisement.
2:05:05
This type of support is needed for students to excel.
2:05:10
My testimony focuses on the way the university's administration's development and implementation of an algorithm or index as it is called raises issues regarding its efficacy, placing students once admitted.
2:05:24
I also argue that the concentration of power in the Central Community Administration has had adverse consequences.
2:05:32
Remediation and ASL have always been hot button issues.
2:05:36
The policy of Qutty Central has been to marginalize the faculty that teach these courses.
2:05:42
And the students who require them.
2:05:44
About 8 years ago, the college replaced the act test with an algorithm for the purposes of placement of students in community and senior colleges.
2:05:53
The algorithm was based on multiple measures in contrast to the act test.
2:05:58
The change from using the act to an algorithm otherwise known as the index began as a top down measure.
2:06:05
The then VP at CUNY and his team designed and implemented these changes, faculty and department chairs in the areas developmental education and ESL were only given a cursory opportunity to comment or discuss their concerns.
2:06:20
They had no saying on the time of its rollout, its scope, or the methodology.
2:06:25
There was no pilot program.
2:06:27
That would establish its superiority as an assessment and placement tool.
2:06:32
Within a short time, the index was used for all applicants to CUNY.
2:06:36
It was used for placement in Senior Community College, as well as placement and developmental courses.
Eric Dinowitz
2:06:41
Hi.
2:06:42
Thank you.
2:06:43
You you can finish your thought, man.
Lorraine Cohen
2:06:45
Oh, dear.
2:06:46
Okay.
2:06:46
Well, my thought was to demonstrate how the inflexibility of the central administration has hobbled students because they have been placed in wrong remedial courses and ESL, And my final sentence is that Some students who need ESL language skill building are not identified by the algorithm.
2:07:20
ESL cell is not treated as a legitimate program and is minimized at many campuses when in fact our students need language support.
2:07:30
And in closing, the majority of the students that come to CUNY are not in the high achieving a bracket.
2:07:39
Their mailing majority are students who need developmental education.
2:07:45
This is something that should be recognized and supported strongly and not marginalized and I hope that the chancellor really will talk to faculty who are experts in this area.
2:08:04
To consult with them and to visit them and get feedback so that whatever the problems are with the implementation of this algorithm.
2:08:14
They can be identified and resolved.