Academic Plan 2011-2015 (PDF 524kB) - SUNY Empire State College

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SUNY Empire State College: Academic Plan 2011 - 2015 5SUNY Empire State College: Academic Plan 2011 - 2015PrefaceFollowing a process of consultation with faculty and staff throughout the college, the AcademicPlanning Task Force (2010 - 2011) is pleased to present SUNY Empire State College’s first academicplan. This plan is the result of many long hours of outreach, discussion, deliberation, and creativethinking by the members of the Academic Planning Task Force and the broader college community.We believe this plan can energize and inspire our academic community to approach the future withclarity, collegiality, and pride. We see this plan as an important step in helping to define and achieveaspirations for the college and for our students. In that spirit, we envision the academic plan to be aliving, evolving document, revisited and revised regularly to ensure its resilience and ongoing relevance.The overarching purpose of the plan is to organize and clarify an academic direction for the college.The task force was dedicated to developing a plan that is shaped by the input of faculty and staff;reaffirms the college’s commitments, values and traditions; facilitates the advancement of importantcollege and SUNY initiatives; and positions the college to thrive as it adapts to changes in the worldaround us. These factors are linked by a commitment to serve our students’ educational interestsand professional objectives, and this commitment, ultimately, is the plan’s cornerstone. The planenables the college to communicate its principles and educational emphases to external communities,including prospective students, and provides increased coherence and structure for decision makingregarding future program support. Moreover, the academic plan is intended to constitute a frameworkfor achieving a more robust interdisciplinary environment, a goal of considerable significance to ouracademic community.The plan seeks to clarify linkages between what the college has traditionally valued and the emergingneeds of our students. Thus, it represents an opportunity to celebrate the college’s history anddistinctiveness, while charting a course for our future.The Academic Planning Task Force wishes to acknowledge three important points. First, this plancannot – and is not intended to – address all issues and implications related to charting an academicdirection for the college. The academic plan can neither accommodate nor anticipate all the academicwork performed by the college or all the initiatives we may undertake in the future. Further, as thisis the first academic plan developed by the college, it represents a beginning rather than an endingpoint. Moreover, this plan is not intended to supersede the academic freedom of the faculty, norconstrict the purview of, or replace particular institutional structures, such as areas of study, throughwhich academic standards are developed and maintained. Rather, the purpose of the plan is to providecoherence of direction for the academic future of the college within a specific time frame. In thismanner, the plan is best viewed as a guide.Second, although there is a concerted effort to align the academic plan with major college initiativescurrently underway, not all new initiatives could be fully addressed. For example, as the open universityconcept matures, and as we undertake the process of updating our definition of “student success,” therelationship of these initiatives to an academic direction for the college can be considered more fully insubsequent iterations of the plan.
6 SUNY Empire State College: Academic Plan 2011 - 2015Third, the academic plan in general, and in particular the academic themes identified in the firstsection of the plan, are not intended to be static or permanent. As environmental conditions andstudent needs change, so should our academic plan. The Office of Academic Affairs will have principalresponsibility for an annual review of the academic plan, in consultation with relevant undergraduateand graduate committees and with faculty and staff throughout the college. By regularly reviewingthe plan, and continually striving to ensure that it reflects the best ideas of all who are affiliated withthe college, we can be confident of its evolving, yet enduring value as a blueprint for serving ourstudents’ needs.Introduction: Student CenterednessIn developing the college’s first academic plan, we sought to identify an organizing principle for ourtask, that is, an underlying concept that could guide the development and direction of an academicplan. The notion of student centeredness emerged to fulfill this need by providing foundationalvalue to the task force’s mandate that was congruent with the college’s mission, history and currentcommitments.Unlike the traditional higher education model which generally requires students to adapt to prestructuredprograms, SUNY Empire State College was founded on the premise of engaging thestudent as an active partner in the shaping of his or her own academic program. The focus on theadult learner, by definition, demands consideration of the unique features of the learner’s experienceand, by extension, the manner by which such experience may be integrated in academic goal settingand curriculum design for that student. Processes and practices such as degree planning and learningcontracts are reflective of the student’s central role in mapping the course of his or her education atthe college.Similarly, the college’s historically strong liberal arts curriculum has provided students with exposure toa broad range of human endeavor – for example, in culture and the arts, in business and technology,and in social and natural sciences. A core value of respect – for fellow students and citizens, for theirideas and the communities in which they live and work, and for the environment on which we alldepend – infuses our academic community with a common, fundamental ethic.When taken together, these foundational elements – individualized learning arrangements and liberalarts education – prepare the college’s adult learners not only for professional and vocational pursuits,but also for citizenship in a broader sense. That is, the invitation to students to serve as partners in theireducational planning is characteristic of a paradigm which encourages respect toward others; simplyput, it demonstrates that we care about what they think as well as what they already know. But it alsoestablishes for students a responsibility for active and constructive engagement in the charting andgovernance of their own educational experience.Respect for others and the exercise of social responsibility are essential pillars of good citizenship.Citizenship is a function of participation in the community. Given the distributive and centrifugalnature of our college and the geographical boundlessness afforded by our online model, the definitionof “community” can be quite expansive, a notion that will serve the college well as it moves towardbecoming an “open university.” Moreover, the academic themes proposed in this document suggest acapacity for serving the needs of students who live and work in diverse and far-reaching communities.Ultimately, therefore, citizenship, with respect to our students, may be considered global.
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The Mission of SUNY Empire State Co
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Academic Plan 2011-2015 (PDF 524kB) - SUNY Empire State College

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