Coordinated Undergraduate Education Initiative

    Request for Proposals (RFP)

    2006-2007

    Proposals Due April 27, 2006

     

    The Mission of the Coordinated Undergraduate Education Initiative, now in its second year, is to improve the quality of undergraduate education by drawing together the fundamental components of the undergraduate experience.  By connecting and integrating academic programs, academic support, and student services, we create the conditions for students to succeed – from the first year of college to the last. The CUE Initiative is a powerful vehicle for effecting change, improving teaching and learning, and thereby raising retention and graduation rates.

    Expectations for CUE Proposals. During the past year, we have learned a great deal about what impedes student success at CUNY.  We expect, therefore, that the new CUE Grant Proposals will be informed by the recommendations made by the Reading and Writing Taskforce, the Retention Taskforce, and the Math Study, and by the challenge, ultimately, of creating a culture that makes success possible at every turn.  The reports produced by these taskforces, the Campaign for Success, and national studies such as “The Toolbox Revisited” should generate fresh thinking about how to address the obstacles to student success.  CUE, implemented to its fullest potential, takes the “islands of success” and links them to the mainland.  Learning communities in the first year accomplish little if they are disconnected from pre-freshman summer programs, general education, the sophomore year, or academic advising.  Reading, just as writing, needs to be developed as a fundamental academic literacy throughout the curriculum.  All the parts of the undergraduate experience need to be connected.

    We invite you this year to break away from outdated notions of “USIP,” but not to abandon pre-freshman summer programs that give students the opportunity not only to pass skills tests but also to begin their lives as college students.  We invite you to think creatively about the summer itself, for first year and continuing students.  Programs need to be tailored to fit the college and the students’ needs; one size does not fit all.  It remains necessary, however, to address CUNY policies regarding particular groups of students:  summer programs must be provided for SEEK and CD students.

     

     Principles for Funding.

     This year, funding will be allocated to four types of programs:

    • Programs to Improve Student Success at Critical Junctures. Listed below are some, but not all, of the critical junctures where students are impeded in their progress towards the degree.  Your proposal should focus on those junctures specific to your students: 

      1. Entering college (pre-freshman summer programs, first-year orientation, transfer orientation programs; late admits)

      2. First year (freshman year programs; learning communities; general education, developmental education, ESL)

      3. Passing gateway courses, particularly math, ESL, writing

      4. Passing institutional tests (ACT, CPE)

      5. Sophomore year (support in declaring major, sophomore year programs)

      6. Articulating general education with the majors and professions

      7. Developmental education

      8. ESL education

      9. Tutoring, mentoring, advising (academic support) at critical junctures
       
  • Faculty Development Programs to Enhance Teaching. Implicit in CUE’s promise to improve undergraduate education is the need for sustained and meaningful inquiry into what and how we teach. Programs that focus on innovative pedagogies, curricular reform and renewal, and professional education for faculty fall under this category. 
    • Faculty development initiatives (professional education for new faculty, for adjuncts, for teachers by the disciplines—especially English, math, for general education faculty, etc.)
    • Activities to promote the scholarship of teaching and learning (within general education programs, writing across the curriculum, teaching and learning centers, etc.)
    • Teaching with technology (information literacy programs, etc.)
  • Writing Across the Curriculum. As in the past, the University will provide financial support for six CUNY Writing Fellows at each of the campuses. (Details have already been provided about the Writing Fellow appointments; the Graduate School is again overseeing the Fellows’ application and selection process.)
    • Professional development for faculty and Writing Fellows
    • Linking WAC to composition
    • Linking WAC to other literacies across the curriculum (reading, information literacy, etc.)
    • Integrating WAC within General Education
  • Pilot Projects.  These should be conceived around a specific issue and should be innovative and promising in potential impact.

Please note that overlap between and among the above categories is inevitable—and encouraged.

Submission Instructions. Proposals are due by April 27, 2006.  Please send your proposal electronically to Myrna_Chase@baruch.cuny.edu and Dennis Slavin@baruch.cuny.edu.