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Call for Consultation on Institutional Restructuring or
Redesign Initiatives
AS-2997-10/FGA (Rev)
RESOLVED: That the Academic Senate CSU (ASCSU) reaffirm the Higher Education Employee
Relations Act (HEERA) which states that the faculty of the California State University
(CSU) are to be consulted in matters of curriculum and instruction; and be it further,
RESOLVED: That the ASCSU support ongoing faculty efforts to design and review curricula and modes
of instruction as needed to support disciplinary and CSU mission goals, and to meet the
needs of CSU students and the public at large; and be it further,
RESOLVED: That the ASCSU urge that CSU campus senates and CSU campus administrators ensure
that initiatives/projects directed toward institutional restructuring or redesign involve
consultation with the appropriate discipline faculty and/or faculty governance bodies; and
be it further
RESOLVED: That this resolution be distributed to the CSU Chancellor, the CSU Executive Vice
Chancellor for Academic Affairs, CSU campus presidents and provosts/VPAAs, CSU
campus senate chairs, and AASCU.
RATIONALE: As stated in “Collegiality in the California State University System,”
Section II of Principles and Policies: Papers of the Academic Senate, faculty, because
of their scholarly expertise, have the primary responsibility in curricular decisions.
From that responsibility, “[I]t follows that faculty should have the major voice in
academic policy decisions which closely affect the curriculum, access to the
curriculum, or the quality of the curriculum.” 1-Accordingly, in AS-2962-10/FA
Opposition to Participation in the Zemsky-Finney Re-engineering the Undergraduate
Curriculum Proposal, the ASCSU affirmed its support for CSU faculty efforts to
redesign curricula based upon appropriate research and evidence, while at the same
time expressing concern about the Zemsky-Finney Re-engineering the Undergraduate
Curriculum model of curriculum review. The Red Balloon Project is another
curricular redesign model under consideration by some CSU campuses. 2-The project
was developed by AASCU to re-imagine and then redesign higher education for the
21st century. The project is national in scope, and of interest to faculty, proposes new
models of institutional organization and design (new departmental and college
structures), faculty workload (different kinds of faculty work and the use of part-time
faculty, curriculum (limiting degrees to 120 hours, interdisciplinary programs, new
designs for general education), course design (reduced seat time, student-centered
learning, undergraduate research, project-based learning), and Instructional Design
(new forms of student engagement, use of technology in teaching, distance education).3-As the Zemsky-Finney and Red Balloon initiatives have clear curricular and instructional implications, the ASCSU is urging that CSU campus senates and campus
administrators ensure that as these or similar restructuring models are considered,
consultation with appropriate discipline faculty and/or shared governance bodies takes place.
Approved - January 20-21, 2011
1- Academic Senate California State University, Principles and Policies: Papers of the Academic Senate, Volume II, Section II, 1999: 35-
36, http://www.calstate.edu/AcadSen/Records/Reports/pp.pdf (accessed January 21, 2011).
2 - See Red Balloon Participant List at the project’s website, http://aascuredballoonproject.wordpress.com/participating-campuses/
(accessed January 18, 2011).
3 - George L. Mehaffey, “The Red Balloon Project: Re-Imagining Undergraduate Education,”
http://www.aascu.org/programs/redballoon/files/Red+Balloon+Project+Description.pdf (accessed November 4, 2010).
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