I might also point to evidence showing that the possession of a strong core education helps students especially economically disadvantaged students - to prosper and achieve flexibility in the workplace. Members of the Binghamton University Faculty Senate have accused the Trustees of passing the Core Curriculum in Dec. 1998 without any input from SUNY professors. The University Faculty Senate created a task force that passed on its views on the Core in great depth to the Board. The Board s Academic Standards Committee reviewed this and other faculty input for two years or more. In fact, many aspects of the Board s resolution are consonant with the conclusions of the task force report.
Faculty remain deeply involved in the implementation phase of the resolution.
In the Summer 1999 issue of Academic Questions, you quoted University Faculty Senate President Vincent Aceto, who said that the new Core Curriculum was the best idea of 1955. Those who mock the Core as outdated deprive students, as I have said, of a necessary grounding in knowledge that will richly serve them. Those who flippantly dismiss the need for such knowledge appear to lack an appreciation of the great worth of what the philosopher Russell Kirk called the permanent things. Perhaps I would surprise you by opining that positive reaction by faculty members to the Core resolution has significantly outweighed negative reaction on their part. Many, many faculty members have voiced enthusiasm about implementing the Core.