General Education Council

Charge of the Queens College General Education Council:

The Queens College General Education Council sets and coordinates the vision for general education at Queens College, currently implemented through the Pathways initiative. The council provides support for development of new general education courses, helps maintain existing general education courses, and coordinates the assessment of Pathways learning outcomes.

The council shall include the voices of faculty across all disciplines when developing and implementing policy to ensure inclusion and intellectual diversity and to ensure cohesion and consistency among the general education offerings, direct the implementation of Pathways’ College Option, and promote and increase the visibility of the mission and goals of general education on campus.

The Queens College General Education Council is charged to meet monthly to:

  • Discuss, develop the vision for, and support the implementation of Pathways at Queens College.
  • Develop and maintain guidance information to support faculty creation of new general education courses.
  • Review all new or revised Pathways courses to ensure they are in compliance with the requirements of the CUNY Common Core Course Review Committee or the W designation. Upon a favorable review, the council will forward its approval to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
  • Oversee and catalog existing general education courses that run regularly and ensure that their current implementation aligns with the needs of the College and the vision and goals of general education.
  • Develop and implement an annual assessment plan for general education. The plan for the following academic year shall be sent to the Academic Assessment Council for feedback in February.
  • Write an annual assessment report that includes a summary of the collected data and an implementation plan for changes based on the results. The report from the previous year’s assessment shall be presented at the annual Assessment Showcase in December.
  • Submit an annual report in May to the Provost and Associate Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs about the status of general education at Queens College and progress made over the previous year.
  • Support the offering of general education courses of a variety of modalities (in-person, hybrid, and fully online) to meet student needs and resolve curricular bottlenecks. All courses should be developed to have high-quality instruction with appropriate pedagogy for the modality.
  • Increase the visibility of the role, goals, and vision of Pathways for faculty and students, including providing materials to Academic Advising for students and coordinating regular professional development with CETLL.
  • Collect and organize general education related materials in support of institutional accreditation.

Membership, Spring 2025:

  1. Drew Jones (co-Chair through Spring 2025), European Languages and Literatures
  2. Christine Ramadhin (co-Chair through Spring 2026), School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
  3. Padmini Biswas, Urban Studies
  4. Yu Chen, Chemistry and Biochemistry
  5. Sandra Cordoba, English
  6. Robin Hizme, English
  7. Sara Lopez Amezquita, English
  8. Ashraf Shady, Elementary and Early Childhood Education
  9. Oren Steinberg, Computer Science
  10. Additional members TBD
  11. Yan Sun, Queens College Representative to the CUNY Common Core Course Review Committee

This council was developed after a successful General Education Faculty Fellowship coordinated by the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership.

Learn more about the role of the General Education Council co-Chair.