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Alamo Colleges is backing down for now from a controversial plan to eliminate majors from students’ degrees, Fox 29 reported. Earlier this fall, faculty members at all of Alamo’s San Antonio campuses received word that the colleges’ longstanding, non-vocational academic programs – something like majors – would be restructured and would no longer appear on students’ diplomas. Instead, Alamo said it would issue two more generic degrees: an associate of arts and an associate of science, with no additional program information. Administrators said the change was aimed at improving the student rate of transfer to four-year institutions, but opposed faculty members and students said the change made Alamo degrees less meaningful and marketable, and was decided without their input.
Students campaigned against the change throughout the fall with the help of local community groups, Communities Organized for Public Service and the Metro Alliance, bringing their concerns to the colleges’ Board of Trustees, Fox 29 and several instructors said. Prior to a board meeting this week, Leslie sent an email to faculty members saying he would reinstate some arts and science degrees. He said postponing the plan provides an opportunity to “reset” and allow for “additional time to engage student, faculty, staff and other stakeholder leadership across the Alamo Colleges."
Leslie did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. In an interview, a tenured faculty member at San Antonio College -- who did not want to give her name or discipline, citing concerns about job security -- said faculty members were “optimistic but extremely cautious” about the announcement. The instructor said faculty members, many of whom previously opposed a proposal by Leslie to require a class on Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, haven’t been successful in their opposition to various changes on campus, “because we’ve been so demonized in our district.” But, she said, “When you bring the students into it, it changes the chemistry of the whole thing.”
