Faculty at The City University are first and foremost educators, committed to instilling in their students a love of learning for its own sake, as well as an understanding of the liberal learning of our civilization and the skills and knowledge that graduates of the University will need in order that they may continue to learn all their lives. Most faculty members spend much of their working days in the classroom, laboratory, or studio, teaching a variety of courses, and in their offices, reinforcing the classroom experience through conferences with students, individually and in groups, and reviewing and responding to the essays and examinations that are the visible product of their teaching. With academic ingenuity, they provide students at every level, from remedial through doctoral studies, with learning opportunities that foster development of skills, creativity, and intellectual rigor. While the classroom is often regarded as a faculty member's domain, and most develop their own methods for communicating their expert knowledge to their students, many of the University's faculty have contributed to our gradually increasing understanding of the teaching process through the development of new curriculum and instructional techniques. Programs. The colleges are eager to introduce new programs that are especially geared to the needs of the New York community or based on the latest academic and technical advances, and that appeal to the disparate interests of an exceptionally heterogeneous student population. These are a few of the more unusual and innovative programs developed at The City University by its faculty: Advertising Art and Computer Graphics Dance Research and Reconstruction Clinical Applications in Mental Health Settings Small Business Entrepreneurship Telecommunications Biotechnology Africana Studies Laser and Fiber Optics Technology Educational Use of Computers Public Interest Paralegal Studies General Education and Core Curriculum. In an effort to provide students with a common experience of the liberal learning of our civilization, many of the University's colleges are strengthening their general education programs and turning to the concept of a core curriculum as the basis of an integrated liberal education. While there is no single best way for a college to provide its students with a general education, the faculties of both senior and community colleges have thoughtfully examined the alternative routes to liberal learning and, through a core curriculum, or distribution courses, or a combination of both, have developed the curriculum most appropriate for their students. Brooklyn College and Lehman College are nationally recognized as being in the vanguard of the movement to introduce students, through a core curriculum, to a shared intellectual experience that will acquaint them with the major modes of thought of Western and other civilizations. After reviewing their distribution and core requirements, City College, Hunter College, York College, and New York City Technical College have adopted new core curricula designed to enhance understanding of pluralism and diversity. Interdisciplinary Teaching. Faculty customarily teach and pursue research and curricular interests within their traditional disciplines, sustained by the support of their colleagues within their departments. The movement toward the development of innovative courses and programs, especially those intended for inclusion in a core curriculum, however, has encouraged faculty to look past the boundaries dividing the disciplines and to exchange and share ideas with faculty from other departments. Foundation courses often cut across the disciplines, and generally work best if curriculum is developed through workshops that make use of the shared experience of faculty members from varied subject areas. Interdisciplinary instruction can involve team teaching by two or more faculty members, or block programming, in which the faculty responsible for a group of prescribed courses are expected to work together and consult frequently so that their goals, resources, and methods are fully integrated. For example, teachers of literature have been paired with teachers of public administration, using fiction to provide instruction in management skills. Political scientists have been teamed with anthropologists to teach law and culture, and teachers in the traditional academic disciplines have worked with basic skills instructors to help students in need of remediation acquire both skills and academic knowledge. While the University's faculty often find it a new experience to cut across disciplinary boundaries in this manner, most have welcomed the opportunity to broaden their own academic horizons; interdisciplinary activities have enriched their own teaching experience and that of their colleagues and students. Writing Across the Curriculum. Faculty in all disciplines have sought to improve the communication skills of students whose preparation for college-level work has not always been thorough. By exchanging ideas for writing assignments, by discussing with their colleagues in basic skills and English departments and in the libraries the techniques necessary for achieving thoughtful and coherent essays, and by supporting college-wide efforts for setting common standards for writing, faculty have cut across disciplinary boundaries to work together for the common good of the University's heterogeneous student population. Teacher Education. Faculty in education programs at ten senior colleges have revised the curriculum to reflect new teacher certification requirements, to develop co-majors in liberal arts, and to encourage a content that reflects the City's diversity. Collaborative programs with the public schools have expanded significantly, as faculty from CUNY's schools of education become more involved in curriculum and staff development efforts throughout the City. In addition, faculty are participating in programs designed to increase the number of minority students choosing teaching as a profession. CUNY/Board of Education Collaborative Programs. Recognizing the importance of having their students enter college with the skills needed to do effective academic work, faculty have been increasingly concerned with devising programs that will help high school students achieve competence in reading, writing, and mathematics before they enroll at the University. Innovative programs, such as College Now and Student Mentor, provide alternative opportunities for students to improve their academic performance, complete high school, and recognize themselves as potential college graduates. The University's Basic Skills Immersion Program for the past nine years has provided entering freshman at all of the University's senior and community colleges with the opportunity to prepare for the college experience. Through instruction, counseling, and tutoring, faculty have increased these students' chances of beginning college-level work as freshman, doing creditable work in their major fields, and gaining their associate or baccalaureate degree in a timely fashion. The Laboratory as Classroom. Laboratories have traditionally been the setting in which faculty introduced their students to the complexities of scientific experiment and provided them with the opportunity to work on sophisticated projects, from researching isotope analysis to analyzing phosphorescent molecules. Now, computer laboratories enable faculty in all the disciplines to use advanced technology as a way of ensuring that each student receives individualized instruction tailored to a variety of special needs. Students are learning to use computers as part of basic skills training, as part of introductory courses in the humanities and social sciences, as well as the sciences, and as a sophisticated adjunct to their major and pre-professional courses. The City as Classroom. Just as in recruiting its faculty the University has at its disposal the largest pool of creative minds in the world, so, in devising instructional techniques, the University's faculty can call upon the resources of the greatest city in the world. At the City University, creative writing is taught by world renowned authors and poets; and dance, theatre, and music are taught by preeminent performers. The city serves as a laboratory for the performing arts as professional television studios, radio stations, theatres, and galleries provide realistic settings in which students can learn the skills that they need to succeed in the competitive world of the arts. Faculty Development. Since 1982, the University Faculty Development Program has encouraged innovation in teaching and learning and fostered the exchange of ideas among faculty. Alumni of the program have been successful in creating new curricula for their own courses and departments and in utilizing more active teaching/learning strategies in the classroom. In 1993-94, the program doubled the size of its offerings and served more than 1,400 CUNY faculty through its numerous activities, including seminars, workshops, courses, and day-long colloquia. In 1994, a "request for proposals" process was instituted to involve more CUNY faculty in the design and implementation of these activities. Additionally, a University-wide Advisory Committee on Faculty Development was formed to provide guidance and input on ways to increase the relevance and effectiveness of faculty development throughout CUNY. The 1994-95 Faculty Development Program includes a broad array of seminars and colloquia coordinated by faculty from a variety of CUNY campuses. To date, a total of seventeen colloquia and four seminars have been planned for this year. Colloquia on innovative teaching approaches include: Active Learning/Teaching Practices in the College Classroom (Lehman); Mentoring in the Urban University (City); Promoting Critical Thinking in the Sciences (NYC Tech); and Assistive Technology and the Education of Students with Disabilities (Baruch). Other colloquia are designed to promote more inclusive perspectives in the curriculum and to address the learning needs of CUNY's diverse students; these include Incorporating Race and Gender into the Economics Classroom (Queens); Incorporating Language-Sensitive Instruction for ESL Students (John Jay); and Gender Issues in Latin American and the Caribbean (York). In addition, a number of semester and year-long seminars are offered, including those on Writing for Publication, Grants and Proposal Writing, and Balancing the Curriculum for Gender, Ethnicity, Race, and Class. All of these activities are designed to enable faculty to develop new methods and approaches to meet the changing needs of teaching and research. Sciences Initiatives. Over the past few years the Chancellor has initiated several University-wide efforts and strongly encouraged and supported others to enhance both teaching and research in the sciences at CUNY. Outstanding work by CUNY faculty has resulted in a number of triumphs. In the research area, the University has been designated a New York State Center for Advance Technology for Ultrafast Photonic Materials and Applications; receiving ten years in State funding, the Center engages scientists from campuses throughout the University. The CUNY Applied Sciences Coordinating Institute at the Graduate School and University Center has also received State support for research equipment in the areas of applied studies of the environment, applied biomedicine and biotechnology, as well as photonics. Starting in Fall 1994, a CUNY applied science research program, which brings together the expertise of 15 scientists from five CUNY campuses, will launch the study of "Tunable Solid State Lasers and Optical Imaging" at City College; funding for this initiative was granted by NASA through its Institutional Research Award for Minority Institutions Program. In the education field, the Alliances for Minority Participation Program (AMP), funded by the National Science Foundation, is entering its third year in which faculty continue their vital work in doubling the number of minority students in science, engineering technology and mathematics at CUNY. In addition, CUNY was recently awarded, in partnership with the New York City Public Schools, a five-year grant to establish an Urban Systemic Initiative (USI) in New York City. USI's goal is to systematically improve science, mathematics, and technology education for New York City school students, grades K-12. Doctoral Programs. In the years since the Graduate School and University Center was established, the University's doctoral programs, through the efforts of Executive Officers and faculty representing colleges throughout the University, have achieved a national reputation for excellence. Since 1961, the Graduate School has grown and flourished, with six of its 32 programs-anthropology, English, French, history, linguistics, and music-ranked among the best in the country. Because most faculty at the Graduate School also have appointments at the University's undergraduate colleges, they have an insight into curricular and instructional needs of a wide range of students, plus an understanding of teaching methods that may be unusual for so eminent a group of scholars but is entirely appropriate for the faculty of a great urban university. Moreover, through its doctoral programs, the University renews itself and its faculty. The close working relationship between doctoral students and faculty mentors fosters scholarly collaboration. While in the process of testing theory against research, students provide their mentors with a forum for exploring new ideas and examining the wider implications of their research findings. This process is of immense value to the University as many of the doctoral students ready themselves to become the next generation of scholars. International Education/Faculty and Student Exchanges. As a cosmopolitan University in the most cosmopolitan of cities, The City University has traditionally enrolled students from an incredible diversity of cultures and has appointed faculty that is equally international in its origins and interests. As part of its efforts to provide a variety of cultural experiences, the University has encouraged programs of study abroad for its students and exchange opportunities in teaching and research for its faculty. Among the oldest of these programs is the CUNY/ Paris Exchange, sponsored by a consortium of the senior colleges of the University and the University of Paris. Other opportunities for faculty exchange include programs with Shanghai University, the University of Puerto Rico, and the American University of Rome, and the University of Santo Domingo. .