Program Review Report from Site Visit for Liberal Arts and Sciences Curriculum
at Queensborough Community College (May 2011)
By Dr. Sharadha Sambasivan
Associate Professor of Chemistry at Suffolk Community College, Selden, NY
Overview of Strengths of Liberal Arts and Sciences Program
Summary of Strengths of Chemistry and Mathematics Departments
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Site visit team was impressed by the high quality, enthusiastic faculty and
extremely knowledgeable staff in all the departments
Chemistry: 10 Full time faculty (all with Doctorate degree) and approximately 35
adjunct instructors with several full time CLTs
Mathematics: 37 Full time faculty (25 with Doctorate degree) and approximately
100 adjunct instructors. Faculties of both departments are nationally renowned
in their areas of specialization and hosting conferences at QCC.
Chemistry department has a taken a lead role in incorporating state of art
research in material science and chemistry in a 2 year college setting. The high
quality of research is well demonstrated by the numerous posters exhibits,
presentations by students and faculty at national conferences and the availability
of instrumentation such as NMR, IR, HPLC, SEM etc. It is unusual for a
community college to have such an exemplary research program such as QCC’s.
It is evident that Chemistry department is striving hard to increase research
enthusiasm and awareness in students and faculty by arranging numerous
seminars by guest speakers many of whom are from local 4 year institutions and
Universities. This is a great approach to build collaborative research
opportunities for faculty and internships for students and help students transfer to
these institutions for Bachelor’s degree program.
Site team was extremely impressed with the substantial research grant from
NSF/NIH which has provided research internships for students at QCC,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
The student labs (both in chemistry and biology) were very well equipped with
computer facility, modern microscopes, web access, projector, white
boards/smart boards. Appearance for most teaching labs looked spacious, good
arrangement of lab benches. Math and Physics lab are modern and exceeds
expectation. Budget for all science labs are appropriate.
Reduced teaching load for faculty negotiated by Union to incorporate research
direction/mentorship efforts by faculty for students.
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I.
Student interviews suggested that Chemistry department has tutoring services
provided by faculty and advanced students in addition to the numerous tutors
working round the clock at learning centers.
Sciences department faculty exhibited several inter departmental collaborative
research (especially chemistry and biology faculties), and are synergistically
working with the course requirements and prerequisites to enhance student
success in course completion, and provide better learning outcomes and
strengthen STEM disciplines
Site team was happy to see Adjunct Office hours especially in chemistry–posted
everywhere in display boards
Chemistry department head is extremely supportive and accommodative for
flexible teaching schedule for full time faculty to aid overall success of the
research project ventures.
Chemistry faculty demonstrated collegiate and cooperative working environment
amongst each other which is evident from the high quality of publications and
presentation at conferences.
Sciences department demonstrate maintaining higher academic standards with
appropriate pre-requisite courses, and many majors courses have C or higher
grade required in prerequisites and strict in course repeat policy
IBM tech project for STEM and engineering students allows scholarship and
internship opportunities
Faculty and Staff Professional Development:
 The site team was very impressed by the high quality of the faculty and staff
of the Chemistry, Biology, physics and Math departments.
 A high percentage of the chemistry and Biology faculty have a PhD or
terminal doctorate degree.
 Chemistry faculty are presenting their extensive student centric research
projects as posters and oral presentation in numerous national conferences
including American Chemical Society (ACS) meetings
 Chemistry faculty is also involved in chairing sessions at various national
(ACS) and CUNY Pipeline Honors meetings and has demonstrated
leadership roles in ACS local section chapters including hosting ACS MidAtlantic regional meeting.
 Well attended Monthly/bimonthly research seminars at QCC chemistry
department portrays faculty seeking enhancement in their research and
teaching methodologies
 Several; chemistry faculty serve on editorial boards of National periodicals
and grant review boards which is prestigious
 Innovative and modern chemistry courses such as Chemistry in a Living world
CH-101, 102, Chemistry and Arts CH-103, 104, Chemistry and the
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environment CH-110, 111 and lab manuals written by chemistry faculty
reflects on their scholarly accomplishment. Additionally, reducing lab manual
costs to students is a great service to the student community. This also
demonstrates faculty is fully aware and knowledgeable about various course
requirements diverse group of students
Most notable honor for chemistry faculty is to avail over $2 million in research
grant from CUNY and other external funding agencies to provide state of the
art research capabilities for students and faculty. Most Chemistry Faculties were very efficiently utilizing all the highly class
research instrumentation and are producing high quality results from these
equipments.
II.
Curricular design:
 The curricular design of the liberal arts and science/mathematics offers many
entry level courses in math, chemistry, biology which serve as prerequisite for
general education core courses. For e.g. CH-120, CH-127, MA 120 which
serve as a good background for success in CH-151, CH-152, CH-251 and
CH-252 which are core requirements. The mediocre completion rate of CH151 may be attributed to no CH-120 or Ch-127 prerequisite requirement for
CH-151, math requirement of MA-120 is appropriate. Higher student success
in completion of CH-152, CH-251 and CH-252 may be directly related to C or
higher grade required in CH-151.
 The curricular design includes many articulation and or dual/joint degree
programs with the upper division CUNY schools. The Liberal Arts and
Science students can choose a Forensic science program that leads to B.S.
in forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and assures
seamless transfer of QCC credits with GPA 2.5 or higher.
 Similar curricular design includes A.S in Science for Pharmaceutical science
to be enrolled jointly at York College to attain B.S degree in Pharmaceutical
science.
 Interviews with physics, engineering indicates that Students are well prepared
as they transfer to 4 year institution (Math, Engineering and sciences). Most
students said all chemistry courses transferred as core credits if needed for
majors in the 4 year institution. However, site team was made aware that
math courses such as Differential equations MA-451 and linear algebra MA461 had portability issues, and were counted as elective rather than general
education core course.
 Independent study 1 credit course CH-911,912, 913 and 914 for research
experiments enables students to allocate appropriate time to research
activities
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Pedagogical practice and Assessments:
 There is wide diversity of the teaching methodology employed by the
chemistry and mathematics department. Power point presentations as well as
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white/black board, overheads presentations are utilized in lecture and
laboratories.
Math department utilize several in-class problem, online homework
assignments, use of graphing calculators, periodic exams, written
assignments. The upper division math courses use several mathematical
software such as MATHCAD, MAPLE etc. which trains them to be at par with
4 year institutions and universities.
Math department is continually improving remedial courses such as MA-005
and MA-010 to better prepare students for other math and science courses.
Chemistry department has mandated for students to take standardized
national exams such ACS in CH-127, 151, 152, 251 and 252 and have written
lab reports, oral PowerPoint presentations in most of their foundation and
core courses.
Additionally, chemistry department has designed group projects in chemistry
labs, students often attend seminars and write a summary, use of blackboard
technology in lecture and labs and for lab result analyses.
Evidence of Student Learning:
 Based on student interviews of CH-151, and PH-413 the site team received
favorable student comments towards the chemistry and physics courses
when we visited a lecture class.
 In the chemistry ACS standardized test QCC students have performed better
than the national average in CH-127, 151, 152, 251 and 252 which confirms
that effective student learning is occurring in the chemistry courses.
 The site team also received favorable comments on student learning in the
physics courses from the engineering science students.
 The many posters and presentations in various ACS national meetings that
have been completed by the QCC chemistry students are evidence of
scholarship and student success.
V.
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Instructional and student support and Resources:
The counseling center headed by Brian Kerr gives excellent support to the
students. Site team found Mr. Kerr to be extremely proficient and was fully
prepared to give excellent advice of various career paths to student s. The
academic counseling does reach the majority of the students.
The STEM Academy which advises liberal arts and sciences, engineering and
technology students for the first year takes into account the different
backgrounds of the students and does advise the more advanced students to
consult department chairs and faculty directly.
The Library is extremely well used by the student and we were surprised to learn
that students could utilize a Library lab top computer for up to two hours. The
library is not heavily utilized on Saturday and is closed on Sunday.
Library e-journals and catalog collection is outstanding with the excellent
reference section of multiple copies of text books used in various courses.
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VI.
The Academic Computing Center is well run and very busy. Students were
waiting in line to get access to a computer.
The campus writing center was busy when we visited. It is a plus that the
students are required to successfully complete two writing intensive courses in
order to graduate.
Student support services excellent, outstanding computing facility Math labs
appear to portray conducive environment for the student tutoring and
collaboration learning environment.
The Technology Learning Center employed several graduates of BS programs
as tutors. The tutoring staff has excellent credentials and tutoring was one on
one or small groups. Several Tutors in each discipline are available in math
center, and learning centers at all times when the learning centers are open.
Formation of learning community is being designed to encourage students in
Liberal Arts sciences program to form study groups and collaborations.
Freshman seminar course ST100 and Freshman academies provided excellent
information to improve student to first year experience and student said They are
fully using freely available college tutoring services, e-tutoring, faculty office
hours.
Quality and Substance of the self study and Suggestions
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The section on assessment of the various natural science and mathematics
courses is extremely good with all objective clearly outlined
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The program mission, faculty, curriculum, resources and priorities for the future
are clear to enhance more successful outcomes in Liberal arts and science
program.
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The course outlines for all the chemistry courses are clear and the course
content is excellent and consistent with other 2 year and four year institutions.
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The major strengths, weakness and corrective action of the Liberal arts and
science program are well defined.
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The curriculum vitae of the Chemistry, math department members is impressive
and complete
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A self-study should contain data for each of the 5 years covered in the academic
review. The self-study starts off well with colored graphs and tables in the
introduction that does cover a 5 year or longer period. However, the individual
programs that are being reviewed have very little information on individual years.
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Statistical data is scant.
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A self-study should contain some student information. A summary of student
course evaluation/instructor/evaluations is not part of the self-study.
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Exit surveys of graduating students should be present in the self study.
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Statistics on student successes is lacking in self study report and no break down
(results) of comparison of entry vs. exit polls. A suggestion by the site team
would be to do students exit polls after each year to track student success.
Self study from Liberal arts and sciences lacks course evaluations data from
students in Core requirement courses
Self study should address exit survey by students (excellent being the last
choice) and collect data on certain popular questions such as
o What is your post graduation plan?
o List major being pursued and school.
o Will you be choosing education or job post graduating from here? Night
classes if you are working?
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Program Strengths
Program strengths have already been outlined in pages 1 and 2 of this report.
Program/ College Wide-General Weakness
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Course numbers in college catalog should reflect the difficulty level, and the
committee suggests that there should not be higher than 299 at a community
college. The course number should conform to the following standards used in
many other 2 year and 4 year institutions.
 100 level being freshman
 200 sophomore course
 300 and 400 level courses should be reserved for B.S program
 500 and above course #s reserved for graduate level classes
 Mathematics and physics course numbers need re-structuring
 CH-130, 131 course numbers mentioned in catalog (page 111) is not
mentioned in list of course outlines provided to the site review team. I suspect
this course is no longer offered and hence must be removed from the catalog
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Many of the articulation agreements are old and out of date. Both the faculty and
the administration are aware of this problem and are working to update the
agreements. Interview with engineering science majors in PH-413 revealed that
MA-451 and MA-461 did not transfer as Core requirement credit at CCNY where
majority of the engineering students transfer to.
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The format of the self-study lacks significant statistical data for individual years.
Below is the type of Statistical data that could be included. Both the
Administration as well as the Biology department was surprised to learn that
slightly over 1000 students selected Health Sciences as their major. Liberal Arts
and sciences (A.S degree) in Fall 2009 was chosen by 750 students and only 70
were awarded A.S degree.
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Selected student data should appear in the self-study. They are a very major
asset to QCC and student information should be added to the self-study.
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Letter grade Inconsistencies: Grades A- and A grading is not consistent with the
B-, and C- and D- Also inconsistent with most colleges letter grading schemes.
Refer to pg 47 college catalog.
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Engineering students fell through the cracks of advising and they were faced with
non-transferability of classes to other institutions such as CCNY; Engineering
faculty should distribute Engineering major students in advising for appropriate
engineering courses (Mechanical, electrical etc). Correct line up classes/courses
keep in mind the transferability and courses counted as Majors courses not as
elective. Distinguish clearly Computer Engineer vs. computer technology course
sequence.
LIBERAL ARTS SCIENCES WEAKNESSES and SUGGESTIONS
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Extremely crowded with high noise levels library and learning center and not too
many quiet study areas. Additionally some areas are reserved for classes in
communication etc. Site team suggests that the each department (at least
physics, biology and chemistry) should have a dedicated learning center where
tutors (paid student tutors) can help students having difficulty with STEM course
materials. Also, it will be helpful if this room is equipped with computers for
student use for typing lab reports, online HW and quizzes. Although the faculty
in chemistry and biology are already overwhelmed with research initiatives, they
can be asked if they would be willing to observe ONE of their office hours in the
help center. This will increase student-faculty interaction, also they oversee
student tutors.
More smart class rooms need to be added to introduce more technology based
learning which have promises for better student learning outcomes
Student and research instrumentation lab space is inadequate in chemistry
department. 1 prep/store room for 4 chemistry labs; which needs more
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organization and space. Organic chemistry labs needs more modern hoods, and
better exhaust system. We suggest renovating the organic lab
Review articulation agreement with neighboring 4 year schools and needs to be
updated often. To improve this process site team suggest a articulation
committee comprising of department chairs, deans and affiliated faculty
High students attrition in upper level courses in sciences, math is concluded
based on student low graduation rates and course passing statistics reported in
self study
Lower % of C or higher grades in CHE 127 (no prerequisite) and CHE 151 (MA120 prerequisite which has reported to have improved student retention). Site
team suggests strengthening prerequisite math and chemistry requirements.
For CHE 120 and CHE 127 it highly recommended to have MA-010 or MA-013 or
satisfactory score on Math Placement Test
For CHE 151 site team strongly suggests to add chemistry prerequisite such as
passing high school reagents Chemistry or CH-120 or CH-121. Having MA-120
as math prerequisite only solves part of the retention problem, it is a great
beginning!! All other chemistry courses have appropriate or more stringent
prerequisite reflected in better student performance.
Alternative option is to closely monitor student performance in CH-151. students
receiving D or below in Exam 1 may be transferred to CH-120 or CH-127
Counselor STEM academies intervention for poorly performing students in STEM
discipline and suggest alternate career paths
Transfer credit information from student exit polls will greatly enhance student
confidence in picking the right courses.
STEM freshman academy needs to be strengthened. More Discipline specific
advising needed in addition to faculty advisement. Site team suggests hiring
discipline specific counselors, strengthening academies with more experienced
coordinators, who have majored in the discipline they are advising.
STEM academy may be divided into engineering/ technology academy and
physical sciences academy. Health sciences academy is already in place and
doing well in student guidance
Effort must be made to match Books adoptions in upper level courses with 4 year
institutions where majority of students will be moving on to.
Course outlines match up with YORK, Queens College, Stony Brook which
already does for most chemistry courses.
Site team suggests addition of online course supplements such as online
Homework assignment or online discussions/chats which students are very
familiar.
Faculty may hold one off campus Online office hour and also encourage some
problem solving as group assignments
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Workshop on career paths especially for Engineering students to distinguish
between Engineering and technology career paths.- Early intervention; Discipline
specific freshman seminar course.
The statistics from Institutional research indicates that there is high negative
growth in Weekend A.A degree in Liberal arts sciences enrollments. More
analysis needs to be done to revamp this program
More dual joint programs with CCNY, NYIT, Farmingdale and Cooper Union
would enhance student retention at QCC