CONFIDENTIAL

CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

Proposal for an Advanced Certificate Program
in Women's Studies

Evaluation Report of

Dr. Evelyn Torton Beck
University of Maryland
College Park

Doctoral Evaluation Project
New York State Education Department
Cultural Education Center
Albany, New York

August 1988


Review of the Proposed
Advanced Certificate Program

in Women's Studies at The City University of New York

Women's Studies is one of the most highly developed and
swiftly growing fields of inquiry to emerge in the last fifteen
yeers. Because it is both independent and interdisciplinary,
research in Women's Studies has affected the conceptual basis of
virtually all of the "traditional" humanities, social science,
and natural science disciplines. Women's Studies scholarship is
central to the "transformation of the curriculum" projects in
place at the many colleges and universities which are working to
bring factors of gendee and race into undergraduate and graduate
education. While over 500 undergraduate programs are currently
in place in the United States, graduate Women's Studies programs,
though much in demand, have been considerably slower to develop.
In response to the demand for experts trained in the new
scholarship on women, a number of M.A., Advanced Certificate and
Ph.D. reer one jn ‘Women's: Studies are being established. A
certificate program is one of the best interim measures that can
be’ implemented. It can provide a coherent framework for the
Women's Studies work in which many of the best students are
already engaged.

The Women's Studies Advanced Certificate program currently

under consideration at The City University of New York has the


necessary qualities fcr a successful program:

rs

The Courses

The Advanced Certificate program has the requisite

balance of core and individualized courses:

. MALS 721 (Classical Feminist Texts) and MALS 722
(Contemporary Feminist Thought) are appropriate
prerequisites that will assure a minimal base of
knowledge in the field.

‘ IDS U717 (Proseminar) and IDS U816 (Workshop for
Guided Research) plus two or three more Women's
Studies electives provide appropriate depth and
scope.

The Faculty

There are 30 faculty from various Ph.D. programs at The

Graduate School who are actively engaged in teaching

and research in Women's Studies. These faculty are

among the most productive and highly respected in the
field. They are eminently well qualified to supervise
students earning a graduate certificate in Women's

Studies. In fact, because most of the requisite

certificate courses are already being taught, and many

students are already specializing in Women's Studies,
granting this certificate will simply regularize and
strengthen a Decne that is virtually in existence

already.


Need

On the basis of graduate interest in Women's Studies
and enrollment in similar certificate programs at
comparable institutions, e.g., The University of
Michigan, there is every reason to believe that there
will be ample student demand for an Advanced
Certificate in Women's Studies. Because there is no
comparable. certificate program in the Metropolitan
area, students who might otherwise choose to _ study
sl sewheee wid’ be attracted to CUNY.

Graduates holding an Advanced Certificate in Women's
Studies with a Ph.D. in the humanities or the social
sciences will be qualified to meet the demand for

college teaching of introductory and advanced

‘interdisciplinary Women's Studies courses. They will

also be able to bring Women's Studies perspectives to
bear on their area of doctoral study.

Resources

This program can be implemented immediately without
additional resources. Such a certificate program is
much needed and long overdue. The excellence of the
faculty, the coherence of the courses, as well as the
student demand make immediate implementation

appropriate.