Eager to bolster its nursing program, D’Youville College in fall 2013 asked the state Education Department to approve a new accelerated bachelor’s degree program that would train nurses in about a year.
A year and a half later, the college still has not received the approval.
D’Youville officials now wonder if they’ll have enough time to market the new program and recruit students for this year’s fall semester.
“It has been an enormous challenge,” said Arup K. Sen, vice president for academic affairs at D’Youville. “When we send it to State Ed, we’re pretty much at their mercy. The reviewal process should be 30 days. Not months. Not years.”
D’Youville tailored the program for college graduates looking to change careers. With nursing jobs in high demand, college officials anticipated a strong response. So when the college proposed the program, officials hoped to offer the program the following fall.
D’Youville officials are not the only ones frustrated by the long wait to get approvals from the department.
College and university officials across New York have complained that such delays are common for the state Education Department. It routinely takes six to nine months – and sometimes more than two years – for the government department to complete reviews.
“They have to speed up the process,” said Satish K. Tripathi, president of the University at Buffalo, which currently has seven new program submissions under review.
Cuomo has proposed ending the SED review process for new college programs but the Board of Regents and SED doesn't want that and it's unclear if the legislature will support Cuomo's proposal.
In any case, I can't wait to see how long it takes for NYSED to work out Governor Cuomo's vaunted new outside observation plan for the state's teachers.
As things stand now, NYSED has a reputation for neither speed nor accuracy.
Hey, what's a couple of years when you're reviewing something?
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