The automatic approval for an ACE course shall be granted by the Arts and Sciences Senate Undergraduate Curriculum Committee based on the submitted proposal’s meeting the following requirements:

  • The Chair of the academic department at Stony Brook University, in conjunction with the appropriate dean, shall authorize the program and create a tangible plan, ensuring that all on campus resources are maintained;
  • The designated ACE course must match the curriculum of an existing Stony Brook University course, fulfilling all of the same requirements as an on-campus course;
  • The high school teacher(s) selected to proctor the course in the high school(s) must have an on-campus interview with the Department Chair and meet the criteria necessary for the hiring of a departmental adjunct; and
  • The plan must provide a detailed definition of the supervision required to run the course adequately.

Relevant minutes from the Undergraduate Council:

Minutes of the Undergraduate Council Meeting of October 30, 2014

Present: Kathleen Bratby, Jennifer Dellaposta, Sarah Fuller, Rick Gatteau, Kane Gillespie, Norman Goodman, Ross D. Iosefson, Tyrik Jiang, Robert Kukta, Michael Mooney, Peter Stephens, Alan Tucker

3. The Council discussed the matter of ACE (Advanced College Education) courses. These are courses delivered in high schools for which the students can receive Stony Brook University credit that will be registered on a SBU transcript. We have at hand a UG Council document from Fall 2011 stating criteria for ACE proposals. The Council has been reviewing individual ACE proposals. We decided that the program was now established enough that review of new proposals should be entrusted to the curriculum committees of the various colleges. These committees will be furnished with the guidelines by which new ACE proposals are to be evaluated. We therefore did not review the proposal for the MEC 100 (Introduction to Engineering) course to be delivered at the Oyster Bay-East Norwich High School but referred it to the CEAS curriculum committee.

We did decide that this is an appropriate moment to review the ACE program as a whole, a review that had been envisioned since the program was started. Dina Brennan, an admissions counselor, has a list of all current ACE courses that will be a starting point for our review. Among matters to be considered are: the number of current ACE courses and the areas of study represented, the number of students enrolled in these courses who actually request SBU credit, the frequency and adequacy of departmental supervision, the selection of high schools through which SBU offers ACE courses, whether the resources directed to ACE courses adversely affect the availability of course offerings to matriculated Stony Brook undergraduates, the financial returns from ACE courses, the problems that may have arisen in the administration and delivery of ACE courses. The general goal is to assess the scope and success of the overall program.
A concern when the ACE program was being launched was that it might, by default, serve the more affluent local high schools and bypass some of the less-advantaged high schools. The degree of such “selectivity” should be investigated.

Alan Tucker, Chair of the Council, will appoint a sub-committee to carry out the review and report to the full Council.