By Silas Hood, Oct. 31, 2023
Cal Poly Pomona’s second Academic Senate meeting for the school year was held Oct. 18, announcing upcoming changes to transfer student general education requirements, new degree programs being offered and updates regarding the spring commencement ceremony.
A unity in the pathway and standards for transfer students entering the California State Universities and University of California school system will be implemented starting fall 2025. This change originates with Assembly Bill 1749 which provides graduates of California Community Colleges automatic admission in both the CSU and UC system if they earned an associate degree for transfer.
Part of this legislation argued the complexity of multiple sets of requirements between CSU and UC campuses, mandating a common pathway with fewer units.
“In order to devise that common pathway, the CSU and UC had to agree on what would be on that pathway,” shared Gwen Urey, professor and chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. “It has taken a while because they had courses they did not want to give up and we had courses we did not want to give up.”
Under these new requirements, the CSU system will now require: three courses in English like before, one course in mathematics, two courses in arts and humanities cut from four, two courses in social sciences cut from four, two courses in biological science with a stand-alone lab cut from four courses with an integrated lab, one course in ethnic studies and no more lifelong learning course.
Along with these curriculum changes, so too comes a change in standard where transfer students will only receive general education credit for courses they receive a C in, replacing the previous standard of C-.
“The question is, since it’s fewer units, should students who arrive as freshmen also get this pattern?” said Urey. “Since it does include standards also, bringing the C minimum standard … is going to throw a wrench into Graduation Initiative 2025 goals.”
This topic is still in debate as some faculty and administration think implementing this change will provide clarity for students while others want to keep the current GE curriculum to retain academic areas and a unique freshman experience.
For Broncos transferring out of school into their next stage in life, commencement will be held from May 17-20, 2024. In order to participate, students need to apply for graduation by March 15, 2024.
Each of the 12 ceremonies will be 90 minutes and student registration and tickets will be made available in the spring. The guest ticket allotment depends on the college and how many graduates are in the class.
The Collins College of Hospitality Management and the Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture will kick off the ceremonies Friday, May 17, 2024, at 4 p.m. pushed back from 8 a.m. last year to avoid any conflict with finals.
Saturday, May 18, 2024, the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences and the College of Engineering will participate in their ceremonies respectively. Each college will hold two ceremonies according to major.
Sunday, May 19, 2024, will host the College of Business Administration and the College of Science, each holding two ceremonies according to major as well.
The College of Environmental Design and the College of Education and Integrative Studies will be the last to participate Monday, May 20, 2024.
The forementioned schedule is yet to be announced and may undergo alterations before its public release. A key request from the student body for the ceremony was to review and improve the name reading process.
“They want this Instagram moment with the name, the picture on the screen … we are looking to make that a big thing,” said Director of Events and Special Projects Helen Yniguez.
In other business, a new minor, master’s and a certificate program were all adopted at the meeting. Three more proposals saw its first reading and will be voted on at the next Academic Senate.
The Liberal Studies Department will now offer a minor in global humanities which will be open to all majors. For Computer Science majors, a new 19 credit global access certificate program was adopted, and the College of Science will now offer a Master of Science in statistics and applied mathematics with an option for either topic.
The next meeting will review a proposed minor in sustainability education from the Liberal Studies Department, a minor in cyber security from the Department of Computer Science and a certificate program in information security from the Computer Information System Department.
Academic Senate will hold its next meeting Nov. 8 from 3 to 5 p.m. in room 98-P2-007. Those with questions can reach out to the Chair of Academic Senate, Rita Kumar at adkumar@cpp.edu and for graduation questions can reach out to commencement@cpp.edu.
Feature Image Courtesy of Darren Loo