By: Katie Priest, Nov 12, 2024
A new option, in addition to the previous proposal, for the changing general education pattern was presented at the Academic Senate meeting Nov. 6 with mixed reviews from faculty senate members .
The General Education Committee presented two options for the revised GE pattern required by the California State University system after the passing of California Assembly Bill No. 928.
The goal of the bill is to streamline the GE pattern between freshman and transfer students with an associates degree for transfer. The number of units removed from GE patterns changes across the CSU system. The pattern proposed by the bill will remove five units from the current GE pattern at Cal Poly Pomona.
“This is something being imposed on us from the outside by the legislature that is pedagogically unsound for our students,” said Faye Wachs, a CSU academic senator.
The main points of contention for CPP’s GE Committee are the removal of one Area C course, the D3 requirements and the American Institutions requirement. The American Institutions requirement is a two-course graduation requirement consisting of one history and one political science course.
The main point of concern, according to the committee’s report, is there will be an elimination of nine GE units disproportionally affecting the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences. According to committee chair Mario Guerrero, the CSU mandated the pattern be in place by fall 2025 and notified the campus about the due date this semester.
Senator and Academic Affairs committee chair Jessie Vallejo said she is “heavily invested” in the GE pattern change. She likened the reduction of courses that are a part of CLASS to the reduction of a bus route, claiming the reduction in required GE courses could lead to less money for departments and fewer sections offered.
The GE committee presented two options to the Academic Senate. The first option, called the majority report or Option B, is the pattern recommended by the committee. This option still removes the additional C1 or C2 course required by the current GE pattern and the removal of Area E, the Lifelong Learning and Self-Development category.
This the option does not double-count the history component of the American Institutions requirement, leaving an additional spot for a CLASS course in a section named Social and Behavioral Science. According to Guerrero, “There has been an ongoing discussion around the university about the impending GE pattern.” The committee held two online forums before introducing the options. Additionally, CLASS held a town hall and the committee also received individual feedback.
The minority report, or Option A, would do everything the majority report offers, except this option would double-count the history course, eliminating the possibility of an additional CLASS course in the Social and Behavioral Science section. With this option, courses from the departments of Psychology and Economics, among others, would be eliminated from GE.
For Guerrero, the mandate for a new pattern is not what he wants for campus.
“The more autonomy that the campus has, the better,” Guerrero said. “I think that the idea is that if everybody is on the same pattern, then there’s less misunderstanding.”
In a senate resolution in opposition of the assembly bill from the October 2022 meeting, the senate “expects the Cal Poly Pomona Administration to robustly defend the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.” The 22-23 senate felt the pattern presented showed an ongoing issue in GE requirements that “reduce or diminish the role of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences in preparing CSU undergraduate students to be responsible citizens and lifelong learners.” This resolution was part of a series of resolutions relating to the GE pattern change.
Both options and overall GE pattern change received criticism from the senators present.
Robert Blumenfeld, a senator from CLASS and a psychology professor, called Option A “on its face absurd.”
Other senators present raised concerns, both for the CLASS courses and also for the impact on their departments and students. Many had questions for the committee about the process and requirements as well.
This was the first reading of the report from the Academic Senate, which will meet again Dec. 4. There will also be a general information session and town hall Nov. 14 during U-Hour regarding the GE pattern changes.
In addition to the GE pattern deliberations, the senate voted to discontinue the geographic studies emphasis for geography students. According to the report, the emphasis has fewer than 10 students declared.The last term to graduate with the option will be spring 2027.
The Applied Language Studies option name was also changed to the Applied Linguistics Subplan/Option after senate approval during the first reading. This was done to help student recognition and align better with the current options in the field, according to the report from the Academic Programs Committee.
Feature image courtesy of Katie Priest