Resolution supporting the Academic Senate of the California State University AS3666-24: “Opposition to Changing California State University General Education Breadth at This Time”
Resolved: That the Sonoma State Academic Senate reaffirm and support the ASCSU resolution AS3666-24.
Resolved: That the Sonoma State Academic Senate distribute the resolution to:
- CSU Board of Trustees
- CSU Chancellor
- ASCSU Chair & Executive Committee
- ASCSU Academic Affairs Committee
- Chancellor's General Education Advisory Committee (GEAC)
- CSU General Education Council
- CSU campus Presidents
- CSU campus Senate Chairs
- CSU campus Senate Executive Committees
- CSU Provosts/Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs
- CSU campus articulation officers
- California Faculty Association (CFA)
- California State Student Association (CSSA)
- CSU Emeritus and Retired Faculty & Staff Association (CSU-ERFSA)
- Academic Senate for the California Community Colleges
- Academic Senate of the University of California
- Intersegmental Committee of the Academic Senates Committee
The rationale of AS3666-24 summarizes how the newly agreed upon Cal-GETC pathway is intended to help facilitate transfer from California Community Colleges to the UC and CSU. The rationale asserts that the Cal-GETC pathway primarily supports students heading to the UC, while the CSU GE package is designed to meet the needs of our students.
The Sonoma State Academic Senate recently completed an overhaul of our GE package in 2019 and again in 2021 to meet changes to EO 1100. It supports SSU students completing a rich and comprehensive general education program. The SSU GE program is fully integrated throughout the years of a student's study here, including SSU graduation overlay requirements, opportunities to meet GE requirements through met-in-major coursework, and lower and upper division GE courses. Eliminating two lower division GE courses, including one course in area C Arts and Humanities and the area E Life-long Learning requirement, and changing the way overlays and upper division GE requirements mesh with other requirements will diminish the quality and breadth of a bachelor’s degree from SSU.
SSU faculty governance has expended enormous labor and resources remaking our General Education program twice in the past five years already. Through the hard work of SSU faculty, we have crafted a GE program that thoughtfully embodies the campus core values and mission as a liberal arts and sciences institution. It would be a shame to sacrifice our vision for a general education that best meets the needs of SSU students to a mandate to streamline transfer student admissions, especially one that has been designed for the UC more than CSU.
Modifying the curriculum is the prerogative of faculty, and the SSU Senate agrees with the ASCSU that there is no evidence that forcing the CSU GE breadth to match the Cal-GETC transfer requirements will meet our students’ needs. In fact, there is a high likelihood that the Cal-GETC pattern would be a disservice to SSU first time first year students who are first generation college students and/or were underserved in their K-12 education. These students benefit from the additional richness of CSU GE, with its strong emphasis on critical thinking, exposure to arts and humanities, and lifelong learning skills.