Changes being considered for General Education (GE) requirements could have serious consequences for CSU students and faculty whose teach GE courses. Efforts to change GE courses come amid less controversial changes to transfer requirements.

Passed in 2021, Assembly Bill 928, the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, created a single set of classes that act as a pathway to increase transfers from California Community Colleges (CCC), for both CSU and University of California. The California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC) was approved by all three higher education systems and is scheduled to go into effect for fall 2025. More than 40% of CSU students transfer from community colleges.

The proposed new Cal-GETC pathway would reduce GE in the CSU by 5 credits. The pathway does not include current CSU requirement Area E: Lifelong Learning and Self-Development. The arts and humanities and behavioral sciences requirements were also reduced from three courses to two courses. The proposal would put ethnic studies in a new separate area. Omitted or reduced areas could see course enrollment collapses and courses cancelled.

In a January 2024 Academic Senate resolution, the Statewide Academic Senate recommended against changing CSU General Education requirements. Incorporating Cal GETC for non-transfer students erodes the curriculum, important student learning, and faculty jobs. Moreover, another major disruption to GE will require faculty to rework learning outcomes once again to achieve administrative ideas that lack pedagogical grounding.

Join the CSU Academic Senate and the California Faculty Association in demanding that the only change the CSU Board of Trustees make at this time concerns transfer, avoiding possible changes to CSU GE Breadth until faculty-led consultation and data analysis have been carried out. In other words, the position calls for a process of faculty consultation and for a rigorous faculty led data analysis.