The Dean and President’s cabinet have implemented the new CSUN GE Alignment Plan in accordance with Executive Order 1100 – Revised (EO 1100-R) that will take effect in fall 2019 for all incoming freshmen.
Students will be required to take three units in Section B Upper Division Science plus one lab and maintain six units in Sections C through F. The possibilities are mapped out in the Alignment Plan where students can still take all six remaining upper division units in Section F. The plan will only affect upper division GEs.
Faculty Senate President Dr. Mary-Pat Stein said this new plan grants greater flexibility for students and no net loss in full-time equivalent students.
“Double counting will potentially reduce time to graduation and allow students to take courses for minors or second majors that they previously could not do,” Stein said. “Education from 1950 is different from education now. I think change is good.”
The plan will allow students who want to transfer to different CSUs to not lose any credits, as was the prior concern for transfers, said Stein. The plan will apply to transfer students until 2021.
Currently, enrolled students can switch to the new plan as it allows them to double count in any department now. Stein explains that not much will change as students will take one less GE but one extra class in another department.
However, Section E, Lifelong Learning, will lose some traffic as students can only take up to three units. Since GEs are meant for students to graduate and gain a broad sense of knowledge, Stein says she is not concerned about Section E because it is something students carry with them and can use throughout life.
As faculty maintained their stance to not participate in implementation, the administration met immediately after and chose an option. Stein expressed that the decision-making process created a divide between faculty and administration.
“I’m hoping that somehow the faculty will come back together,” she said.
She added that their decision in 2017 to not vote when EO 1100-R was issued affected the current stance of faculty to not implement EO 1100-R. She worries that this will set a precedent that the administration will go around the faculty and make the decisions.
Dr. Marcella De Veaux, a member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, clarifies that more changes in GE and “other curricular matters will come from the State and the Chancellor’s Office in the future as California revisions its public education system.”
“The best way our campus can prepare for this inevitable future is for us to have strong leadership in the areas of Academic Affairs, the Provost office and a continued active and engaged Faculty Senate,” De Veaux added.
De Veaux said that of the 44 to 20 vote to not implement EO 1100-R, some faculty did vote to participate on the realignment options, even the Interim Provost Theodoulou, a member of the Faculty Senate Executive committee, attended all meetings where the best options were discussed.
“In that, I believe faculty did have a voice in considering how the campus should move forward,” she wrote.
