The Associated Students Senate recently held a meeting to discuss Assembly Bill 928, convening last month in the Grand Salon at the University Student Union.
Assembly Bill 928, or the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, was established in 2021. The bill’s purpose is to ensure the University of California and California State University transfer pathway becomes the primary one for students in California. It ensures a reduction in the number of excess units, eliminates repetition in courses, and increases the number of transfer students.
More than 40% of CSU students are transfer students coming from California community colleges.
Assembly Bill 928 consolidates two existing general education pathways into one for the UC and CSU systems.
AS senator Matthew Kadach announced his report on Assembly Bill 928, in which he mentioned that changes are coming but did not elaborate further.
Kadach believes that the California General Education Transfer Curriculum is more beneficial to students because the CSU GE Breadth requires several changes in its curriculum.
The senate had many concerns regarding the additional unit for the science course. Senator Lorena Toledo Carranza believes four units is too much for a science course.
“It will be a lot of coursework for the student, more time in this class than needed,” Kadach said.
AS President Paige Hajiloo suggested that the reason the additional unit is being added to a science course is because a unit is being removed from section C, the group containing arts and humanities.
In CALGETC, Section C removes the additional unit from C1 and C2 on the current CSU GE Breadth certification plan as well as removing lifelong learning and self-development.
Hajiloo said it’s up to the chancellor’s office if it gets passed or not. According to Hajiloo, it is more beneficial for transfer students if it’s a universal, single pathway.
Hajiloo shared her personal experience of how a freshman seminar helped navigate her through college.
“I would have not made connections that, of course, opened so many doors for me for everything,” Hajiloo said.
This proposal has only been accepted for transfer students.
“It’s different when you are coming from a community college,” AS executive director Patrick Bailey said. “You know that school better, but not CSUN and its resources. It’s a good idea to keep the orientation course.”
The AS Senate can advocate for those five units to be used for a certain course if passed. The Board of Trustees has to approve it by May 2024.
The meeting concluded with heavy concerns on Assembly Bill 928, where the senate didn’t agree on the added unit for the science course.
AS Senate meetings are held every Monday at 9 a.m. at the Grand Salon.
