ab1460向前发展, the Ethnic Studies GE Requirement

发送日期:2020年10月2日

发件人:文森特·J. 德尔·卡西诺., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

亲爱的同事们,

I hope this email finds you well and safe. I am writing today in regards to the passage of AB 1460, which mandates a new graduation 要求 in Ethnic Studies for all CSU undergraduate students who will graduate in 2024-2025. 这项法案对…有直接影响 标题5, the overarching law that governs the CSU, 和 Chancellor’s Office (CO) of the CSU must now get to work integrating AB 1460 into 标题5.

As many of you probably know, the CO had already passed a version of an Ethnic Studies and Social Justice 要求 this past July. With that new 要求, they amended 标题5 to include a new 通识教育 area for Ethnic Studies - Area F - and implemented a required reduction in lower division Area D (社会科学) from 9 单位至6个单位. These changes were a result, in part, of mandating a new graduation 要求 without adding units to the degree. AB 1460 narrows the scope of the Area F 要求 while also fitting into the broader categorical changes that were made.

The CO outlines this major change to 通识教育 on their 网站 并提供了一些答案 常见问题 (常见问题解答’s) that are now emerging as a result of AB 1460’s passage. 简而言之，在AB下 1460 the CO is to work in collaboration with the 民族研究委员会 和 Academic Senate of the California State University to define the core learning outcomes of this new 要求. 我怀疑这种情况会改变 may be made to these learning outcomes over time, but these are the 一个s that we have 现在.

No matter what position you may have taken on AB 1460 or the CO approach, this new law provides us an opportunity to have an important and engaged conversation about how best to integrate new Area F courses into our larger curriculum. 没有意义 in trying to hit the minimum bar here - let’s excel and take advantage of the amazing talent on campus to build not only an individual course 要求 but a robust set of programs that continues to leverage the intellectual power of Ethnic Studies pedagogies and rigorous practices to strengthen our community.

I am not writing as provost today to say, however, what the course 要求 should 是或应该如何交付. Course development and approval is the purview of 教师. But, I am writing as a colleague to suggest that we already have the mechanisms to make this work and work really well. 学术委员会将进行投票 on a policy change to add Area F to our 通识教育 program in a few weeks, 例如. The Senate 通识教育 Advisory Committee can “appoint ad hoc General 教育 Review Panels (GRP)” to evaluate “a specific curricular 要求 or set 的需求.” And, we have a strong group of Ethnic Studies departments, programs, and faculty across our colleges that can help guide the development of this new 要求. As we begin this conversation in our Senate and on our campus, therefore, we must recognize that this new 要求 impacts all of our undergraduate degree programs 虽然方式不同. For example, we have managed to maintain engineering 只有120个单位的度. 这 has been d一个 by granting some exceptions in 通识教育. AB 1460 impacts those programs and thus those faculty need to be involved in the broader conversation.

AB 1460 does not just impact the work of 教师 和 curricular process. It also impacts the everyday work of the administration, which must figure out how to not only fund and offer this new 要求 but how to manage the long-term budgetary 这些变化的含义. There is much work to be d一个 in a short amount of time. And, there are lots of conversations to be had. 我们需要为 conversation even as we discuss some of the first courses that will meet this new 要求. After all, maybe this is a chance to demonstrate that 通识教育 can be a site of an innovative curricular redesign that works past “the discipline” and toward the epistemic challenges brought by Ethnic Studies pedagogies and philosophies? Maybe this is an opportunity to present every single student with a “high impact” engaged learning experience that is rooted in the practices of Ethnic Studies? 这 要求, which has been developed through a legislative process, does not foreclose our own creative and critical thinking about 通识教育.

I am personally excited about what this campus can and will do in this space. 这 is an amazing opportunity, even with some of its challenges, to think “broader.”

还有更多的事情要做.

真诚地,
文