After identifying problems with Sonoma State University’s General Education (GE) program, in fall 2017, Sonoma State has created a General Education Revision Subcommittee to work on a “campus wide process of revising GE.” Many say that a well-planned GE program is the key to succeeding in the future after college.   It is important to find courses that best suits an individual’s current interests and how certain courses will shape their future.

The two standing committees in charge of making the GE changes are the Educational Policies Committee (EPC), chaired by Jenn Lillig and EPC’s GE Subcommittee, chaired by Heather Smith.  Suzanne Rivoire, Associate Professor and Chair of Department of Computer Science gave some insight as to why the GE pattern needs changes saying, “There are two reasons. One is a CSU systemwide executive order that was signed last August…the idea is to make sure that GE transfers go smoothly across the CSU system.  Our current GE pattern is out of compliance with those requirements, so we have to change it.” These changes were supposed to be final by this school year, but Sonoma State got a 1-year extension to finalize those changes by the 2019-2020 year.  

Rivoire goes on saying that the GE Program Review “identified weaknesses in the coherence of our GE program; how students perceive it; assessment and clarity of requirements.”

Good news for students is that Sonoma State does not change the GE requirements on students once they’ve enrolled.  This year’s freshman are the first group that will be working with the changes.  Many of the changes center around Area A of the GE pattern. The pattern is now down to 48 units temporarily by cutting out Area D, which is social sciences.

“We are trying very hard to create a program that works for both 4-year and transfer students without standing in the way of graduation. We are doing our best to make sure that it doesn’t get in the way of high-unit and highly structured majors whenever possible,” Rivera said. “We’re trying not to impose too many additional requirements, but instead to allow opportunities for students and departments who want a little more customization or integration across GE.”

The next formal GE pattern program review will be in 5 years, and GE revision can be very hard to pull off.

In spring 2018, the Provost’s Office and Educational Policies Committee formed the GE revision subcommittee to help envision a new model for the GE program.  As said on Sonoma State’s website, “It is essential that subcommittee members be able to separate themselves from what they may consider personal, developmental, or school-based stakes in GE, in order to think creatively about how best to re-imagine our campus GE program while preserving our best practices.”

Some of the goals that the General Education Revision Subcommittee  (GERS) had for changing to GE courses were to, “create a meaningful program of general education with clear differences between lower- and upper-division GE, to improve student access to courses, removing roadblocks to getting into GE courses, distinguish between GE and major courses, build in assessment of GE learning outcomes, and support faculty learning communities around general education themes, pedagogies, and assessment without creating an undue burden on faculty.” 

The goal of the GERS is to have the departments prepare new and revised courses for curricular approval in spring 2019 and in fall 2019 have it debut.

As of Aug. 7, Sonoma State has a “tentative plan” for a new GE program, but they are still working out the details of it all. Changing the GE program around and improving it will make a huge difference not only for Sonoma State University, but for all CSU’s.

Izack Romero, a senior transfer student, says “Getting through the GE pattern is a difficult task and being a transfer student does not help.  There are some classes that do not transfer and others that are not available at the junior college’s that set you back even longer.” For students like Romero, making the GE pattern not only more convenient for transfer students to complete, but organizing it to where more students will be able to complete each unit needed for the GE pattern, will make it much easier to graduate on time.