With the ongoing economic troubles and the continuously rising tuition costs it is becoming increasingly important to students to graduate in four years. Now, with our university’s development of the 120 Unit Cap, it may become a little easier. 

For some majors, it may be easier to reach these goals once our SSU Academic Senate reaches an agreement regarding the 120 unit cap. This unit cap has been in the works for months now and our senate has recently made new strides in the efforts to finalize it. 

Our senate has called for the help of Dr. Mark Siegall of the business faculty at CSU Chico. Siegall has taught courses regarding communications, organization, and leadership, as well written articles about teaching, stress and motivation. He has also served on the Academic Senate with two terms as the senate chair as well as a term as the chair of the department of management.

 Siegall said right now there are “small clusters of programs here and there that don’t meet the 120 unit limit, but we may have exceptional reasons for not doing so.”  Soon, the senate will be finding out what programs are exceeding the unit cap, and then they will attempt to amend them. For now, Siegall says his job is “learning why some programs are having difficulties finding ways to reduce their unit loads, and to see if I can help them discover solutions.”

Chair of the Academic Senate Margaret Purser said, “Because some degree programs require more than 120 units, students are concerned that their CSU degree in fields like accounting, engineering, etc. would become less competitive if they included fewer units.” This lack of competition would put a waste to the time and effort these students produced to academically stand out.  

The senate hopes that with the help of Siegall, they will be able to modify our degree programs that do not meet the limits of this new initiative. This should answer the concerns of many students in degree programs like physics and applied physics, or kinesiology.

An article in the Washington Post was written about a statement President Obama made regarding funding for universities. Soon, a new rating system will be established for universities nationwide that will determine how much funding the schools will receive. 

One of the first factors that determine a university’s rating is their graduation rate. This is one of the reasons why this new unit cap is being developed, to promote our own graduation rate. 

Although, our graduation rate is not the only reason this cap is being developed. Mike Uhlenkamp, CSU Director of Public Affairs said “Some CSU programs have gone beyond what is really necessary” in regards to teaching the skills needed to graduate. Now students will not have to take classes that could be considered ‘unnecessary’ just to complete their degree program. 

Although this change may put an end to certain requirements, it is important to reiterate that this unit cap will not affect every degree program. 

“Some programs will still have a higher requirement of units” Uhlenkamp explained. This will guarantee that students will not have wasted there time with majors that require more time and effort.