The Academic Senate made a number of revisions to Cal State Long Beach’s general education courses, including limiting natural science laboratory requirements to only one physical or biological science lab, last Thursday.
The current GE policy was amended with a 75 percent majority vote.
According to members of the Senate, CSULB has one of the most complex general education systems in the country.
“It’s unfortunate that this had to happen since students should get a good general education, but at least they found a solution to graduate students,” said Nicole Ready, a senior biology major. “It’s almost impossible to get out of here in four years.”
Dagoberto Ramos, a junior chemical engineering major, said this decision seems very arbitrary.
“There are good and bad things which will come of this, but it’s good that students are going to be able to graduate in a timely manner now,” he said.
Associated Students Inc. President Lucy Nguyen read testimonials before the Senate from two students who could not be present. A testimonial from Jason Kness, an English major, learning assistant instructor and advocate for disabled students, was read to express his opinion of the impracticality of the current requirements.
According to Kness’ statement, he feels it’s a heavy burden for students whose studies are not science-focused and are forced to delay graduation when they could be working.
Many students, like Jaime Varela, were given two minutes on the floor by members of the Senate to voice their opinions on the issue. Some students nearly pleaded and advocated for all students who have to battle the enrollment and challenge of another lab.
Some members of the Senate were outraged by the majority decision and asked the council if they had realized the ramifications of what they were doing. Primarily, these were science department professors, who were advocating the existing policy.
In addition, members of the Senate in favor of keeping the current policy expressed the ramifications of making cuts to the sciences. A physics instructor spoke for more than two minutes about the necessity to educate students in science in areas like astronomy and physics.
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