Juniors and seniors will be able to switch to the new 2012 general education policy that removed one laboratory science requirement, among other changes.
The Academic Senate passed the GE policy on Jan. 26.
The new policy will apply to all current freshmen and sophomores, as well as incoming freshmen and transfers who arrive in fall 2012.
Upperclassmen may request to change to the 2012 policy if they decide that it’s better than their current general education path.
If a senior has 90 units or more, has not applied for graduation and wishes to switch GE paths, they would have to talk to their academic adviser, according to Keith Freesemann, chair of the GE governing committee.
Enrollment Services conducted adata analysis to see if juniors could be transferred to the new system without affecting their degree progress.
The students who may benefit from the GE path will receive an email from Enrollment Services with instructions to switch over.
Those who do not benefit will not receive an email.
Lynn Mahoney, associate vice president for undergraduate studies, recommends students run a “what if” progress report for their academic requirements to see how the changes may affect their remaining GE requirements.
The change in policy will also add science classes that do not have a lab requirement attached to them.
According to Freesemann, there are some science classes, formerly in the B3 category, that do not have a lab and are being moved to the life and physical sciences category.
“We should see in the next few years a growing number of science courses that can be taken without a lab,” Mahoney said.
Under the new policy, students will also be required to take a writing intensive capstone as one of their three required capstone classes. These writing intensive capstones would require students to write 5,000 words over the course of the semester.
The GE policy change will also allow departments to develop capstones specifically for their major and then get it approved as a GE course.
There are also changes to category D, social sciences and citizenship. The category currently requires 12 units.
The new policy changes the requirement to nine units: three units in Citizenship – U.S. History, three units in Constitution and American Ideals and three units in Social Sciences.
“We feel that it’s a better plan – it has greater flexibility in it, more opportunities,” Freesemann said.
Instructions about the changes in the fall will be sent to students via email from Enrollment Services.