The Cerritos College Board of Trustees is set to approve changes to the college’s general education for its associate degrees that will add ethnic studies requirements – as well as additions from the Faculty Senate for American institutions, physical activities and self-development. These changes should take effect in the fall, 2025 semester.
The new ethnic studies requirements are being sent from the state and were already added to associate-for-transfer degree requirements, but weren’t originally applied to associate degrees themselves.
In the backdrop of these state-mandated changes, the Faculty Senate’s local additions to the general education requirements have stirred a debate between them and their curriculum committee over how many units students should have to take as part of their general education.
“Making the additional recommendations has an impact on Cerritos College students,” Steven La Vigne, the chairperson of the Faculty Senate curriculum committee and Student Accessibility Services counselor, argued.
La Vigne explained that the state-mandated minimum general education requirements only total 21 required units, but the proposed additions by the Faculty Senate and extra units will make it so students working on an associate degree have to complete 30 units.
Both the American institutions and self-development requirements count for three units each. Physical activities accounts for one unit – English and math classes tend to have an extra unit so they account for two more units.
These extra required units can take elective spots so students taking majors that require high units will have to take more than the 60-unit baseline needed for an associate degree – this would still be the case for some majors even if the requirements aren’t raised.
“When we add more units to a local (associate degree), we could create potential barriers that affect students – every unit we add to the local (associate degree) affects high-unit majors,” La Vigne said.
He also noted how students often change their majors and that academic counselors use open elective slots to try and make the classes a student has already taken fit in – not a single academic counselor voted for the Faculty Senate’s additions.
The vote for the changes took place in the Faculty Senate meeting on Nov. 19, 2024 – 16 senators voted in favor of the changes, nine voted against them and one abstained.
Terrance Mullins, the Faculty Senate president and a political science professor, highlighted a few of the reasons why the Faculty Senate decided to make the changes.
He said that, until recently, the college had requirements for the classes that they recommended to be added, but the curriculum committee thought that it would help make space for general education classes if the extra requirements not mandated by the state were removed.
“… ‘let’s make it easier on the workload for the students – let’s only require what is required.’ And there’s this idea of ‘Philosophically what do we want the degree to be worth when they leave,’” Mullins added.
He also mentioned that, given the content of what’s in ethnic studies, knowing American history or government is important to give the context of the courses.
They made some steps to work out the high-unit major issues by creating an exemption for majors with 36 or more units – They only have to take American institutions as an extra required class instead of the whole set.
“This will have an impact, we don’t know the extent of the impact – to mitigate that impact, that’s why there was this idea that if it’s a high-(unit) degree, then they’re exempt,” Mullins said.
Importantly, he noted that of the roughly 20,000 students at Cerritos College, only about 500 are working on an associate degree. However, he also said that not everyone working on an associate degree is specifically on an associate plan.
Mullins also clarified that the Board of Trustees is legally obligated to abide by the Faculty Senate’s recommendations as a result of the 10+1 rules that state the Faculty Senate has authority over issues relating to academic and professional matters one through four.
Both Mullins and La Vigne mentioned how impactful history professor Walter Fernandez’s statement delivered via economics professor Solomon Namala was before the vote during the Faculty Senate meeting – some counselors also made passionate statements.
Fernandez’s statement stressed how important American history is for college students to learn as there is a lot of ignorance of the country’s political system and history.
These changes could affect the college’s funding, degree awarding and goals. La Vigne called on how the number of degrees the college awards affects the amount of funds it receives from the state.
He added that these changes could decrease the number of degrees the college awards as students could be less likely to be auto-awarded degrees when they apply for a degree as the different requirements might not line up.
This would also play into the college’s goal of graduating 50% of its students within 5 years as outlined in the Students First Framework.
“Yes it is true that it might disrupt the Students First Framework, but our first focus is the value of the degree…,” Mullins said.
La Vigne presented the changes to the Associated Students of Cerritos College during their Senate meeting on Jan. 22.
One of the senators asked La Vigne about who would be affected by the changes, specifically highlighting existing students. La Vigne said existing students would be grandfathered in and not be subject to the new requirements, but new students starting next semester will be affected.
Fatima Oregon, the ASCC vice president, said, “I think it’s important to consider a stance on it by thinking about the fact that this is gonna be affecting future students – even though it’s not affecting us (existing students) directly, we have an impact with our voice to say something about it.”
La Vigne also stated his intentions to give a public comment on the curriculum committee’s stance on the changes when they’re brought to the Cerritos College Board of Trustees meeting.
