All courses requesting GE credit under our new GE program must be approved under area and subarea specifications. In Spring 2019, faculty completed development of  content area criteria for all area distributions A-E.  The GE Subcommittee is currently reviewing revision and new course proposals in these areas.  See below for additional timeline details for recertification of “old format” courses and the teachout plan for students pre-Fall 2019.

New GE Implementation

All courses requesting GE credit under our new GE program must be approved under area and subarea specifications. In 2018-2019, faculty developed content area criteria and approved courses for area A1, A2, B4, E, and upper division B.

We will continue to accept course proposals in these areas and plan to continue to develop criteria and begin the approval processes for the remaining A-E distribution areas and first-year learning communities. See the table below for more information on when content area criteria will be developed and courses approved:

*After course approval, the semester for the first offering of the course will be determined based on the approval time with respect to semester scheduling requirements. 

Teachout Plan

You may continue teaching a GE course as is until classes from the distribution area for your course are called for approval. At this time EPC has approved the transition of all courses to 3-units unless they have already been approved with a unit exception or have received approval from the GE Subcommittee to continue until the course unit exception is considered.

After approval of new courses in a distribution area begins “old format” GE course offerings will be phased out. Phase out will depend on student-need, for students both under the original GE program and  2018-2020 GE programs.

Offering of “old format” A, B, and E courses is expected to be ended by Summer 2021.  Offering of “old format” C and D courses is expected to be ended by Summer 2022.  At that time, any remaining students unable to meet their catalog requirements with courses in the new GE program will be supported by course substitutions or waivers on a case-by-case basis. “Old format” courses that have not been approved to be taught in the new GE program will be removed from the GE curriculum, although not necessarily from the SSU catalog.

In addition, since subarea C3 and all subareas of lower division D have been discontinued under the new GE structure resulting from EO 1100, students that matriculated to SSU prior to Fall 2019 may now meet these subarea requirements in the following ways (also indicated on student ARRs):

1. Area C3 can be met with any additional C1 or C2 course.  Students that started at SSU prior to Fall 2019 AND have 12 or more units in Area C  should contact Luisa Grossi or Angeles Hernandez to have any remaining red squares for subarea C3 removed.
2. Areas D1, D2, and D5 may each be met with any lower division area D course.  Students must still reach 15 units in Area D total, as required by all pre2019 GE programs.  Students that started at SSU prior to Fall 2019 AND have 15 or more units in Area D  should contact Luisa Grossi or Angeles Hernandez to have any remaining red squares for subareas D1, D2, or D5 removed.

A GE Implementation Team meets regularly to address student roadblocks arising from transitioning of our GE programs.  Examples of roadblocks include mapping of current GE courses to discontinued GE areas, addressing advising issues, facilitating scheduling of GE courses during the transition,,and revising the implementation plan to address student and faculty needs.  Members of the team are listed below.  Please email the team with any questions or concerns to be addressed.

• Dennis Goss (University Scheduler)
• Katie Musick (Degree Audit and Catalog Analyst)
• Megan McIntyre (Chair, GE Subcommittee)
• Emily Asencio (Chair, EPC)
• Luisa Grossi (Articulations Officer)
• Veronica Lopez Gonzalez (Administrative Analyst)
• Kari Manwiller (Catalog and Curriculum Analyst)
• Michael Balasek (Director of the Advising Center)
• Giovanni Mejia (Data Analyst)
• Kaitlyn Springmier (Chair of University Studies)
• Jenn Lillig (Interim Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies)
• Stacey Bosick (Interim AVP of Academic Programs and Dean of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies)

Program Changes in Response to GE Reform

Departments with majors or minors with course or unit requirements impacted by changes in GE courses should contact Jennifer Lillig in Academic Programs and Emily Asenscio, Chair of EPC, to ensure that program revisions can be made in a manner that results in minimal impacts to students during the transition.