A Letter from Georjana Barnes, Chair, L&S Executive Committee:
This announcement is to inform you that the L&S Executive Committee has voted that, as of September 4, 2013 going forward, no new 2-unit courses will qualify for any Breadth Requirement. Furthermore, after Summer session 2015, no existing 2-unit course will qualify for any Breadth Requirement. The EC believes this two-year notice should provide a sufficient time for departments to make adjustments to any of their current 2-unit courses that currently satisfy a breadth requirement so that those courses will conform to the new policy. After Summer session 2015, only courses 3-units or more will qualify for consideration of satisfying any Breadth Requirement.
The rationale for this decision is based on the extensive research the EC has carried out over the past year and a half on the subject of "Breadth Education" at Cal and at our peer institutions across the country. As a result of this research, it is our view that a 2-unit course is not consonant with the Committee's expectations of rigor and depth in courses that expose students to an entirely new field, and to which those courses will be their only exposure.
In addition, this announcement is also sent to you to inform you of the new policy covering new courses submitted to the Academic Senate's Committee on Courses of Instruction (COCI). New courses will no longer automatically be reviewed by the EC for satisfying breadth in L&S. If a department would like a new course considered for satisfying breadth, that department must submit that request to the L&S Executive Committee directly and independently of submission to COCI. Eventually, the L&S system will be electronically linked to the Academic Senate COCI system, but until that time, departments must follow the following process.
The department will have to:
1) state which breadth requirement(s) might be satisfied and
2) provide a brief, one paragraph, explanation for the selection of a particular category or categories (a description of Breadth Categories is attached to this announcement).
These requests must be sent to the L&S Executive Committee's senior analyst, Ms. Dawn Strough. Finally, if your department submitted a new course to COCI in September, it was not automatically reviewed for breadth and, if it carries 3-units and above, and you would like it reviewed as a potential course qualifying for breadth, you must send this request to analyst Strough.