Approval of New Graduation Requirement: Minimum Grades for Area A of General Education

From: Manuel A. Esteban, President

Subject: Approval of New Graduation Requirement: Minimum Grades for Area A of General Education

MINIMUM GRADES FOR AREA A OF GENERAL EDUCATION

On the recommendation of the Academic Senate and the concurrence of Provost Scott McNall, I approve the following graduation requirement effective fall 2001.

It shall be a condition for graduation with a bachelor's degree that a student earn a minimum grade of C- for the courses satisfying Area A (Skills) of General Education (completed fall 2001 or thereafter): Oral Communication (sub-area A1), Written Composition (A2), Critical Thinking (A3), and Mathematics (A4). Students who earn below a C- in one of these courses are required to repeat the course as often as needed to earn a C- or better.

This policy continues EM 90-019 (Minimum Grade in General Education Mathematics) which established a minimum grade of C- for General Education Mathematics courses. This policy also continues EM 99-003 (Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement), which established a minimum grade of C- for English Composition (ENGL 001) as a prerequisite for enrollment in a Writing Proficiency course, which in turn is a condition for graduation. This policy establishes the graduation requirement of a minimum grade of C- for all Area A courses, including courses to satisfy Oral Communication (A1) and Critical Thinking (A3).

Note: CSU system policy specifies completion of 30 semester units of courses equivalent to General Education requirements with a grade of C or better as an admission requirement for transfer students. These 30 units must include all of the General Education requirements in English composition, oral communication, critical thinking, and mathematics. Many California community colleges and other transfer partner institutions do not assign minus and plus modifiers of grades. Some transfer partners that do assign minus and plus modifiers disregard the modifier in the calculation of grade point average and certification of General Education requirements. A C- for one or more courses is thus implicitly accepted as satisfying these requirements for transfer students, which is consistent with CSU, Chico policy defined in AA 77-5 (Effect of +, - Grade Modifiers). This policy declared C- in the + and - grading system implemented at CSU, Chico in 1977 as satisfying previously established minimum grade requirements of C for certain courses.