Rostrum article by Johnnie Terry was published in Fall 2010.
Whereas, Title 5 §55063, Minimum Requirements for the Associate Degree, outlines and defines four general education subject areas that each college must include for the associate degree;
Whereas, Many students attend more than one California community college, and the courses that are locally approved for a particular GE area vary among the California community colleges (i.e., comparable courses may be approved for different areas and/or a given college may approve a course for a GE area for which there is no comparable course at another college);
Whereas, Honoring the GE courses a student has completed from other colleges prevents a student from having to repeat a GE course and thereby accrue unnecessary units (e.g., a student completing British History at College A which fulfills a social science GE requirement for the local associate’s degree transfers to College B, and although College B does not teach British History the student is awarded social science GE credit for College B’s associate degree); and
Whereas, Local control of a college’s curricular offerings and of mechanisms for determining the GE applicability of courses is not violated when a college opts to honor the determinations made by another community college, particularly given the similar practice of “pass along” general education certification for CSU GE and IGETC;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges encourage colleges to honor general education courses from any California community college.
MSC Disposition: Local Senates