General Education

Lower Division

Upper Division

General Education Curriculum

Purpose

The Sonoma State General Education (GE) Program provides students an intentional, coherent, inclusive undergraduate experience across multiple disciplinary perspectives, fostering broad transferable skills and integrated, engaged learning that positions students to create and participate meaningfully and ethically in our interconnected and interdependent world.

Learning Outcomes

• Critical Reading: Actively analyze texts in a variety of forms, genres, and disciplines.
• Information Literacy: Iteratively formulate questions for research by gathering diverse types of information, identifying gaps, correlations and contradictions, and using sources ethically toward a creative, informed synthesis of ideas.
• Argument: Advance cogent and ethical arguments in a variety of genres with rigor and critical inquiry.
• Communication: Communicate clearly and eloquently in written, oral, and/or performative forms in a variety of genres and disciplines.
• Quantitative Reasoning: Interpret, evaluate, and employ quantitative analysis and arguments.
• Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Knowledge: Identify, interpret, and apply methods, intellectual approaches, and fundamental concepts from disciplines within the social sciences, natural and physical sciences, arts, and humanities.
• Integration: Synthesize and apply theoretical and practical perspectives from multiple disciplines to develop an understanding of complex issues.
• Diverse Cultural Competencies: Attain and apply knowledge of social power and difference in relations between self, other people, and social structures locally and nationally while honoring contributions of people of different identities.
• Civic Responsibility: Drawing on the past and present, develop knowledge and skills that promote active citizenship, with the capacity to deliberate, act, and lead in a democratic society.
• Sustainable Development: Explore past and present relationships among humans and between societies and environments and create new ways to cultivate a more secure and resilient future for all of our planet.
• Global Awareness: Develop knowledge of past and present political, economic, and cultural relations operating at international to global scale.
• Creative Problem Solving: Apply knowledge, skills, and multiple perspectives in new situations to analyze and formulate solutions to complex problems with confidence and creativity.
• Creative Expression: Produce new work through performance, design, construction, art, or creative writing that is characterized by innovation, divergent thinking, and intellectual risk taking.

Lower-division General Education

Lower-division GE consists of 34 units of introductory course work that promotes foundational learning and exploration. These courses are generally numbered 100-299 and are taken in the first two years of the college degree. These courses have minimal prerequisites and offer students an understanding of disciplinary ways of knowing. Transfer students are likely to meet these requirements prior to enrolling at Sonoma State. Students may double count lower-division GE courses as requirements or electives in the major, as the academic department allows.

Upper-division General Education

Upper-division GE consists of 9 units of course work distributed across three areas:  Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning OR Physical and Biological Sciences (3 units), Arts and Humanities (3 units), and Social and Behavioral Sciences (3 units). These courses are generally numbered 300-499 and are often taken in the last two years of the college degree. These courses have minimal prerequisites and offer students an integrative and deep understanding of a broad field of study. 

To take an upper-division GE course, students must have completed the Golden Four (English Composition, Critical Thinking, Oral Communication and Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning) with a C- or better, 45 units of college-level course work, and lower-division General Education in the same GE area as the course being taken. 

Transfer students are required to take upper-division GE as part of their degree. Students may double count upper-division GE courses as requirements or electives in the major, as the academic department allows.

Met-in-Major

Met-in-major courses are major courses that satisfy upper-division GE requirements. These courses are for majors only and do not appear in the list of approved GE courses. These courses may have prerequisites, and students must take all prerequisites to sign up for the courses. Students may only take three units of GE course work in one GE area as met-in-major. Met-in-major courses must be mapped to the GE learning outcomes and will be assessed using signature assignments with other GE courses.

General Education Catalog Year

Students who began their undergraduate degree prior to attendance at SSU may be eligible to complete the GE requirements at the time they began attending regular sessions at any California State University campus, at any California community college, or any combination of California community colleges and campuses of The California State University. Students may also complete the GE program in place at the time of graduation from SSU.

General Education Curriculum*

Area 1: English Communication (9 units)

Area 2: Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning (3-6 units)

Area 3: Arts and Humanities (9 units)

Area 4: Social and Behavioral Sciences (9 units ) in at least two disciplines

Area 5: Physical and Biological Sciences (7-10 units) 

Area 6:  Ethnic Studies (3 units)

*Courses that fulfill GE requirements are in a state of change. The course schedule each semester has the most accurate list of courses that fulfill these requirements.

**Some four unit 5A and 5B courses include the required lab activity.

Golden Four Requirements

The Golden Four include English Composition (Area 1A), Critical Thinking (Area 1B), Oral Communication (Area 1C), and Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning (lower-division Area 2). Students must take the Golden Four requirements in the first 60 units of the baccalaureate degree and obtain a grade of C- or better to complete the GE requirement for these courses. English Composition (Area 1A) and Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning (lower-division Area 2) must be completed in the first 30 units. Critical Thinking (Area 1B) and Oral Communication (Area 1C) must be completed within the first 60 units.

First-Year Learning Communities (FLCs)

FLCs are year-long integrative experiences for first-year students that support student success. They are available to all entering first-year students but are not required. Each FLC must meet at least two areas/subareas of general education and must offer transitional content that provides the academic skills, such as note-taking and time management, and college-level dispositions, such as healthy relationship-building and financial literacy, that students need to be successful in college. The transitional content is supported by peer mentors who assist faculty in and out of the classroom. FLCs will earn 6 units of general education credit and up to 2 units of elective credit.

Seawolf Studies Degree Requirements

Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR)

The Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) applies to baccalaureate students only, beginning with students with a catalog year of fall 2023. Please see the GWAR page on the Learning and Academic Resource Center (LARC) website for more information and a list of courses that will fulfill the GWAR requirement for your major.

American Institutions Requirement

American Institutions requirements are mandated by Title V of the California Code, covering three areas: American History, the U.S. Constitution, and State and Local Government. At Sonoma State, these requirements may be met through courses in general education, the major, or an elective. Transfer students may use course work taken at other institutions to meet these requirements.

Critical Race Studies

Critical Race Studies is an important part of the educational environment in the State of California and is a key requirement to gaining an understanding of American multicultural perspectives. At Sonoma State, this three-unit requirement must be met through a course in Area 6 of GE. Transfer students may use coursework taken at other institutions to meet this requirement or additional SSU course options depending upon catalog year. Please see an advisor for additional information.