Cal State East Bay Adding New Diversity, Social Justice and Sustainability Requirements
- April 28, 2016
When Cal State East Bay fully transitions from quarters to semesters in fall 2018, students will have an additional graduation requirement known as an “overlay.”
Overlays are local graduation prerequisites designated by the university. Currently, CSUEB students have one overlay requirement — successfully completing a course that qualifies as a “cultural groups and women” class.
Under the new requirement, students would have three overlays: diversity, social justice and sustainability.
Dr. Julie Glass, chair of the Instruction and Curriculum General Education subcommittee, said the three new overlays are in alignment with the university's learning outcomes. Similar to the cultural groups requirement, students will need to complete and pass one class per category. Glass added that she’s confident the new requirement will not create additional coursework for any programs since professors can apply for their existing classes to qualify as overlays.
“We expect that a lot of upper division GE (professors) will choose to apply for certification for one of these overlays … there are a lot of majors for whom many of the courses would naturally fit,” Glass said.
Earlier this year, Glass said the cultural groups subcommittee had been pushing to expand its requirement, and since semester conversion was in progress, the timing seemed right to further explore the idea of overlays. She added that committee members hope the overlays are interesting for students and professors alike.
“Things like diversity and social justice … these are core values that can be examined through a lot of disciplinary lenses,” she said.