CSU board OKS new course requirements

Students must take either ethnic studies or social justice class

Students at California State University for the first time will be required to take a course in ethnic studies or a class with a social justice component under a policy approved by the system’s

Board of Trustees.

Last week, the trustees voted 13-5 to approve the new general education requirement for students who enter the 23-campus system beginning in 2023-24.

Students will be required to take either a class in one of four ethnic studies disciplines — Native American studies, African American studies, Asian American studies or Latinx studies — or a class in another discipline as long as the course has a social justice component. It will be up to each of the campuses to determine which courses meet the requirement.

The new requirement is opposed by several lawmakers and the California Faculty Association, who instead favor AB 1460, legislation that would impose a stricter ethnic studies requirement.

Under that law, students beginning with those entering the system in 2021-22 would be required to take a class in one of the four ethnic studies disciplines and couldn’t satisfy the requirement with a course outside of those disciplines.

AB 1460 was approved last month by the state Senate. The Assembly must now approve minor amendments before it is sent to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom. The Assembly can take up the bill after it reconvenes this week, and the legislation could be on Newsom’s desk within weeks.

If it is signed into law by Newsom, it would supersede CSU’S own requirement, according to the California Faculty Association, the union representing faculty across the system.

Several lawmakers and the faculty association say AB 1460 is a better proposal because it specifically requires students to take a class in ethnic studies, while the policy approved by the trustees does not do so.

CSU’S proposal passed despite a request from the five dissenting trustees to postpone the vote. Among those who supported

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