General Education

Undergraduate students should consult the California State University, Fresno Catalog under which they matriculated for their specific General Education requirements.

The General Education Program which took effect Fall 1999 is an integrated curriculum of courses organized into four groups:

Foundation, the basic foundation of one's university education, consists of courses in fundamental skills and knowledge.

Breadth exposes students to a variety of disciplines within a structured framework that develops knowledge in four basic areas of human endeavor.

Integration ties the Program together by providing an integrative experience at the upperdivision level in three of the four areas of breadth.

Multicultural/International completes the General Education Program with an upper-division experience as preparation for an international, multicultural world.

Requirements

The General Education Program requires students to complete a minimum of 51 semester units. All requirements must be met with courses of at least 3 semester units. The requirements include: four courses in Foundation, nine courses in Breadth, and four upper-division courses - three Integration courses and one Multicultural/ International course. These four upper-division courses must be taken no sooner than the term in which 60 units of college course work are completed. A minimum of 9 units of course work for General Education must be taken in residence at California State University, Fresno (See the Degree Requirements Checklist).

Because the goal of General Education is to provide a solid foundation with a broad scope and the goal of the major is to provide depth in a specific discipline or program, the following stipulations apply:

1. The Foundation courses must be completed with a grade of "C" or better to satisfy the General Education requirement.
2. A maximum of two General Education courses from one department or program may be applied to satisfy Breadth, Integration, and Multicultural/International requirements. (However, a department or program may prohibit any General Education course from simultaneously satisfying its own departmental or programmatic requirements.) Integration and Multicultural/International courses must be taken outside the department of the student's major.