Students perusing the Fall 2015 catalog will notice that four previously offered degrees have been eliminated.
These degrees were edited to “clarify what students were achieving with their curriculum investment,” said Nicki Shaw, former curriculum chair.
The degrees removed included liberal arts in social and behavioral sciences, business and technology, math and science, and a separate biological and physical sciences and mathematics degree.
“Students who started on these degrees in previous years will be able to complete them over the next few years,” said David Kary, Ph.D., curriculum co-chair.
Kary explained that as long as the students are continuously enrolled at Citrus, they retain “catalog rights” to the degrees that were in the catalog when they first arrived.
John Vaughan, curriculum co-chair, said that due to the generosity of “catalog rights”, the withdrawal of these degrees will have little impact on students pursuing these degrees.
These extraneous degrees were considered broad degrees that did not provide specific focus for those who needed to complete lower division major preparation. “The degrees in question were older degrees with no core curriculum pathway,” Shaw said.
The process of paring down the degrees took about 2 years, as part of the discussions in the accreditation committee, and in shared governance groups that had ASCC representation.
The curriculum committee had more months of discussion before submitting the changes to the State Chancellor’s office for approval.
Michelle Plug, articulation officer, said that no classes have been eliminated due to these changes.
These “monster degrees” were cleaned up and divided into more specific degrees as a way to make things easier for students when they transfer to major programs at their desired universities.
Some of the new programs offered are Associate of Science degrees in Pre Allied Health, Pre-Engineering and Physical Science and Associate Degree for Transfer in Art History, Studio Arts, and Spanish.
Also added was the Liberal Arts degree with an emphasis in Humanities.
Kary said that process of fine tuning the list of degrees offered at Citrus started in individual departments which eventually led to committees that led to the approval in a Board of Trustee meeting last year in the 2014-2015 academic year.
If student have anyone questions about both the eliminated and added degrees, they should contact the Counseling Department to set up an appointment with a counselor.
