Citrus College students planning to transfer to a California State University must take a new general education requirement as of last fall.
Starting in the fall 2021 semester, college students in pursuit of a degree from the California State University system need to complete at least one three-unit course from the new Ethnic Studies discipline.
Students who began studies at Citrus College before the fall 2021 semester are not required to take an ethnic studies course.
The Ethnic Studies discipline becomes Area F on the California State University General Education Pattern, otherwise known as the CSUGE.
This area of the transfer sheet is satisfied by two courses offered at Citrus College. Introduction to Ethnic Studies (ETHN 101) and Introduction to Chicano/Latino Studies (ETHN 116) were each introduced in the fall 2011 semester. A decade later, either three-unit course will fulfill the new Ethnic Studies discipline.
Citrus College’s Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dana Hester oversees each ethnic studies course and said she is trying to add more offerings of ETHN 101 and 116 in the coming semesters.
Hester said when the ethnic studies courses were only one course offered to satisfy Area D on the CSUGE, there was less interest than when it became its own discipline.
The new emphasis on the courses has led to more offerings of the classes on the summer and fall schedules with the expectation they will fill, Hester said.
The ethnic studies courses at Citrus College are taught by adjunct faculty. In the next couple of years there could be a full-time faculty member for ethnic studies, Hester said.
Superintendent/President Greg Schulz said adding a full-time ethnic studies professor is a possibility in the future and would benefit the program as whole.
“I believe we will have, some day, a full-time position in ethnic studies,” Schulz said. “And if we were able to hire said position, I think that we will find there is a lot of interest in those classes.”
Although only two courses satisfy the Ethnic Studies discipline requirement on the CSUGE, a variety of other courses that have been outlined by the statewide Academic Senate that could be developed on the community college level, Hester said.
Schulz said he is open to the expansion of the Ethnic Studies program and sees it as an area of interest for students.
“I look forward to, with the (Social and Behavioral Sciences) department, strategically growing the set of (ethnic studies) course offerings,” Schulz said. “And I think if we did that, I think we have learned that the classes would be popular.”
