May 15, 2025  
General Catalog 2025-2026 
    
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General Catalog 2025-2026

General Education

Overview

Developed by both faculty and students, the University’s General Education Program is an introduction to the breadth and depth of the dynamics of human experience. It provides students with a foundation in the liberal arts and sciences and prepares them for specialized study in a particular discipline or program.

The overall objective of General Education is to create a context wherein basic skills are developed and strengthened, scholarship and disciplined thinking emerge, awareness and reflection occur, and ultimately - the integration of knowledge begins.

In the 2025-2026 academic year, a revised General Education pattern was implemented per California Assembly Bill 928 (AB 298). The revised CSU GE Requirements follows the California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC). Cal-GETC is a response to AB 928 to establish a singular lower-division general education pathway that meets the academic requirements necessary for transfer admission from the California Community Colleges (CCC) to both UC and the California State University (CSU).

All freshmen and transfer students admitted to Fresno State for the first time in Fall 2018 and later are required to submit assignments and reflections to the G.E. Program ePortfolio as part of their G.E. requirements. Additional information about the specific requirements for freshmen and transfer students (which are different) can be found in a Canvas course and within the G.E. Program ePortfolio in which students are automatically enrolled. Students admitted prior to Fall 2018, even if they are readmitted after Fall 2018, are not required to complete a G.E. Program ePortfolio.

Foundation, Breadth, and Integration

The General Education Program is an integrated curriculum of courses organized into three groups:

Lower-Division

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

Purpose: An educated person must be able to read critically, communicate effectively, and think clearly.

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

  • Subject Area 3A - Arts
    Purpose: To develop an appreciation and understanding of and to stimulate imagination and creativity through study and participation in art, dance, music, and theatre.
  • Subject Area 3B - Humanities
    Purpose: Through the study of the humanities, to understand, appreciate, and analyze the meaning of our civilization, its cultural background, and the nature and role of language. To study the humanities from a variety of historical perspectives and cultures by analyzing individual works.
  • Subject Area 4 - Social and Behavioral Sciences
    Purpose: To understand and analyze the basic principles underlying human social behavior.
  • Subject Area 5A - Physical Science
    Purpose: To understand and actively explore fundamental principles in the Physical Sciences and the methods of developing and testing hypotheses used in the analysis of the physical universe.
  • Subject Area 5B - Biological Science
    Purpose: To understand basic concepts of living things, the nature of scientific knowledge, and the relevance of biological knowledge to human affairs.
  • Subject Area 5C - Physical or Biological Laboratory 
    Purpose: required lab component, may be embedded in Area 5A or 5B course, as long as a total of 7 units are met for lower-division Subject Area 5
  • Subject Area 6 - Ethnic Studies
    Purpose: Ethnic Studies is the interdisciplinary and comparative study of race and ethnicity with special focus on four historically defined racialized core groups: Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina and Latino Americans.

Upper-Division

INTEGRATION ties together the Program by providing an integrative experience at the upper-division level in three areas of breadth. All courses are upper-division.

Purpose: The Integration component of General Education is included to provide instruction at the upper division level that integrates material from each area.

Requirements

  • The General Education Program requires students to complete a minimum of 43 semester units.
  • Requirements must be met with courses of at least three semester units, excluding Area 5C - Laboratory which is met with at least one semester unit. This 1-unit requirement may be embedded in Area 5A or 5B course, as long as a total of 7 units are met for lower-division Subject Area 5
  • The requirements include: four courses in FOUNDATION, six courses and one lab in BREADTH, and three upper-division courses in INTEGRATION.
  • INTEGRATION courses should be taken no sooner than the term in which 60 units of college coursework are completed.
  • A minimum of 9 units of coursework for General Education must be taken in residence (see Residence Requirements) at California State University, Fresno.

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:

  • Foundation courses must be completed with a grade of C or better to satisfy the General Education requirement.
  • A maximum of two General Education courses from one department or program may be applied to satisfy Breadth requirements.
  • Subject Area 4 shall be completed in at least two different disciplines among the nine units required in Area 4, and Area UD 4.

Writing Requirements in General Education Courses

  • The university’s General Education Program requires that almost all courses in the program have substantial iterative writing assignments.
  • All Foundation courses except those in Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning (Area 2) and all Breadth courses will require iterative writing assignments totaling at least 1,000 words.
  • All upper-division courses (Areas UD 2/UD 5, UD 3, and UD 4) will require iterative writing assignments totaling at least 2,000 words.
Full List General Education 

While the revised General Education Program is presented here in terms of FOUNDATION, BREADTH, and INTEGRATION, it relates simply to the 1-6 format widely used throughout the state as indicated by the course prefixes in the table. The following list shows GE courses by areas.

FOUNDATION

Foundation - English Composition (Subject Area 1A)

Foundation - Critical Thinking (Subject Area 1B)

Foundation - Oral Communication (Subject Area 1C)

Foundation - Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning (Subject Area 2)

BREADTH

Breadth - Arts (Subject Area 3A)

Breadth - Humanities (Subject Area 3B)

Breadth - American History (Subject Area 4A)

Breadth - Social and Behavioral Sciences (Subject Area 4B)

Breadth - Physical Science (Subject Area 5A)

Breadth - Biological Science (Subject Area 5B)

Breadth - Ethnic Studies (Subject Area 6)

INTEGRATION

Integration - Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning/Physical and Biological Sciences (Subject Area UD 2 / UD 5)

Integration - Arts and Humanities (Subject Area UD 3)

Integration - Social and Behavioral Sciences (Subject Area UD 4)