At Cal Maritime, General Education (GE) is more than a CSU requirement; it’s the foundation of our campus’s approach to leadership, learning, and lifelong growth. Regardless of your major, at Cal Maritime students work to develop a set of habits and dispositions that prepare to thrive in unpredictable environments. That means learning how to adapt when conditions change, how to make decisions with incomplete information, how to reflect under pressure, and how to take responsibility - for yourself, your work, and your shipmates.
While every CSU campus provides a well-rounded education, Cal Maritime delivers something different. Here, General Education is hands-on, and interdisciplinary. Whether you’re majoring in Engineering, Marine Transportation, Oceanography, Business, or International Strategy and Security, you’ll engage with classmates from different majors in GE coursework that challenges you to:
Currently, Cal Maritime's General Education assessment targets five core outcomes, all of which align with our own Institution-Wide Learning Outcomes and emphasis on leadership development:
These outcomes reflect skills that are transferable across all majors, essential in maritime and non-maritime careers alike, and foundational to effective leadership in any context.
The California State University Maritime Academy follows the principles of general education for the California State University as outlined in the California State University Executive Order 1100: "CSU General Education Breadth requirements have been designed to complement the major program and electives completed by each baccalaureate candidate, to assure that graduates have made noteworthy progress toward becoming truly educated persons." The required unit loads and Area descriptions below are drawn from Executive Order 1100. Whenever possible, Cal Maritime subscribes to the breadth and depth requirements, but given the number of high-unit professional and licensure major degree programs, some exceptions may apply. Specific information on exceptions and curricular paths can be found in those catalog sections devoted to specific majors. Designated courses which satisfy each of the General Education Areas, and a list of courses offered each semester is these Areas, are available through the Registrar's Office.
Instruction approved to fulfill the following subject-area distribution requirements should recognize the contributions to knowledge and civilization that have been made by members of diverse cultural groups and by women as well as men.
One course in each Subarea.
A1 Oral Communication (3 semester units)
A2 Written Communication (3 semester units)
A3 Critical Thinking (3 semester units)
Area A requires 9 semester units in oral communication in the English language (A1), written communication in the English language (A2), and critical thinking (A3). Students taking courses in fulfillment of Subareas A1 and A2 will develop knowledge and understanding of the form, content, context and effectiveness of communication. Students will develop proficiency in oral and written communication in English, examining communication from the rhetorical perspective and practicing reasoning and advocacy, organization, and accuracy. Students will enhance their skills and abilities in the discovery, critical evaluation, and reporting of information, as well as reading, writing, and listening effectively. Coursework must include active participation and practice in both written communication and oral communication in English.
In critical thinking (Subarea A3) courses, students will understand logic and its relation to language; elementary inductive and deductive processes, including an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought; and the ability to distinguish matters of fact from issues of judgment or opinion. In A3 courses, students will develop the abilities to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas; to reason inductively and deductively; and to reach well-supported factual or judgmental conclusions.
One course each in Subareas B1, B2, and B4, plus laboratory activity (B3) related to one of the completed science courses, and 3 additional semester units (4 quarter units) at the upper-division in one of the following Subareas.
B1 Physical Science (3 semester units)
B2 Life Science (3 semester units)
B3 Laboratory Activity A laboratory course of not more than 1 semester unit value, associated with B1 or B2, may be required.
B4 Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning (3 semester units)
Area B requires 12 semester units to include inquiry into the physical universe and its life forms, with participation in a related laboratory activity that may be embedded in a lecture course or taught as a separate 1 semester (2 quarter) unit course, and into mathematical concepts and quantitative reasoning and their applications.
In Subareas B1-B3, students develop knowledge of scientific theories, concepts, and data about both living and non-living systems. Students will achieve an understanding and appreciation of scientific principles and the scientific method, as well as the potential limits of scientific endeavors and the value systems and ethics associated with human inquiry. The nature and extent of laboratory experience is to be determined by each campus through its established curricular procedures.
Through courses in Subarea B4 students shall demonstrate the abilities to reason quantitatively, practice computational skills, and explain and apply mathematical or quantitative reasoning concepts to solve problems. Courses in this Subarea shall include a prerequisite reflective only of skills and knowledge required in the course.
Satisfaction of CSU GE Area B4 Mathematics/Quantitative Reasoning fulfill CSU graduation requirements for mathematics/quantitative reasoning, exclusive of mathematics/quantitative reasoning courses necessary for satisfaction of major requirements
One lower-division course completed in each of these 2 Subareas, plus one lower-division course completed in either subarea based on student choice, and 3 additional semester units at the upper-division in one of the following Subareas.
C1 Arts: (e.g., Arts, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theater)
C2 Humanities: (e.g., Literature, Philosophy, Languages Other than English)
Area C requires 12 semester units among the arts, literature, philosophy and foreign languages.
Across the disciplines in Area C coursework, students will cultivate intellect, imagination, sensibility and sensitivity. Students will respond subjectively as well as objectively to aesthetic experiences and will develop an understanding of the integrity of both emotional and intellectual responses. Students will cultivate and refine their affective, cognitive, and physical faculties through studying works of the human imagination. Activities may include participation in individual aesthetic, creative experiences; however, Area C excludes courses that exclusively emphasize skills development.
In their intellectual and subjective considerations, students will develop a better understanding of the interrelationship between the self and the creative arts and of the humanities in a variety of cultures.
Six semester lower-division units and 3 additional semester units at the upper-division. Courses shall be completed in at least 2 different disciplines among the 9 required semester units.
Area D requires 9 semester units with human social, political and economic institutions and behavior, and their historical background. Courses shall be completed from at least two different disciplines among the 9 required semester units. One upper-division Area D course is required.
Students learn from courses in multiple Area D disciplines that human social, political and economic institutions and behavior are inextricably interwoven. Through fulfillment of the Area D requirement, students will develop an understanding of problems and issues from the respective disciplinary perspectives and will examine issues in their contemporary as well as historical settings and in a variety of cultural contexts. Students will explore the principles, methodologies, value systems and ethics employed in social scientific inquiry. Courses that emphasize skills development and professional preparation are excluded from Area D.
Area E requires 3 semester units of study at the lower-division, and campuses shall not exceed this unit requirement.
This requirement is designed to equip learners for lifelong understanding and development of themselves as integrated physiological, social, and psychological beings. Physical activity may be included, if it is an integral part of the study elements described herein.
Content may include topics such as student success strategies, human behavior, sexuality, nutrition, physical and mental health, stress management, information literacy, social relationships and relationships with the environment, as well as implications of death and dying or avenues for lifelong learning. Courses in this area shall focus on the development of skills, abilities and dispositions
This lower-division, 3 semester unit requirement fulfills Education Code Section 89032. The requirement to take a 3 semester unit course in Area F shall not be waived or substituted.
Course outcomes and competencies are as follows:
1. Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed in any one or more of the following: Native American Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Latina and Latino American Studies.
2. Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group-affirmation.
3. Critically analyze the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, tribal citizenship, sovereignty, language, and/or age in Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities.
4. Critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and/or Latina and Latino Americans are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics as, for example, in immigration, reparations, settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, language policies.
5. Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in Native American, African American, Asian American and/or Latina and Latino communities and a just and equitable society.
The Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR) requires that all CSU students “demonstrate competence in writing skills at the upper division level as a requirement for the baccalaureate degree." With the start of the fall term 2023, “students shall meet the GWAR requirement via a 3-semester unit, upper-division course as determined by the campus.” Students who are subject to the degree requirements of the 2023-24 or subsequent general catalogs and “who are undertaking a second baccalaureate degree will be deemed to have met the requirement if their first baccalaureate degree is from an institution of higher education accredited by a U.S. regional accreditor.”(CSU EO 0665 as revised 4/6/2023).
At Cal Maritime, all students who have satisfactorily completed both EGL 100 - English Composition, and EGL 220 – Critical Thinking and at least 60 units of academic coursework (“Junior” standing) may satisfy the requirement through either EGL 300 - Advanced Writing or EGL 302 – Nonfiction Writing. Oceanography students fulfill this requirement via a major-specific course called EGL 301 - Project-Based Writing for Science. Students in any GWAR-certifying course must pass with a C- or above to receive credit.
Please note that students should be matriculated at the CSU campus where they satisfy the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR), although “certification of graduation writing competence shall be transferable from one CSU campus to another” (EO 0665 as revised). Unless a student has previously met this requirement at another CSU campus before transferring to Cal Maritime, they must satisfy the GWAR at Cal Maritime.
All GWAR certifying courses are offered through the Department of Culture and Communication. Questions about these courses or GWAR certification may be addressed to the chair, Dr. Colin Dewey (cdewey@csum.edu).
In the summer of 2024, Cal Maritime Professor Amy Parsons and Associate Professor Sarah Senk were awarded a grant from the Teagle Foundation to fund the implementation of a new General Education program, “Proteus,” designed to integrate humanities-based inquiry within the technical and professional curriculum at Cal Maritime.
Proteus is an intentional pathway through your General Education (GE) courses at Cal Maritime. It lets you focus your GE classes around one of three areas: Maritime Culture, Environment & Sustainability, and Leadership and Global Citizenship - all while fulfilling graduation requirements you already have to take.
It takes no extra time and no extra classes; you’re just choosing to complete your GE requirements more intentionally, with a sense of purpose and direction.