Electives

Free Electives

A free elective is a course chosen solely by the student with no curricular restrictions.
All baccalaureate curricula will contain a minimum of 8 units of free electives. Programs proposing to reduce the number of required free electives below 8 units are required to provide justification. One such justification is to reduce the total units required in the program.

Source: Academic Senate Resolution AS-609-04/CC (PDF). This resolution supersedes the earlier resolution (AS-234-87/CC (PDF)) which required that all baccalaureate curricula contain a minimum of 9 units of free electives.

A restricted elective is one chosen from a list prepared by the major department.

are a coherent course of study which is relevant to but not necessarily within the student's major discipline;
allow students to design a section of their curriculum, tailoring it to their specific career goals and interests;
may include transfer and/or change of major units;
are not a formally structured set of courses and, as such, there is no title assigned that would appear on the student's transcript.

Sources:

Academic Senate Resolution: AS-609-04/CC "Resolution on Free Electives" (PDF). Adopted: 10 February 2004.

Academic Senate Resolution: AS-234-87/CC "Resolution on Free Electives" (PDF) Adopted: 13 January 1987.

Last updated: 7/11/2023