Liberal Studies Celebrates 50 Years at Cal Poly
By Inaya Kajani
The Liberal Studies major at Cal Poly celebrates five decades this year after being created in 1973 as part of the former School of Human Development and Education.
Its ties to mathematics and science date back to the start of the major, with the first coordinator of Liberal Studies, Allen Miller, coming from the Mathematics Department.
Liberal Studies as a major in California has its roots in the progressive education movement that emerged in the early 20th century. This movement was concerned with creating a more student-centered approach to education that emphasized critical thinking, problem solving, and interdisciplinary learning.
The establishment of the Liberal Studies degree is a provision in the Ryan Act of 1970, and the California State University campuses began offering Liberal Studies programs to prepare students for teaching careers.
The next coordinator of Liberal Studies was John Connely, taking over in 1977, followed by Margaret Glaser in 1981. Around 1992, Liberal Studies moved to the College of Liberal Arts, with Robert Cichowski becoming the new coordinator of the program. At that time, Liberal Studies was the largest major in the College of Liberal Arts, but it still was not its own department yet.
After about four years of being in the new college, Liberal Studies became a department, giving it more status as a major. This is when the first courses with the LS prefix were started. The two at the time were LS 101, “Orientation to Liberal Studies,” and LS 461/462 “Senior Project.”
In 2003, Susan Duffy took over as department chair and over the next few years, more courses were added to the major such as LS 230, “Community Based Field Experience” and LS 270 “Intro to Visual and Performing Art Standards in the Elementary Classroom.” SB 2042 (2003) defines the standards of program quality and effectiveness for elementary subject matter programs and seven domains that the major covers.
Liberal Studies moved to the College of Science and Mathematics in 2009, when current department chair Lola Berber-Jimenez took over. Over the years the major has continued to grow, adding many classes and concentration options for students to choose from aligned to authorizations or pre-requisites to post-baccalaureate programs.
In the summer of 2021, Assembly Bill 130 was signed into law which allows prospective teachers to satisfy the California Credential Commission Subject Matter Competency requirement for their teaching credential with their Bachelor of Science degree.
In the past, the only way to satisfy this requirement was to pass the California Subject Examinations for Teachers (CSET), however this new law allows Liberal Studies students to satisfy the requirement through the coursework in their Liberal Studies classes. This dramatically affects Liberal Studies students' timely entrance into the teaching profession. The evolution of the Liberal Studies major has contributed to making it a well-rounded program that prepares students to go into the field of teaching.
