Cal Poly GE Mission Statement

Adopted by the General Education Governance Board on April 7, 2021.

The General Education (GE) program is one of the primary means for realizing Cal Poly’s vision of a comprehensive polytechnic education. GE integrates all disciplines in a program of liberal education accessible to all Cal Poly students. GE complements the major and promotes an understanding and appreciation of the foundational disciplines that ground all intellectual inquiry. The program affords students the opportunity to contextualize the knowledge from their major programs by presenting relevant scientific, humanistic, artistic, and technological perspectives. Because Cal Poly students declare their major upon matriculation, their experience of GE develops side-by-side with the major. Through the university’s distinctive commitment to Learn by Doing, GE imparts transferable skills, nurtures creativity, fosters critical thinking and ethical decision-making, supports integrative learning, and prepares students for civic engagement and leadership. In GE, students work inclusively with peers from diverse intellectual, disciplinary, and social backgrounds. Cal Poly’s GE program also provides an opportunity for students to develop intellectual humility, an interdisciplinary mindset, and lifelong habits of mind.