UC, Cal State Standardize College-Prep Courses

California’s two public university systems have approved a plan to standardize college-prep courses required for all incoming freshmen, making it simpler for high school students to stay on track for college.

California State University trustees gave the plan final approval Wednesday, six months after it was adopted by the University of California regents.

“This is a consistent message for the first time about what it takes to be adequately prepared in a public university in California,” said Donald R. Gerth, president of Cal State Sacramento.

The two public university systems have maintained different course requirements for more than a decade, forcing students to take extra courses to meet both admission standards.

Under the new standardized requirements, students will have to complete four years of English, three years of math, two years of social science, two years of laboratory science, two years of foreign language, one year of visual or performing arts and one year of electives.

The new requirements do not phase in until 2003, when this year’s crop of high school freshmen apply to either university system.

“Both systems are doing what they should have done years ago. With one set of guidelines, we don’t have to have studentspreparing for one system and not the other,” said TomasHernandez, a guidance counselor at Valley High School in Santa Ana.

In an unrelated action, the Cal State Board of Trustees on Wednesday awarded raises averaging 12% to system Chancellor Charles B. Reed and presidents of its 22 campuses. Their yearly salaries now range from $162,012 for Maritime Academy President Jerry A. Aspland to $285,360 for Reed.