Please open and fill out a UCSD Student Petition Form ( fillable format) with your request and obtain/download a detailed syllabus with weekly academic readings and authors' names and weekly assignments in a PDF format. You can then upload both documents into the Department of Ethnic Studies via our ONLINE PETITION SUBMISSION WEBSITE. It is the students' responsibility to secure a detailed syllabus as evidenxe for their Student Petition.

As metioned above, Student Petitions will not be reviewed during certain times of the year due to university holidays or breaks. Petitions will not be reviewed between July 1st, and October 1st. 2026.

• ​During the Summer the Student Petition Review process will be on hiatus and will resume Week 3 of Fall Quarter.
• In December, there will be a break in reviewing Student Petitions. Once Winter Break has concluded petition review will resume Week 3 of Winter Quarter.
• In March, there will be a break in reviewing Student Petitions. Once Spring Break has concluded petition review will resume Week 3 of Spring Quarter.Any petitions submitted after June 30, will begin to be reviewed after Week 3 of Fall 2026. 

REQUEST:

To review and approve ETST 002 (title of course) from UC Riverside as a lower-division Ethnic Studies elective and to meet the DEI requirement. 

REASON for REQUEST:

To use ETST 002 as a lower-division elective for my Ethnic Studies minor and/or complete my DEI requirement. 

REQUEST:

To review and approve EDS 117 Language, Culture, and Education at UCSD as an upper-division Ethnic Studies elective.

REASON for REQUEST:

To use EDS 117 for the upper-division for my Ethnic Studies Double Major. 

DEI Courses and Petitioning DEI from other institutions

Although our ETHN courses are about diversity, equity and inclusion, not all of them are on the DEI list. Only the specific courses on the DEI list are applicable: dei-list-of-courses.pdf (ucsd.edu).

If you are taking an ETHN course that is not on the DEI list it cannot be added to the DEI list. The Academic Senate will not approve petitions for the UC San Diego courses that are not already on the DEI list.

If you took a course at another college or university, you can petition the course by providing a robust syllabus with the readings/authors and assignment and submit a Student Petition. Scroll up to the top of this webpage and carefully follow the instructions for submitting a Student Petition. 

Overlapping or sharing of courses 

Ethnic Studies allows students to overlap 2 upper-division courses between an Ethnic Studies major another major or a minor. The Ethnic Studies major must have 40 upper-division units exclusively dedicated to the major. 

The student is responsible for confirming if the other department or program accepts 1 or 2 overlaps. Our practices reflect the UCSD policys on the How Upper Division Courses may Overlap (Undergraduates) webpage. Regarding college GEs, this is a decision made by the college, but typically courses for an Ethnic Studies minor or a second major are permitted to meet those GE. It is important to confirm this with your college Advisor via VAC (Virtual Advising Center).  

Remote Courses Residency Regulations

Effective Fall 2025, campuswide graduation requirements state that students may not complete 51 percent or more of the total units earned at UC San Diego through courses that are designated as distance education (e.g., R-courses). 

• Maximum of 49% of UCSD units may be taken remotely (R courses) 

Graduation Goals

Your goal is to complete all the GEs from your college, all the requirements for your major with passing grades. To earn your degree from UCSD you must complete a minimum of 180 units. An Ethnic Studies major has a goal of earning  52 units when combining lower-divison and upper-division core and elective courses. UCSD requires a inimum GPA of 2.0 and for you to take university required courses such as Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), American History & Institutions (AHI), and Jane Teranes Climate Change Education Requirement (JTCCER). See the Undergraduate Degree Requirements for course options for DEI, AHI and JTCCER university requirements. They must be completed to earn an Undergraduate degree from UCSD.

Pass/No Pass (P/NP) Grade Option for Spring 2020 Courses ONLY 

Typically, except for independent study course electives (ETHN 197, 198, or 199) which are always taken with a Pass/Not Pass grade option, undergraduate students majoring in Ethnic Studies have the option to take up to two courses as Pass/Not Pass. Ethnic Studies minors have the option to take one course as Pass/Not Pass.

For Spring Quarter 2020 Ethnic Studies is waiving this limit and any courses taken P/NP during this period will not count toward the above limits for majors or minors. In addition, UC San Diego has deemed that any course taken P/NP in Spring 2020 will not count towards the 25% cap on P/NP courses for the Bachelor’s degree. Students must still select the P/NP option via WebReg and may change their selection of P/NP or Letter Grade through the end of Week 10 (6/5/2020).

Official deadline dates are on this UC San Diego webpage: https://blink.ucsd.edu/instructors/courses/enrollment/calendars/2019.html

Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) Grade Option for Spring 2020 Courses ONLY 

For Spring Quarter 2020 graduate students in the Ethnic Studies Ph.D. program may select to take their courses with the S/U grading option instead of the standard Letter Grade. 

UC San Diego Catalog

Please refer to the UCSD Catalog and Ethnic Studies the area for specific guidelines. Such as:

• To satisfy the requirements for the major, lower- and upper-division courses must be completed with a P, C–, or better grade.
• You can overlap lower-division requirements for other majors, and typically up to two upper-division courses can overlap for a minor or double major.

Wait List Policy and Procedures

Automated Wait Lists

When courses are full and have reached capacity a student can opt to add themself to the waitlist. Waitlist does not guarantee enrollment. You are essentially waiting for a vacancy in the section or course to become availalble.

Waitlists at UC San Diego are automated. When a seat in a course becomes available because an enrolled student has decided to drop, the first eligible student on the waitlist will be automatically enrolled. UCSD establishes an end date for the waitlist and it typically terminates automatically the Thursday of Week 2 of each quarter. Each person on the waitlist waits to see if a space becomes available in the course or section in the order they are listed. You have the option to decided if you are willing to wait for the opportunity to enroll. Electing to place yourself on the waitlist does not guarantee enrollment.

Ethnic Studies Interactions Expectations