For the Wildcats roaming campus each semester without a minor, there is an abundance of choice. About 120 minors — approved groups of related courses adding up to 18-30 units — are offered at Chico State. 

From the idea stage to implementation, new minors go through many levels of approval and feedback before arriving at the university president’s office for final approval. CSU campuses may set local policy regarding academic minors, according to CSU policy, but the Chancellor’s Office specifies that minors contain a minimum of six upper-division units.

When proposing a new minor, faculty must provide information on program learning outcomes, need and demand, projected enrollment and the impact on existing programs. 

Academic minors are recognized by certification on the transcript by the Registrar.

Read about seven newly added minors below. 

3D Digital Modeling and Environments 

Frank Pereira, who has been with the Computer Animation and Game Development Department for about 20 years, said the minor allows anybody with an inclination into 3D to have a good introduction to the subject.

Students learn what goes into the workflow of 3D modeling, from initial idea and modeling to UV mapping — applying 2D textures onto 3D models — and texturing. 

“If they’re just exploring it, taking a few of these classes will help, like, ‘Oh, this is something that I could definitely use in the future,’” Pereira said. “And I do feel like this is more of the future, that if you have these skills, I feel like tacking this on — especially if you’re in some kind of production environment — is going to be important.” 

Pereira, who teaches 3D Digital Modeling II and Digital Sculpting, said the minor could be a good addition for someone to take alongside business or business management classes, and who may want to do some modeling and environmental 3D work as part of a business. 

“You could be like a pipeline, like technical director or someone who assists the actual production pipeline in a studio, so they have a better knowledge of what goes into making a 3D asset or a 3D model,” he said, noting that it can be helpful to combine a business and management side with an artistic side. 

Video games and 3D animation all have production people behind it, Pereira said, and for those looking to go into production, the minor provides helpful 3D exposure. The course list builds a good foundation of understanding for what goes into a digital asset, he added. 

“Then, how do you accumulate all these assets and make a story out of it and tell a certain narrative,” he said. “That’s where the environmental, the game asset production and the environmental modeling classes help with that — how do you tell a story with those 3D assets?” 

This minor in the College of Communication and Education consists of seven courses totaling 21 units.

Electrical Construction 

Marie Patterson, chair of the construction management department, said this minor is an interdisciplinary design between the electrical engineering and construction management departments.

Many electrical construction companies recruit students from Chico State, Patterson explained, and what led to the collaboration between the two departments was the consideration that electrical engineering students are not familiar with construction management and construction management students don’t know much about the foundation of electrical. 

“Electrical construction is kind of a niche market, in which if you’re in a standard building construction, the electrical contractor is one of the largest contractors,” she said, noting that the work is hidden behind the walls but we see the finished products, such as outlets or light switches. “[The electrical wiring system] is an interconnecting nervous system of the building, and it’s very critical that it is done correctly. There are really large companies out there that are prominent in the industry, and they recruit from the construction management department and they need skilled project managers to oversee their scope of work.” 

Students graduating from Chico State have gone on to work at companies such as Cupertino Electric, Rosendin Electric, Sprig Electric, Elcor Electric and McMillan Electric. 

From multi-million to multi-billion dollar projects, construction management is about making sure people are safe and the project upholds its intended quality, Patterson said. 

“Our jobs primarily focus around schedule and budget, so making sure costs stay within whatever the owner or developer had originally intended, as well as the schedule” she said. “At elementary schools, you have the summer to do [projects], and so it’s really critical that you have somebody who is educated on how to manage schedules, all the coordination between all of the trade partners on that project to make sure that it happens in that tight time frame that’s necessary.”  

Patterson, an associate professor, also teaches one of the courses in the electrical construction curriculum, Concepts of Sustainable Construction. 

“We highlight the importance to reduce carbon emissions in building construction, with the ultimate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which then hopefully should help reduce climate change,” she said.

Another required class, Electrical and Mechanical systems, is taught by Brendan Coakley, a faculty member who previously worked for an electrical contractor.

“What are the electrical systems in buildings, what does that look like, how do you construct them, what’s the naming of them,” Patterson said. “And then my sustainable construction class kind of carries over that to where it talks about more the holistic approach to building design and how we can make those things more energy efficient.”   

Students eligible for this minor include construction management majors, electrical engineering majors and mechanical engineering majors, according to Patterson. For other interested students, many prerequisites in physics and calculus would be required.  

This minor in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Constructional Management consists of seven courses totaling 23-24 units.

Finance

The finance minor does a good job of covering different areas of finance, explained Jaycob Arbogast, the director for the Center for Excellence in Finance. 

“You’ll get exposure to investing, but you’ll also get exposure to corporate — like companies and how they manage their money — and markets generally,” Arbogast said. “So you get a really good spread of all of the different finance topics in society.” 

Arbogast noted the minor pairs well with almost any major. 

“If you were in an engineering major and you wanted to add finance on there, I think that’s a really good combo because somebody who’s doing engineering work might also be able to talk about how this new product we’re developing and designing would be able to be financed in some way,” he said. “Another way it might help is, let’s say somebody’s in psychology, money and psychology really go hand in hand because so many peoples’ stressors have to do with money topics.” 

Also a professor, Arbogast teaches one of the required courses for the minor, Financial Institutions and Markets.

“It’s about financial institutions, so it’s what are the systems in our economy and in our society that operate in the finance space,” he said, citing entities such as the Federal Reserve, hedge funds, banks and insurance companies.

This minor in the College of Business consists of seven courses totaling 21 units. 

Nutrition for Human Performance 

Director of Sports Nutrition Angela Alger said a well-pairing major would be kinesiology or exercise physiology, and though there is a nutrition minor, this new minor in nutrition for human performance was created because many of the students in those two majors are going to be working with athletes in some capacity. 

“Right now, research shows that most people, most athletes, get their nutrition information from their coaches,” Alger said. “So, we wanted to make sure that the coaches go out into practice understanding nutrition for performance, and knowing what their scope is, so what they can advise athletes [on] and where they should refer out.” 

The term athlete is defined broadly, Alger explained, and doesn’t only mean professional athletes, but also the weekend warrior, the recreational exerciser and anyone who is looking to improve their nutrition for their overall performance. 

Alger also teaches Nutrition and Physical Fitness and Sports Nutrition. The first course, which fulfills an Upper Division Physical/Biological Sciences need, is an introduction to nutrition for performance.

“We’ll look at some chronic diseases, and really kind of just break down the science of the foods that you’re putting in your body,” she said. “And instead of demonizing foods and saying here’s bad foods and good foods, if we can break it down to the chemical composition, we can see what do these foods do in your body. And all foods do have a role.” 

This minor in the College of Natural Sciences consists of six courses totaling 20 units. 

Sports Media 

Aaron Quinn, who designed two of the courses in the minor, Introduction to Sports Media and Sports Coverage in Media, said students taking these courses will gain practical experiences and build portfolios of work in modern sports coverage. 

“In Sports Coverage in Media, they get to go out and actually do sports reporting, and they get to do sports PR, just to get a sense of what it’s like to be out there in the field,” Quinn said.  

Many job opportunities are in entertainment right now, Quinn noted, and sports — including sports communication — is a huge chunk of that industry. 

“A lot of it is PR, but there’s a blurred line between journalism and PR now, where people do a bit of both,” he said. “Every sports team you can imagine has a huge communication staff to ensure that they get the message across that they want.”

The minor is perfect for sports fans, Quinn noted, as students learn what it takes to produce the media content that they eventually see, the business strategies that are used by different sports organizations and how sports is influenced culturally. 

It’s also tailored well to the journalism major — which requires a minor — and athletes.  

“One of the great advantages that athletes have, and what makes a good sports communicator, is that intimate knowledge of the games themselves,” Quinn said. “They know the details of the sport inside and out, which is exceptionally important for doing accurate reporting.” 

This minor in the College of Communication and Education consists of seven courses totaling 21 units.

Social Work 

Michelle Eggers, the Bachelor of Social Work Director in the School of Social Work, noted the minor suits those who are interested in understanding more about human experience or approaches to change.

“I think it complements a lot of majors for people who want to work with people, but maybe don’t want to major in social work,” she said. “It gives that really well-rounded framework of what it means to both understand human experience and get a little bit of exposure to different methods or approaches or different career options, and just have that under their belt, whether they want to work in a service kind of profession or get a master’s in social work.” 

Majors that work well with the minor in social work include social science subjects such as public health, geography or child development, Eggers said.

“It gives you that base of understanding human experience to be able to apply to whatever profession you’re interested in,” she said. “It could also be in liberal arts, and people who want to be teachers.”

Prior to becoming a professor at Chico State, Eggers worked with pregnant [and] parenting teenagers, created a street outreach program for homeless youth and was a high school counselor, and she said it’s common for social work professors to have careers before entering academia. 

“A lot of us who come into social work come in because of our own lived experience,” Eggers said. “We want to give back in ways that people have given to us, or we want to give back in ways that people did not give to us. Because we know maybe what support is needed, and it wasn’t there.”  

This minor in the College of Behavioral & Social Sciences consists of six courses totaling 18 units.

Philosophy and Law

Intended for those who are already interested in either philosophy or legal studies, the philosophy and law minor serves as a bridge for students to explore the other subject on a smaller scale, explained Zanja Yudell, the former chair of the philosophy department. 

Courses in the minor cover philosophical aspects of the law and provide a background for participating in the law, Yudell said. Most classes — Jurisprudence: Philosophy of Law, Social and Political Philosophy and Constitutional Law: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties — are in the former category. 

“[These] are very philosophical approaches to thinking about the nature of the law and its role in our lives and how it ought to be,” he said. “Philosophy in general is very big-picture — how-does-it-all-fit-together kind of questions, foundational questions. So not about the specific application of the law, but about the general principles behind law itself.” 

Other courses, such as Epistemology — which Yudell has taught — is about knowledge generally, and is applicable to questions in law. 

Citing a quote by Stanford Professor David Hills, “Philosophy is the ungainly attempt to tackle questions that come naturally to children, using methods that come naturally to lawyers,” Yudell discussed how it reflects a connection between law and philosophy.

“The Socratic method, which is central to law school training, of course originated with Socrates, who is perhaps the founder of Western philosophy, and there’s the same kind of focus on clarity and precision in both domains,” he said. “There’s a lot of similarity of temperament and of methodology.” 

This minor in the College of Humanities & Fine Arts consists of six courses totaling 18 units.

Raquel Frohlich can be reached at [email protected].