• A free elective is a course chosen solely by the student with no curricular restrictions.

• All baccalaureate curricula will contain a minimum of 8 units of free electives. Programs proposing to reduce the number of required free electives below 8 units are required to provide justification. One such justification is to reduce the total units required in the program.

Source: Academic Senate Resolution AS-609-04/CC (PDF). This resolution supercedes the earlier resolution (AS-234-87/CC) which required that all baccalaureate curricula contain a minimum of 9 units of free electives.

• A restricted elective is one chosen from a list prepared by the major department.

• are a coherent course of study which is relevant to but not necessarily within the student's major discipline;
• allow students to design a section of their curriculum, tailoring it to their specific career goals and interests;
• may include transfer and/or change of major units;
• are not a formally structured set of courses and, as such, there is no title assigned that would appear on the student's transcript.