Petitions
Department Petitions for Asian American Studies
There are many petitions that undergraduates request that are NOT for major or minor rules. These petitions are not handled by our office. For students whose primary major is in the College of Letters and Science, petitions that the College handles can be found at these links: https://caac.ucla.edu/petitions-forms/ and https://caac.ucla.edu/petitions-forms/petition-submission-overview/.
On this page are some frequent petitions that our undergraduate students request to cover our major and/or minor rules. We also list what these petitions are used for.
The Student Advisor to submit these Asian American Studies department petitions to is Justin Dela Cruz: justindelacruz@asianam.ucla.edu
Undergraduate Program Change Petition
For students who either plan to add the Asian American Studies Major, Asian American Studies Minor or Pilipino Studies Minor, we require that they compete and sign the petition above and either e-mail it to the department’s Student Advisor. If a student wants to add the major or one of the minors, we might ask the student to provide us with a Degree Plan Contract (https://caac.ucla.edu/petitions-forms/degree-plan-contract/) so we can visualize whether the student can add the major/minor within their normative time-to-degree. Students will need the College’s approval if adding a major or minor will exceed the student’s normative time-to-degree.
This petition is also used for students who need to drop the Asian American Studies minor or the Pilipino Studies Minor.
If a student is interested in double majoring with Asian American Studies and another major in the College, we can review the request, but the College ultimately determines whether the double major is approved. See: https://caac.ucla.edu/petitions-forms/double-major/ for more information on Double Majoring.
Contract Courses
Contracts can be found on MyUCLA.
Unlike most UCLA courses, Upper Division Tutorial Courses are not enrolled directly through MyUCLA but enrolled by completing and submitting a contract found on MyUCLA. These are Contract Courses, numbered between 195 and 199, and a contract needs to be completed and submitted for students to be considered to enter the course.
Contract Courses in Asian American Studies include:
Asian American Studies 195 or 195CE: Internship courses
Asian American Studies 196: Research Apprenticeship
Asian American Studies 197: Individual Studies
Asian American Studies 198A, B & C: Honor Research
Asian American Studies 199: Directed Research
Below are the steps to enroll in a contract course:
Step 1: Students interested in a contract course should meet with an Asian American Studies faculty member to discuss their project and determine whether the faculty is available and in agreement to teach a contract course with the student.
Step 2: Students log into MyUCLA, choose courses and choose Contract Courses
Step 3: Students follow the instructions to complete the contract course form which includes collecting the advising instructor’s signature. Make sure that the course is for taken for 4 units and for a letter grade if you need it to count for an Asian American studies major or minor requirement.
Step 4: Students will need to submit completed contract to the Student Advisor at justin.delacruz@asianam.ucla.edu as soon as possible. DO NOT SEND THE CONTRACT DIRECTLY TO THE CHAIR. If the course is approved, the academic advisor will get the chair’s signature.
The deadline to submit the contracts to the student advisor is 3:00 PM on the Friday of the Second week of the quarter.
More information on Contract Courses can be found here: https://registrar.ucla.edu/registration-classes/enrollment-policies/enrollment-restrictions/contract-courses. If you have any questions on this, please contact the Asian American Studies academic advisor.
Major/Minor Course Substitution Form
Several of the undergraduate courses in the Asian American Studies Department can enhance students’ appreciation of Asian American history, better help students understand current issues facing Asian American populations, and can build connections with Asian American communities. The department’s faculty, with the help of students, thoughtfully developed the courses and categories that became the required curriculum for the Asian American Studies major (https://asianam.ucla.edu/undergraduate-study/asian-american-studies-major/), the Asian American Studies Minor (https://asianam.ucla.edu/undergraduate-study/asian-american-studies-minor/) and the Pilipino Studies Minor (https://asianam.ucla.edu/undergraduate-study/pilipino-studies-minor/) .
Several Asian American Studies courses at other colleges and universities have been articulated to be equivalent to a UCLA course that counts towards the major or two minors. You can see some of these equivalent courses on the Assist website: https://assist.org or the Transferology website: https://www.transferology.com/index.htm. Students who feel that a course they took at another college that was not deemed equivalent to an Asian American UCLA course can submit an Asian American Studies Course Substitution Petition to request whether that course is equivalent. We do request that the student collect and submit as much of the course’s documents (e.g., syllabi, tests, homework) along with the petition in order to make the equivalency review as thorough as possible. Please submit all documents to the department’s student advisor.
Note: all courses at community colleges or junior colleges are seen as lower division courses (at UCLA numbered 1-99) and only can be equivalent to a lower division course at UCLA. They will NOT count as a UCLA upper division (numbered 100-199) requirement.
