August 26, 2013

1. Introductions and Welcome

2. UK Core Education Committee charge and functions

The UK Core handbook outlines the functions of UKCEC, including:

• Long-term oversight of UK Core

• Any college can submit a course for any area of the Core.  This may raise an issue with the new budget model, creating competition between colleges
• Need to consider what procedures the UKCEC can put in place, such as assessment, to determine if submitted courses have the required quality

• Develop and propose changes to the program

• Concerns regarding some of the assessment rubrics: recommend revisions to the wording
• Be a more active committee and address necessary changes before they become an issue
• Committee members should communicate any concerns as they arise

              The UK Core website includes policy statements that the UKCEC recommended to the campus:

• Some of these need to be revisited and some new policies need to be addressed

• MOOCS: under the Chemistry department’s MOOCs agreement, there’s a possibility that students can take a placement test to test out of classes (including CHE 105 which fulfills a UK Core requirement).  UKCEC needs to address this issue and provide guidance for faculty.
• International course transfers: the UKCEC agreed in spring 2013 to grant credit for 9 areas of the Core if an international student’s transcript demonstrated that the student had completed the general education requirements at the home university (student would complete US Citizenship requirement at UK).  However, there is not a way for the Registrar’s office to automatically allow this in the system.  Currently each individual transcript must be reviewed to determine which Core areas the student should earn credit for.  The current process should ideally be standardized in some way to make it less difficult.

• Also a concern regarding the equal treatment of students (international/out-of-state/in-state): all students should be held to the same level of rigor, and all students should have the opportunity to benefit from what UK offers.

• UK Core/USP Exceptions Request Committee: invite Chair Robert Hayes to attend a UKCEC meeting to report back on committee policies and procedures, and discuss ways to improve the current process.

3. UK Core Summit – Wednesday, September 11, 3-5 pm, Lexmark Room Main Building

Chris Thuringer will circulate an agenda prior to the Summit.  Send him any additional discussion items to be included.

• Report assessment results for C&C and Citizenship
• Discuss innovations in the Core
• Discuss the future of the Core regarding the impact of the new budget model
• Discuss the faculty governance of UKCEC
• Emphasize improvements that were made in the assessment process last year

4. Update on status of courses in review

CPH 320 (Natural Sciences) – needs further revision regarding hands-on project and use of videos

HIS 357 (Global Dynamics) – add to chart of courses currently under review

5. Meeting adjourned at 3:15 pm.

Prepared by Joanie Ett-Mims on August 27, 2013