University Studies ProgramExternal Review Report

Presented by Alan D. DeSantis, Ph.D.Associate Professor

Department of Communication

Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA

Committee Members

• Alan DeSantis – Communication

• Tony Hardin– Theatre

• Jeff Osborn– Biology

• Jane Peters– Art

• Bill Rayens– Statistics

• Jane Wells– Accounting

The Committee’s Charge• In early February of 2004, the Committee met

with Professors Nietzel, Kraemer, Ray, and Yanarella to address the group’s questions and to detail its goals

• The committee’s charge: – To generate a series of guidelines that would serve

as an intellectual springboard for a newly formed Exploration Committee (in 6 months)

• Ideal opportunity to articulate what we believe the University’s mission and responsibilities should be to all undergraduates

The Committee’s Plan• Old Mistakes: Simply adding new

courses or subtracting old ones, without a firm commitment to such a foundation, will only produce an increasingly disconnected, fragmented, and unsatisfying undergraduate experience

• Towards this end, the committee generated five core-learning outcomes that should serve as the guiding principles in restructuring UK’s undergraduate mission

Our Five Core Learning

Outcomes

I. Understand their place and purpose in their world

• Produce both curiosity and knowledge about the world outside of our Commonwealth’s borders – Especially important given the pre-college experience of

many of our students

• Answer the pressing questions of “who are they,” “what are their responsibilities as citizens,” and “how can they be both committed to an ethical foundation and sensitive to multicultural differences.”

• Specifically. . . – To develop their own informed worldview– Understand their own cultural practice

• Why they do what they do

– Learn about the complexity of their world

• Suggested areas for investigation:

– A) Creative ways in which core courses can integrate a global perspective

• Not just in a token or marginalized course (cross-cultural requirement)

• Global Studies made the effort– B) The committee recommends that

the university earnestly promote and expand its current Study Abroad Program

• One semester outside the borders of the United States, preferably in a non-English speaking country

I. Understand their place and purpose in their world

II. Engage in the process of inquiry and reflection

• Inspired by Boyer, we believe that UK has a unique opportunity to form a symbiotic relationship between our research agendum and our undergraduate students– Neighbor: “What’s special about UK?”

• Encourage faculty to bring their research into their classrooms where students can be . . . – inspired by their quest for new knowledge – informed by the research process

• Specifically . . . – Create their own “moments of epiphany” – Foster a life-long spirit of curiosity

II. Engage in the process of inquiry and reflection

• Suggested areas for investigation:– A) Expanding Freshman Discovery– B) Expanding Living/Learning Center– C) Upper-Division Discovery Seminar where

any student, regardless of major, could explore inquiry-based learning in any of the three major areas of knowledge

• Encourage civic engagement and improving the human condition in the Commonwealth (President Todd’s “Uglies”)

• Effective strategies for bridging the divide that now exists between students’ USP years and their major classes

III. Think from multidisciplinary perspectives

• Most American universities force both professors and students into isolated and myopic departments– Knowledge becomes awkwardly categorized and divided– SOC 101, COM 101, PSY 101, etc.

• For bold and creative reform to take place, knowledge must be liberated from the politics of “departmentalization” – This spirit is often reflected in our individual research and in our research/grant

teams• We must stop thinking about specific courses and begin thinking about what

we want our students to learn and how that knowledge can best be transmitted– Many times, the answer to this question comes from multi-disciplinary curriculum

• Specifically . . . – Synthesize and integrate ideas from multiple disciplines– Apply theories and methods across multiple disciplines

• The rare student that makes connections

III. Think from multidisciplinary perspectives

• Suggested areas for investigation:– Our best practices are the “best”

• A. “Ways of Knowing,” “Journeys,” “Communities,” and “Ecology” courses of the Modern Studies Program

– Expanding Horizons Program

• B. Social-Science Honors Program• C. “Space, Place, and Culture” Honors

courses

– Investigate how these programs, that have targeted only a select group of students, can be expanded to include all UK students

IV. Meet the new demands and challenges of life in the 21st Century

• In many regards, today’s university curricula looks strikingly similar to that offered a century ago– This is not to say that the study of classical and

traditional knowledge has become obsolete• Political, economic, technological, and cultural

changes have placed additional demands on our university

• We must give serious consideration to the new types of knowledge and skills they will need to succeed

• Specifically . . . – Adapt to new discoveries

• Knowledge and skills– Evaluate changing ethical principles that are derived

from new technology• Our ethical discussions have to keep pace

– Live as participatory citizens in a multilingual and multicultural global village

IV. Meet the new demands and challenges of life in the 21st Century

• Suggested areas for investigation:– A) Many individual departments have already

added courses that reflect our changing world• Global economies, new technologies, & evolving

geopolitical issues• We need a systematic change in USP

– Syllabi, subject matter, and courses need to be responsive, not static

– B) Media and visual literacy course• Older ways of “making sense of the world” are

rapidly becoming inadequate• Arguments now come in montages of sounds and

images– Need a new logic to asses media/images

V. Discover and examine the ambiguity of human knowledge

• Our most important mission: Our university must embrace the dictum that, “All ideas, no matter how well entrenched or sacred, need to be questioned and evaluated”

• This charge is even more important given what students will face after leaving our University – Science, theology, business, health, Oprah, Fox News, and MTV

regularly make claims with absolute certainty

• We need to prepare and equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate their merits

• Specifically . . . – Expose their own assumptions to investigation

• Question their previously unchallenged lives• Then they can reaffirm, reform, or reject

– Question the ideas presented to them in their classes– Understand different ways of knowing (epistemologies)

V. Discover and examine the ambiguity of human knowledge

• Suggested areas for investigation:– Our best teachers have already elegantly

incorporated “critical-thinking skills” into their classes

– It is our hope that this skill will serve as a guiding principle and significant criterion in reshaping USP

• Core courses should foster a free and open exchange of ideas

– Challenges: Large lecture classes are not conducive to a Socratic exchange

• The “sage on the stage” model can foster passive reception

• Technology, creative TA use, pedagogical training (TLC), etc.

Conclusion• Older ways of fixing USP are no longer adequate

• USP reform needs to be re-built, from the ground up, on a foundation of learning outcomes

• We suggest that whatever shape or form our new core curricula takes, it should enable all students to . . . – I. Understanding their place in their world– II. Engage in the process of inquiry and reflection– III. Think from multidisciplinary perspectives – IV. Meet the new demands of the 21st Century– V. Challenge and question knowledge

Conclusion• Finally, to help facilitate the next

stage of core reform, the committee suggests the following :

1. Exploration Committee, however it is constituted or defined, must engender campus trust and respect

2. Campus-wide conversations that actively seek out ideas and opinions from all faculty members

– Participation and consensus is crucial3. Strong top-down leadership that can push all of

us out of its inertia and into participatory change4. Reward system for faculty who commit time and

energy towards undergraduate reform5. A commitment to do no harm to graduate

programs that depend on TAs funded by USP6. Realistic and honest levels of funding. “Doing

more with less” is a pedagogical anathema