xt7s4m91cp0n https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7s4m91cp0n/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. University Senate University of Kentucky. Faculty Senate Kentucky University of Kentucky. University Senate University of Kentucky. Faculty Senate 1985-04-08  minutes 2004ua061 English   Property rights reside with the University of Kentucky. The University of Kentucky holds the copyright for materials created in the course of business by University of Kentucky employees. Copyright for all other materials has not been assigned to the University of Kentucky. For information about permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Special Collections Research Center. University of Kentucky. University Senate (Faculty Senate) records Minutes (Records) Universities and colleges -- Faculty University of Kentucky University Senate (Faculty Senate) meeting minutes, April 8, 1985 text University of Kentucky University Senate (Faculty Senate) meeting minutes, April 8, 1985 1985 1985-04-08 2020 true xt7s4m91cp0n section xt7s4m91cp0n Y
K
C
U
T
N
E
K
F
nu
Y
n
S
R
E
W
N
U

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY 40506-0033

DEAN OF ADMISSIONS AND REGISTRAR

GILLIS BUILDING

Chanceliar fart; f‘fl‘iahem (in

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY UNIVERSITY

 

 Page 2
US: Agenda Item: IV., 2.2.1 (a)
29 March 1985

Proposed:
Add to the current Rule the following paragraphs:

Applicants for admission to the University of Kentucky
may submit either ACT or SAT scores to the Director of
Admissions. If an applicant submits scores from both
tests, the score which is most favorable to the applicant
will be used for admission decisions.

The Director of Admissions will utilize a standard
conversion tablelbetween ACT and SAT scores, subject to
the approval of the Committee on Admissions and Academic
Standards. This conversion shall include one between
subsection scores (ACT English-SAT Verbal and ACT
Mathematics-SAT Quantitative).

1 One such table is found in Ira W. Langstan & Thomas W.
Watkins, SAT-ACT Equivalents. Research Memorandum 80-5,
University Office of School and College Relations, University
of lllinois-Champaign. Champaign, Illinois, July, 1980.

Implementation Date: Spring Semester, 1986.

Rationale: There are other measures of student potential that are at
least as reliable as the ACT scores. Many students who are applying
to out-of-state colleges take the SAT test. Our insistence that they
take also the ACT is an imposition that many of them will reject. We
cannot afford to lose outstanding potential students because of a
rigid and inflexible requirement on a specific examination.

In cases where specific ACT scores are used for placement in courses
or acceptance to certain programs, local placement examinations can be
designed and administered.

/cet
0442C

 

 UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

LEXINGTON. KENTUCKY 40506-0032

UNIVERSITY SENATE COUNCIL
Io ADMINISTRATION BUILDING 29 March 1985

Members, University Senate

University Senate Council

AGENDA ITEM: University Senate Meeting, Monday, April 8,
1985. Proposal to alter the University Senate Rules, Section
IV., 2.1.1 (a), relative to admission to the University.

 

Current Rule:

2.1.1 (a) Criteria for automatic acceptance and automatic rejection
Performance in high school, as judged by the overall high
school grade point average (HSCPA), and on the American
College Test (ACT composition score) will be used to
accept or reject applicants automatically. First-year
freshmen grade point averages (EGPA) of previous UK
freshman students will be fit in a least-square-error
sense to a function of ACT and HSGPA,e.g., ECPA = Cl+
C2ACT + C3HSGPA where Cl, CZ and C3 are
constants determined from the fit of the previous
year(s). The EGPA equation will then be applied to
applicants, using the ACT score and HSGPA available on
the ACT report form, to yield a predicted GPA (PGPA) for
each applicant. Those who predict a PGPA Z 2.0 will be
automatically accepted.

The above procedure for automatically accepting ap-
plicants does not use absolute cutoffs on either ACT or
HSGPA but reflects the contention that ACT and HSGPA used
in concert are good predictors of the first-year EGPA.

Criteria for determining which applicants are to be

rejected automatically are: those who do not have a
HSGPAZZ.O 3; an ACT 2 11. (US: 3/21/83 & BofT 5/3/83)

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY UNIVERSITY

 

 Page 2
Senate Agenda Item: 4/8/85
27 March 1985

Proposed:

1. Insert "(for example, Chairpersons, deans, directors of
schools, deans of instruction and research, and other
appropriate administrative officers)" after "educational unit"
in paragraph 1, line 2.

Delete "faculty" from line 4, paragraph 2, under A. Annual
Review.

Add to the above-cited paragraph the following: "This annual
review will normally utilize some formal evaluation by faculty
in the affected unit as part of the review session. Units will
be expected to develop their own evaluative procedure. Formal
faculty input will be utilized at least every other year.

Rationale:

Persons performing in an administrative role are currently evaluated
by their immediate supervisors once a year. Too often these
evaluations take place without input from those who are affected most
in the unit, the faculty who work in the unit each day. This proposal
provides for a formal channel of evaluation of an administrator by
faculty, and should form a part of the administrator's performance
assessment. Since different units have different standards and
interests, it is expected that faculty in all affected units would
work out their own evaluation procedures. For example, faculty
councils in each college might work out an evaluative instrument for
college deans, while departments might choose to utilize an entirely
different procedure.

Upward communication has always been a hallmark of institutions that
have performed well; formal provision for this kind of communication
ought to be very useful both for administrators and those who in turn
evaluate them.

 

 UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

LEXINGTON. KENTUCKY 40506-0032

UNIVERSITY SENATE COUNCIL
IO ADMINISTRATION BUILDING 27 March 1985

Members, University Senate
University Senate Council

AGENDA ITEM: University Senate Meeting, Monday, April 8,
1985. Proposal to alter the Administrative Regulations, AR
ll-l.0—6, relative to evaluations of administrators. If
approved, the proposal will be forwarded to the administration
for consideration.

 

Current Regulation:
REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL UNITS

Annual Review

A regular annual review session with the chief administrative
officer of each educational unit will be scheduled by the
officer's immediate administrative supervisor. An appropriate
time for this annual review will be just prior to the time of
submission of any annual report or the annual budget request.

The annual review, although certainly not casual, will not
reach the degree of formality nor the depth of analysis and
study envisioned for the periodic evaluation, and there will be
no requirement for the involvement of faculty, students,
alumni, or persons external to the University for this review.

Instead, the annual review will provide a critique of
achievements and areas requiring attention during the past
year, of the current status of the unit, and of the development
of plans and the identification of needs for the future. It
should provide the administrative supervisor with the
additional information and insights needed to effectively
represent needs of this unit to the supervisor's next level of
institutional management, as well as an opportunity for
communicating the supervisor's assessment of the quality of the
unit and individual performances, for identifying new goals and
program performance objectives, for recommending priorities,
and for making suggestions for improvement.

AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY UNIVERSITY

 

 Though the Committee believes that this kind of academic experience is
desirable for all students, it seems impractical at this time to make it a

universal requirement. We recommend that such a program be initiated for

approximately 400 students (20 sections) and that after a period of trial and

evaluation a decision be made about expanding it.

Appendix C
Cross—cultural Courses

The following is suggested as a scale of priorities for courses to meet the
cross—cultural requirement. It must be borne in mind that (1) represents the
minimum standard and (5) the ideal. The committee which initially certifies
courses in this area may be obliged to accept any course that falls within
priority (1); later the committee may be able to insist that courses satisfy
some higher standard.

(1) The culture studied should be one that is markedly different from that of
the students and preferably outside the Western or Judaeo—Christian
tradition. There are many Anthropology courses and a number of Geography,
History, and Political Science courses that would meet this criterion.

The content of the course should be devoted largely or exclusively to the
study of culture, rather than of politics, economics, or historical
events. There are Anthropology and probably some History courses that
would satisfy this criterion.

The course should expose students to many different aspects of a "foreign"
culture, including folk as well as elite traditions, in order to make them
aware of the interrelatedness of the different aspects of culture. For
the time being this criterion seems to be most nearly met by Anthropology
courses and possibly some Geography courses.

The course should expose students to a non—Western culture that has or had
a significant recorded history and a well developed philosophical
tradition of its own, to dispel any idea that ours is the only "civilized"
mode of thought. For the time being there are no courses on the books
that adequately satisfy this criterion, except for occasionally—taught
Anthropology courses on Egyptian or Maya civilization.

The course should expose students to a cultural tradition that is still
alive and viable in the present—day world; in other words, a culture that
they are quite likely to meet face-to—face at some point in their future
lives. For the time being there are no courses that meet this requirement.

 

 They should be taught in language that is free of jargon and (except in
the case of basic skills and sequential courses) should normally assume no
prior knowledge of the subject.

Through a judicious selection of illustrative material and through the
presentation of differing viewpoints they should seek to develop the
students' spirit of inquiry and an appreciation of the joys of
intellectual pursuits.

Wherever appropriate they should raise questions of value and should
explore the philosophical, ethical, and aesthetic consequences which are
entailed in all human decisions.

They should contain a writing component.

Through a variety of teaching methods they should seek to promote active
student involvement in the learning process.

They should involve methods of evaluation that go beyond the objective
(e.g., multiple choice) examination. Among the options here are shorter,
written examinations or quizzes, essays within or outside the classroom,
and oral presentations.

Appendix B
Freshmen Seminars

The Freshmen Seminars are a two—semester sequence of courses focusing on some

of the major intellectual, social, political, ethical, and aesthetic
traditions and institutions of the Western world from Classical times to the

twentieth century. In addition to introducing students to a substantial
number of issues and answers that have shaped the Western tradition, these
courses are designed to provide a stimulating environment in which individuals
can develop an appreciation for the challenges and satisfactions of
intellectual inquiry. The courses will be taught in sections of 20 students
by experienced faculty, and the material will be organized around a theme, a
principle, or a set of issues established beforehand by the individual
instructor. Emphasis will be placed on the relevance of problems and issues
in the western tradition to twentieth century culture.

Rationale: One common criticism of education at large universities is that
students frequently do not have an opportunity to participate in a small class
with experienced faculty until they become juniors or seniors. At a critical
stage in their university career when they are just beginning to develop
academic skills and are establishing their attitude toward learning, they have
little opportunity to engage in extended classroom discussion, to share ideas
with their peers and to experience in a personal way the challenges and
satisfactions of intellectual pursuits. The Freshmen Seminars are designed to
alleviate this problem in a limited way. Their purpose is threefold: a) to
introduce students to some of the issues and answers which have shaped the
western tradition and which have had an impact on modern ways of thought;

b) to pursue this goal through integration of materials from a variety of
disciplines; c) to stimulate the students' spirit of inquiry and to assist
them in developing an appreciation for the values of the intellectual life.

 

 reminders about what we all know. The first is that no format or structure is
a guarantee of quality in instruction or learning. Quality comes from people,
that is, from our faculty and students, not from structures. The success of
University Studies will depend on the dedication and performance of those
engaged in the process, not on the distribution of courses or the number of
hours required in the program. For this reason we wish to reiterate the point
made earlier about using our best faculty in University Studies courses and
about promoting excellence in this area through an appropriate reward system.

Secondly, adequate time will be needed to implement and to evaluate the
new system. In the initial stages there will inevitably be false starts,
shortcomings, and perhaps some major blunders. That fact should not be
surprising. It will be a time for initiative and forbearance, for vision and
for criticism, for individual energy and joint action. We think that the
process of putting the new program into effect can be as stimulating and
productive for the faculty as for the students. Here is an opportunity, not
just a task. After the University Studies Program has been firmly in place
for some time, it will be appropriate to stop and take stock once again. The
business of general education, like every other academic pursuit, should
always be the object of periodic revision and timely new beginnings. We think
the present moment is a time for such a beginning.

Appendix A
University Studies Courses

Although University Studies courses may sometimes function as an
introduction to particular disciplines, their primary purpose is quite
different from that of the usual departmental offerings. Their principal aim
is to help students to become familiar with the broad dimensions of human
knowledge, to develop an appreciation for the great diversity of approaches in
human inquiry, and to experience some of the satisfactions of the intellectual
life. Since this aim should be pursued at every level of undergraduate
education, upper division courses in University Studies are most desirable.
Within the disciplinary areas, as well as the cross-disciplinary and the
cross—cultural components of University Studies, courses should be designed
with the following criteria in mind:

A. They should provide a reasonably comprehensive coverage of the basic
principles, concepts, and current state of knowledge of the area described
in the course title and description.

Without becoming bogged down in detail, they should provide a general
understanding of the methods of study that are germane to a particular
area of study.

They should provide some sense of the historical developments that have
led to the current body of knowledge in a particular field.

They should demonstrate how a particular body of knowledge fits into the
larger body of human knowledge as developed in related disciplines.

They should indicate how the content or skills imparted in a particular
course might be useful or important in the students' own life.

 

 affected by several factors which are difficult to assess at the present

time. These include the total enrollment at the University, which has been
declining in recent years; the principle of double counting (i.e. using a
course to apply both to one's major and to University Studies), which will
decrease under the new system; and student interest, which is affected by many
things. Amid all these considerations it is important to remember that some
resources will be made available through the changes that are involved in the
new program, and in the area of Basic Skills the need for additional resources
will decline as students come to the University better prepared to bypass
these requirements. Most importantly, hOWever, we should be mindful that we
are discussing changes that will significantly improve the education of the
entire undergraduate student body for years to come. In that light the
Committee believes that the estimated additional costs are most reasonable,
and we are convinced that with sufficient lead time the University can
initiate the proposed revisions without inordinately taxing the system as a
whole.

Implementation and Oversight. Implementing the University Studies Program
will require a considerable amount of planning, and for this reason the
Committee recommends the Fall 1987 as a target date for initiating the new
requirements. This arrangement will allow those responsible for the program
to decide on appropriate courses and to meet staffing needs. The Committee
believes that the success of the new program demands careful and continuous
administrative oversight. Thus, we recommend that a particular individual be
given the responsibility and the resources to coordinate the organization of
University Studies and to monitor its academic quality on an ongoing basis.
This person should be a faculty member actively involved in teaching in the
program and should be an individual with good judgment, vision, and
enthusiasm, as well as administrative ability, who can convey to the academic
community the importance and challenge of University Studies. Such a director
should be appointed by the Chancellor of the Lexington Campus and should be
vested with the necessary authority (financial and administrative) to fulfill
his or her responsibilities.

 

We also recommend that a permanent committee of knowledgeable,
distinguished and interested faculty and students be appointed to advise the
director on the implementation and maintenance of the program. This committee
should be appointed in the same fashion and with the same care that the area
committees are currently chosen. The first responsibility of the committee
will be to work with the director in developing the new curriculum. We
recommend that no course presently in the general education program be
automatically included in University Studies, but that each offering be
evaluated on the basis of the general guidelines outlined in Appendix A.
Thereafter, it shall be the committee's responsibility to assist in
maintaining the continuity and academic quality of the program.

AFTERWORD

The Committee believes that the proposed changes in the structure and
content of general education at the University of Kentucky represent a
substantial and significant improvement over what we have in the present
system. The new program is more coherent and comprehensive, and it will, we
are convinced, better prepare our students to meet the challenges they face in
the coming decades. In that connection we would like to conclude with two

 

 ADDENDA

Writing. There are several dimensions to the University Studies program which
the Committee would like to underscore in its recommendations. The first of
these has to do with writing skills. If our undergraduates are to continue to
mature intellectually, writing must be integrated into the learning process;
it must be a presence in the students' total educational experience. As a way
of ensuring this presence, the Committee recommends that all University
Studies courses, except for those in Basic Skills, include a writing
component. The nature and extent of this component will vary from course to
course, but we believe that writing is the single most effective means of
developing an individual's critical, synthetic, and expressive abilities. It
is worth noting in this connection that formal writing assignments (e.g. term
papers and research reports) are by no means the only kind of writing that can
be used to advantage. Summaries, syntheses, critiques, and exercises which
compel students to write in response to what they read and hear can all
contribute to the art of learning.

Ethical Dimension. The Committee recommends that the ethical dimension of
education be an integral part of the University Studies program. Instructors
should be encouraged to raise ethical issues whereever appropriate and to
explore with their classes the moral arguments, criticisms, ideals, and
consequences which are inevitably bound up with human decisions. The purpose
here should not be to indoctrinate or to argue a particular point of view but
to assist students in defining for themselves what is entailed in such
concepts as valor, temperance, justice, and the like, and what it means to act
responsibly in the public and private spheres.

Computer Literacy. It is a truism that in the future all students will have
to possess some degree of computer literacy. However, the Committee feels
that individual needs in this area are so diverse that it is inappropriate for
us to establish a universal requirement. Individual departments should
establish suitable levels of competency for their majors and should see to it
that their students gain the necessary experience.

Active Learning. Finally, we believe that a special effort should be made in
University Studies courses to promote active student engagement in the
learning process. On this matter the Mortimer Committee ("Involvement in
Learning...") has expressed the point very well: "To do a discipline means to
speak it, to work with its primary methods, to follow its processes, and to
adapt its perspectives. Active modes of teaching require that students be
inquirers —— creators, as well as recievers, of knowledge." Through a variety
of techniques, such as discussions, debates, simulations, oral presentations,
and individual learning projects, instructors should assist students in
developing intellectual initiative and creative habits of learning.

RESOURCES

At every stage of drafting its recommendations for changes in general
education at the University of Kentucky, the Committee considered the problem
of resources. It is our best estimate that through the reallocation of
existing resources and new monies the cost of implementing the University
Studies Program will be approximately $400,000. This estimate, which is based
on enrollment figures for 1984/85 and on the class profile of 1982/83, can be

 

 Rationale: The Committee views this requirement as a natural
counterpart to its earlier recommendation (i.e. in the
Humanities Requirement) that all students take a sequence
of courses dealing with the traditions and institutions
of the Western world. It is highly important that our
undergraduates develop some appreciation for cultural
heritages which are not part of the Western tradition but
which nonetheless have impressive histories of their
own. We concur with a suggestion made by the American
Association of Colleges in its recent report on higher
education that "colleges must create a curriculum in
which the insights and understandings, the lives and
aspirations of the distant and foreign, the different and
the neglected, are more widely comprehended by their
graduates." Such understanding, we believe, is valuable
not only in its own right but as a way in which students
can acquire a larger perspective on their own heritage.
The ideal here is for all students to have experience
with a culture outside the Judaeo—Christian tradition,
and there are currently a good number of offerings in
History, Geography, and Anthropology which meet this
standard. However, the Committee recognizes that this
ideal may be achieved only over a period of years, and in
the interim some offerings within that tradition may be
accepted as satisfying the Cross—Cultural component. If
so, we recommend that courses included in this component
meet the following criteria:

l) Courses dealing with cultures or sub—cultures that
are markedly different from the students' experience
are to be preferred to courses which are close to
that experience.

Every effort should be made to emphasize those
aspects of a culture or sub—culture which
differentiate it from the traditional western
outlook.

3) Where possible attention should be focused on
different aspects of a culture including folk as
well as elite traditions.

What must be remembered in the selection of courses for this requirement
is that the benefit to students will be in direct proportion to the amount of
"culture shock" involved, i.e. the degree to which students must initially
struggle to comprehend how it is that people can think and act in different
ways. For a discussion of the type of courses the Committee has in mind see
Appendix C. The Committee feels that departments should be encouraged to
design and submit new courses which will come closer to achieving the ideal
than do most offerings which are currently on the books.

 

 studies such courses, in addition to following the guidelines for
University Studies courses, must meet the following criteria:

1) The courses must involve more than one discipline.

2) The content of cross—disciplinary courses must be broad in scope and
must deal with such matters as philosophical dimensions,
disciplinary assumptions, historical perspectives and issues of
value rather than with technical or professional information.

The syllabi of these courses must reflect joint planning on the part
of the participating departments and must indicate the nature of the
overlap between the two courses (i.e. the assumptions, principles,
goals, source materials, methodologies, etc. which will be compared
and/or contrasted in the two offerings).

The paired courses must have some common readings.

Rationale: The major portion of general education at the University
of Kentucky has been and will continue to be centered
around individual disciplines. This arrangement has
proved to be an effective and efficient method over the
years. With such a system, however, we easily create the
impression that knowledge can be nicely categorized and
that what is learned in one discipline has little to do
with what is learned in another. To counter this
misconception the Committee feels that students should
have some experience with courses which go beyond
disciplinary distinctions and which seek to demonstrate
the interrelated character of human knowledge. It is
anticipated that, with only a modicum of revision, large
numbers of courses already being taught at the University
will serve this purpose. Many current offerings in
literature, philosophy, history, and fine arts, as well
as some in the social and natural sciences, will lend
themselves to this kind of pairing. We wish also to
encourage departments to develop new offerings which will
effectively relate one area of study to another.

We suggest that these courses be taken within two
consecutive semesters, and for this reason, only courses
which are offered on a fairly regular basis should be
included in the University Studies Program. Because we
believe that general education courses should be spread
throughout the four years of undergraduate study, a
significant number of upper division offerings will be
included in Cross—disciplinary studies as well as in the
Cross-cultural component.

Cross-cultural Requirement.

The University Studies requirement in this area may be fulfilled by the
completion of a three—hour course which deals primarily with the Third
World or with a non-Western civilization (i.e. a civilization outside
the Judaeo—Christian tradition).

 

 Humanities. The University Studies requirement in this area may be
fulfilled by choosing one of the following:

a. A two-semester survey in one of the humanistic disciplines (e.g.
English, Philosophy, History, Foreign Language in Translation,
Art History, Theatre, Musicology) spanning the period from
classical Greece to the twentieth century.

Two courses in a single humanistic discipline, one of which
deals with the period before 1700 A.D. and one with the period
after 1700 A.D.

Freshman Seminars (two)

Rationale: The Committee believes that the traditional division
of learning into three distinct areas (natural
sciences, social sciences, and humanities) retains
its usefulness, and we are convinced that mandatory
exposure to all three branches is essential if the
students' undergraduate experience is to have
adequate breadth. In the natural sciences we feel
that a two—semester sequence in a single science is
the only way to provide a proper introduction to the
methods of scientific inquiry. In View of the
diversity of social science methodologies, we
believe that a single course in two different
disciplines would provide a better introduction than
two semesters in one discipline.

In the humanities our aim is to provide an
introduction to some of the major intellectual,
social, political, ethical and aesthetic traditions
and institutions of the Western world in order that
students may better understand their own cultural
heritage. Students choosing option a, will take a
sequence of courses, not unlike many of those
presently offered in general studies, which extends
from Classical times to the twentieth century. In
option b, the two courses may be narrower in scope
but must encompass more than a single author, genre,
or monument. One of these courses must focus on a
period of Western culture prior to 1700 A.D. and the
other on a period subsequent to that date. Option
9, is a special new program, which is described in
Appendix B.

Cross—disciplinary Requirement.

The University Studies requirement in this area may be fulfilled by the
completion of two courses which have been specifically designated as
paired offerings. Such courses may be within single a broad area of
study (1.9. humanities, social sciences, natural sciences) or may cross
over these areas. However, to be included within cross—disciplinary

 

 secondary school courses be accepted as automatic
fulfillment of this requirement. During that period
competency examinations should be administered and
the results used to assist the schools, whereever
necessary, in strengthening their foreign language
programs. At the end of the three—year period,
incoming students will be required to pass a
competency examination in order to fulfill the
requirement. Foreign students, whose native
language is not English, are not required to take an
additional foreign language.

11. Inference and Writing Skills

A.

‘R

Calculus/Logic/Statistics. The University Studies requirement in
this area may be satisfied through one of the following options:

Option 1: Completion of a course in calculus: MA 123
(Elementary Calculus and its Applications), or MA
113 (Calculus I), or MA 115 (Elementary Analysis 1).

Completion of the two following courses: PHI 120
(Introductory Logic) and STA 200 (Statistics: A
Force in Human Judgment)

Rationale: For many students a knowledge of calculus is, if not

mandatory, at least useful in the pursuit of their
major discipline. Calculus is also essential for
understanding a great deal of modern technical
thought. For these reasons the Committee believes
it ought to be part of the required curriculum for a
large segment of the undergraduate student body.
Other students, however, who have little need of
calculus, will be better served through training in
logical argument and statistical analysis.

Writing Requirement: This requirement may be satisfied through
completion of the stipulations outlined in the Writing Requirement
endorsed by the University Senate in the Fall of 1984 (Senate
Minutes, November 12, 1984, pp. 8—11).

Disciplinary Requirements

A.

Natural Sciences. The University Studies requirement in this area
may be satisfied through completion of a two—semester sequence
(totaling no less than 6 hours) in any of the physical or biological
sciences.

Social and Behavioral Sciences. The University Studies requirement
in this area may be satisfied by completion of one three—hour course