Lexington, KY - University of Kentucky Provost Kumble Subbaswamy is visibly excited about the new Core Curriculum approved by the faculty and now being implemented. So excited, in fact, that he was shouting in the library during an opening ceremony for the new curriculum. In all fairness, the shouting was due to a temporary power outage that left him without a microphone. But he showed himself as resourceful as he hopes his students will be.
"Our students are going to be change-ready, and therefore they're well-suited for the job market of the mid 21st century," the provost said.
UK's celebration of the curriculum placed particular emphasis on the new creative pathways and diversity requirements.
"Undergraduate education is both for preparing for a profession and preparing for citizenship," Subbaswamy said.
In expecting all of its undergraduates to learn about cultures different from their own, UK is taking a global approach to what it means to be an educated citizen. And in expecting all students to encounter a course emphasizing creativity, lessons learned can engender creative approaches in all academic disciplines.
"Employers tell us that students don't communicate effectively in both written and oral fashion," said Mike Mullen, associate provost for undergraduate education at UK. When redesigning the general studies program, now named the Core Curriculum, UK's faculty tackled that challenge and took it a step further. They reinforced the writing portion of the requirements and determined that understanding digital media and critical thinking should also undergird the curriculum.
"Students should be able to demonstrate that they can employ the process of intellectual inquiry," Mullen said.
What is a Core Curriculum for?
Think about the employees in your workplace. They each carry out different responsibilities, yet you insist on core elements of training with each new hire. You want employees to understand your organization's mission so they can contribute to it in appropriate ways. You want to provide or enhance their skill set to enable them to succeed, and you want them to understand how your organization fits into the larger community.
The same is true with undergraduate education. Regardless of which major a student may choose, the framework of general education requirements must instill an appreciation of different ways of knowing and learning. This framework should provide students with written and oral communication skills, analytical abilities and appreciation of creative approaches to problems, at the same time that it provides a common intellectual culture on campus.
Transy tackles Gen Ed, too
William Pollard, Transylvania University's chief academic officer, notes that on his side of town faculty are also working on restructuring general education requirements. They haven't voted on changes yet, but he emphasized, "We are a writing-intensive institution, and we do value quantitative literacy."
In addition to those core components, he anticipates that the faculty will maintain laboratory and foreign language requirements. Transylvania faculty are also considering new interdisciplinary programs as they consider curricular changes.
New students next year will start with an August term, a one-unit course focused on a common text to spark discussions. This formalizes a concept introduced several years ago, when Transylvania began having every incoming student read a common book. Last year's selection was Wendell Berry's "A World Lost." The idea, as with the planned August term, is to inculcate in freshmen what's expected at a selective liberal arts college: close reading of text, discussion, respectful reception of other people's ideas and backing up one's comments with evidence.
Dean Pollard, a literature scholar, invoked a term used by John Keats in a letter to his brothers George and Thomas in 1817: "negative capability." (There's a Kentucky tie here, as George Pollard became a successful banker in Louisville.) Keats was contemplating the human capacity to live with ambiguity and a certain level of uncertainty, rather than push too hard for a firm and final answer. Pollard feels that an effective undergraduate curriculum should teach students, above all else, to open themselves to ambiguity, rather than settle on simplistic solutions.
College professors can help undergraduates learn to make connections between and among the seemingly dissimilar. One of Transylvania's goals for students is to help students see a connection between, say, mathematics and drama. In a way, students are sleuthing for unknowns in both courses. An appropriate general education framework will help students see patterns, and intrinsic value in ideas, without worrying about how it will help them get into graduate school or get a job.
Questioning, communicating, embracing the unknown
With the new general education framework, students will learn to negotiate a diverse world, understand processes of inquiry, and communicate ideas effectively to others.
One guest at the celebration, Rabbi Marc Klein, expressed optimism regarding the new framework.
"There is nothing more important in this world than the way in which we communicate with one another," he said. "We have to move past insisting that we speak the language that we want to speak, viewing the world only in the way in which we want to see it, and determining progress by the way in which we get our way."
Our local institutions, comprehensive research university and liberal arts college alike, see this as the crux of their mission.
Jane S. Shropshire guides students and families through the college search process and is Business Lexington's Higher Ed Matters columnist. Contact her at Jshrop@att.net.