During the 2023-2024 academic year we have continued moving forward with the re-design of the Kent Core. The Re-envisioning Kent Core Leadership Team has continued to provide oversight and input through each phase of this project. This academic year included the creation of the Model and Administrative Oversight Sprint teams. Additionally, the Budgetary Sub-committee also continued providing input to the overall re-design process. The following report documents the highlights of each of these teams as well as providing recommendations for the next steps in this process.

Phase V – Summer 2023 (June – August) 

• Design and launch Advisor Listening Tour.
• Use subcommittees recommendations to begin research on infrastructure and implementation.
• Develop strategy to conduct Student Listening Tours.
• Complete data analysis of Academic Unit Listening Tour, NSSE data (2014, 2017, 2020) and Advisor data (2018).
• Launch Alumni Phone Campaign.

Phase VI – Fall 2023 (September – December) 

Four areas of initial focus:

• Costs associated with offering different courses; 
• Identifying the pedagogical best practices in offering Core courses; 
• Decisions in Core offerings and role of budgetary model 
• Budgetary Model and Gen Ed at other universities

Initial take-away and future work:

Identified four broad themes that encompass distinctiveness:

•  Culture of Care, Access, and Community
•  Civic responsibility builds from the past toward a future vision 
•  Local to international partnerships lead to cross-  cultural learning 
•  Innovations to improve the world   

Embedded in these four themes developed initial list of items that are distinct to Kent State University.

Distinctiveness Subcommittee Membership:

Initial focus on six areas of student outcomes:

• Effective Communication
• Information Literacy
• Ethical, Equitable, Socially Responsible Decision-Making Skills
• Effective Collaboration Skills
• Self-Discovery and Personal Development
• Creative, Critical and Integrative Thinking Skills

Current work:

• Use Q-Sort to inform prioritization of strategies (educational experiences) supporting student outcomes 

Design Subcommittee Membership:

During the fall and spring semesters our work focused on:

• Completion of Faculty Listening Tours
• Formation and work of three subcommittees:
  • Design
  • Distinctiveness
  • Budgetary Reform