General Education Council

The UNK General Education Council establishes learning objectives and guidelines for the General Education program and courses.  This body regularly reviews courses, assessment, and structure.  Regular Council meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month from September through May, excluding January, at 3:30 p.m.

The Council consists of 13 voting members who are faculty members from the Colleges of Arts & Sciences (6), Business & Technology (3), Education (3), and the Calvin T. Ryan Library (1).  These members are nominated by college Deans and appointed for three-year terms by the Senior Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs.  There are five non-voting, ex-officio members:  the Director of General Education (Council Chair), Senior Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs, University Registrar, Director of Assessment, and Director of Academic Advising & Career Development.

• 2024-2025 General Education Council members
• Past Council meeting minutes
• Current meeting agenda

Proposed Bylaws (governance document) Revisions.  At the April 3, 2025 GEC meeting, the Council approved revised governance bylaws to be sent out for campus comment.  Below are links to the current document, proposed revisions, and a table with more specific information on what has been revised and added.

• Current General Education Program governance document (approved 4/4/2024)
• Proposed General Education Bylaws
• Old/New Document Comparison Table

Summary of major provisions that would or would not change:

• GEC composition, voting rules, and member roles would not change.
• Course Approval, Oversight, and Assessment standing subcommittees would be created to assist the Council in governance duties. These subcommittees were temporarily approved to operate this academic year as a pilot measure, and, anecdotally, have been very successful.
• The course approval process would continue in the adjusted order temporarily approved for this academic year: all proposals would be submitted to the GE Director, who signs off on the syllabus checklist before sending the proposal to the Course Approval Subcommittee. This body authorizes the proposal for campus comment and advises the entire Council as it considers final approval.
• Campus comment windows for course approvals and other minor program and bylaws changes would be reduced from two weeks to one – this will make it easier to complete the entire process from submission to GEC approval within a month. (Major program and bylaws changes would still have 2-week campus comment windows.)
• Procedures for considering courses for probation or removal from the GE program would be added.
• Meeting rules passed at the September 2024 GEC meeting regarding the agenda, attendance, proxies, and participation would be codified.

A campus-wide forum will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, April 16 at 4:00 p.m. to present these revisions and take questions and comments.