Get involved with TEK

Dear Colleagues,

To be Kentucky’s university, we must work together to prepare our students today to be Kentucky’s workforce tomorrow. I am thrilled to highlight TEK, the Transdisciplinary Educational approaches to advancing Kentucky.

As stated in this week’s article in UKNow, the “bedrock principle” of TEK is “that the best solutions emerge when people with different backgrounds and expertise come together.” Here at UK — in everything we do — we believe collaboration and teamwork are fundamental to our success. In teaching, in researching, in clinical care and in service, we come together to solve problems, innovate answers and discover what is possible.

We created TEK, our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), as an essential part of our accreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Launched earlier this year, TEK was developed after tremendous input from our people and implemented to imagine a future where UK meets the employment needs of the Commonwealth.

Our QEP involves our entire campus community — students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners — with identifying opportunities in the classroom, in labs, in clinical spaces, in the field and elsewhere to address the greatest challenges facing Kentuckians. I also wish to thank those of you who have stepped up to serve as Faculty Fellows, where you are using your expertise and passion to transform many of our current courses to enhance teaching of key employability skills, necessary for team-based approaches to solve our society’s most complex problems. In essence, TEK is central to our strategic plan, the UK-PURPOSE, which prioritizes our mission of advancing Kentucky above all else.

I hope you will read the UKNow article in this week's Faculty Focus newsletter to discover ways you can engage with this incredibly important initiative. Do not hesitate to reach out to TEK’s director, Dr. Susan Cantrell, if you have any questions. Thank you for all you do for our community.

Robert S. DiPaola, M.D.

Provost