CCR: Institutional Principles and Guidelines

For activities to be recognized on the Co-Curricular Record, it must:

• have a clear connection to the university with a recognized faculty or staff member to validate participation;
• have validation requirements (for example: criteria students must complete in order to have their position validated);
• be grounded in the intentional learning outcomes of the U of S Learning Charter Our Learning Pursuits: Truth and Understanding, Knowledges, Integrity and Respect, Skills and Practices, and Individual and Community Pursuits;
• provide an opportunity for students to be actively engaged (positions or activities in which a student holds a title, but has no duties, will not qualify for validation).

All activities included need to be thoughtfully considered for the learning pursuits that students are achieving by attending them. If the identification of learning pursuits is difficult or vague, then the activity is not a good candidate for the CCR.

Every event does not have to be a co-curricular activity.

All activities on the CCR will be organized in the following five categories:

• Athletics          
  Formalized university sanctioned Huskie athletic team positions.

• Community Service – Learning 
  Activities organized and facilitated by the university or a student organization.  These activities are outside of academic coursework and are not recognized on the academic transcript.
  Example: service opportunities organized as part of a college club, not service learning as part of a course.

• Professional Development
  Activities that foster professional growth in students that are not organized as part of course requirements.
  Example: CPR training sponsored by a student society, but not CPR training undertaken as a private individual.

• Student Government
  Student leadership opportunities such as University of Saskatchewan Student Union (non-executive positions) or the Graduate Student Association Executive.

• Student Life
  Activities that foster student engagement in the campus community such as clubs and events.  These events are organized and facilitated by the university or student organizations.
  Examples: USSU volunteer opportunities, KinLife, Peer Mentor opportunities, and programs such as Building Bridges.

Paid positions are only recognized for student leadership positions if pay is not representative of time and effort. Normally salary positions (such as USSU Executive) are not included.

Students who receive a stipend or honorarium for their contributions that are not representative of student time and effort (such as Peer Mentors, or Graduate Students’ Association Executive Members) are recognized by the CCR.

If there are any questions or concerns regarding whether or not a paid position should be recognized, the CCR Advisory Committee can provide further guidance. 

At present, no standard minimum time requirement for a CCR activity has been established. Each academic or administrative support unit will set its own standards and determine if a minimum time commitment will be required. Units have the discretion to create differential levels of engagement if they so choose. 

Example: Units may wish to create categories of inclusion for volunteer work based on hours of service commitment (i.e. recognizing differentially those who provide only 10 hours of service versus others who volunteer 2 hours every day).

For purposes of the CCR, an academic year is identified as the time period from May 1st to April 30th. The CCR was developed and implemented during 2016-2017 and is not retroactive prior to this time period. 

Activities can normally be added only in the same year that the involvement occurred as deemed appropriate by the College or administrative support unit.  For example, the 2017-2018 CCR year’s activities must have occurred between May 1, 2017, and April 30, 2018.

Since each activity or accomplishment requires validation at the time of its completion, it can be difficult to validate activities or accomplishments from a previous academic period.   The CCR program strives to be inclusive and fair to all students.  It is not the responsibility of the unit to search for student records of attendance at CCR events.  However, if a student can provide evidence of attendance at CCR-approved activities, units have discretion to determine if that activity will be added outside of the current academic year.

Example: possibility of an administrative error on an attendance list. 

Rollover of annual activities will happen in early summer.

Each academic or administrative unit is responsible for communicating CCR opportunities to its students and across the College or unit. Guidelines, graphics and student videos are available to help promote activities.

Units should also consider a procedural strategy for faculty and staff to request an activity be added to the CCR to ensure internal criteria are met and to allow timely validation.  A comprehensive CCR training manual provides detailed instruction on adding and validating requests. 

Considerations for unit communication:

• Discussion at Faculty Council meetings.
• Once per term email to faculty and staff to remind them of the CCR, and how to add activities/newsletters or other communications.
• Provision of a calendar of events for which CCR recognition is granted and regular reminders/updates.
• Clarity on staff designations for CCR administrative and validator roles.
• Regularly links to CCR resources

• Promotional guidelines and graphics
• Information for students
• Information for faculty and staff

General questions can be submitted to ccr@usask.ca.

A CCR User Group has been created to support system administrators and validators.  This group offers a platform to facilitate learning, sharing of information, questions and feedback, and can be accessed by emailing ccr-admins@usask.ca.

The Co-Curricular Advisory Committee provides institutional oversight and maintains the integrity of CCR through high level strategic direction.  The Committee acts as an advocate and monitor of internal and cross-institutional best practices for the CCR, reporting to the Teaching, Learning and Academic Resources Committee (TLARC). The Vice-Provost, Teaching, Learning and Student Experience is the Executive Sponsor for the advisory committee.

Any questions or concerns regarding institutional guidelines and principles can be forwarded to the CCR Advisory Committee by emailing ccr-committee@usask.ca for consideration.

• Committee Terms of Reference