Category Archives: Honors News

Honors updates!

Berkeley Chancellor to Lead National Effort on Behalf of Public Universities

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Our thanks to Larry Gordon of the LA Times for the story reprinted below about a new national effort to preserve and strengthen the nation’s public universities, to be led by outgoing UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.

By way of preface, we note that on the state level similar organizations have been created to deal with the most damaging budgetary and philosophical attacks on public universities, including most of the leading flagship and land-grant institutions. Not only Texas, but Virginia, Florida, and Wisconsin have all faced or survived ill-advised attempts on the part of would-be reformers to use the recent financial crisis as a pretext for implementing a radical agenda that would diminish the excellence of outstanding public universities.

University leaders from UCLA, Michigan, UT Austin, and CUNY will assist Birgeneau, which is an initiative of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences.   Levi-Straus Chairman Emeritus Robert D. Haas is also on board (see below).

The article by Mr. Gordon is below.

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

January 28, 2013

After he retires as chancellor of UC Berkeley in June, Robert J. Birgeneau will head up a national effort to study and help public universities in an era of reduced tax support, new technology and changing student demographics.

Birgeneau, a physicist, is to lead the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ new initiative that will propose ways for the federal government, private industry and foundations to better aid state institutions, along with developing reforms the schools could undertake. It is being called “The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education” — named for President Lincoln, who in 1862 signed the Morrill Act granting federal lands for the establishment of public universities.

The announcement is scheduled to be made Monday at UC Berkeley at an academy symposium about higher education.

Birgeneau, who is 70 and has led UC Berkeley since 2004, said he wanted to help develop “workable plans that will help reverse the progressive disinvestment we have seen in public higher education across the country.”

He said that will not occur by just urging more state funding but will need a wider range of government and private supporters. “The long-term civic and economic welfare of the country depends heavily on a robust public higher education system,” Birgeneau said in an interview, adding that it is too soon to discuss specific goals or plans.

The position is a part-time, unpaid one for Birgeneau, who will begin a sabbatical from UC in June and return at a later date to teach and conduct research. He said he hopes to have the first Lincoln Project proposals ready in a year and that the effort probably will last three years. Previously, Birgeneau was president of the University of Toronto, Canada’s largest public university, and science dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is a policy research center and honorific scholarly organization headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. Its president, Leslie C. Berlowitz, described Birgeneau as “a dynamic and highly respected leader in higher education” and noted his efforts to broaden financial aid for middle-class families and for undocumented students.

Other advisors on the project include UCLA chancellor Gene Block; Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan; Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of the City University of New York; William Powers Jr., president of the University of Texas at Austin; and Robert D. Haas, chairman emeritus of Levi Strauss & Co. and a noted donor to higher education.

 

 

UT Austin: $310 Million for Engineering Research and Student Projects

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The Cockrell School of Engineering at UT Austin has launched a $310 million project to build the Engineering Education and Research Center , which will include 23,000 square feet of space for engineering students to create and develop hands-on projects.

The total size of the center will be 430,000 square feet, including classroom and office space.

Dr. James Truchard, co-founder and CEO of National Instruments, has donated $10 million for the National Instruments Student Project Center.  Dr. Truchard has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, all from UT Austin.

The Cockrell School of Engineering is outgrowing its present space and needs the addition in order to match recent growth at MIT, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, and Texas A&M.

The Cockrell School says that for Truchard, “the  a gift to the EERC is about more than giving back to the university. It’s an investment in National Instrument’s future workforce. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, National Instruments includes more than 6,000 employees working in 40 countries.

“We hire from many different areas, electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering and increasingly biomedical engineering. Our professionals need to be flexible, creative and innovative and know how to stay above the curve. Their education is a critical component to their future success,” Truchard said.

“Bringing to life math and physics to students in a way that it inspires innovative thinking and allowing them to succeed and fail with hands-on projects are just a few of the many benefits Truchard and others look forward to with the building of the EERC,” according to the Cockrell School.

At least one-third of the total cost of the 430,000 square foot facility will come in the form of private donations, with the UT System, the university, and the state of Texas providing the rest.  So far, the Board of Regents has designated $105 million for the project from the state’s permanent university fund.

“Depending on fundraising progress, the construction could begin in 2013, and faculty and students could move into the EERC by 2017,” the School says. “The return on…investment will be substantial since a typical graduating class from the Cockrell School generates
$2.5 billion in annual spending, $1.1 billion in gross product, and 10,240 jobs in the U.S. according to an economic study by the Perryman Group.”

 

 

Clemson President: There Is No Substitute for Campus Learning

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As an architect and president of Clemson University, James F. Barker is perhaps the best person in America to speak to the value of the college campus as a place where young men and women can learn, grow, and be transformed within an atmosphere that is not only intellectually stimulating but also physically beautiful and inspiring.

Barker was one of several college presidents who contributed essays to a publication entitled Responding to the Commodification of Higher Education.  The title of Barker’s essay is “The Endangered Campus: Defining and Defending the Value of Place-Based Higher Education.”

Online delivery is “no substitute for the experience of ‘going away to college,'” he writes. “We must bring that experience into the 21st century and make it meaningful for today’s students. The best education is not transactional but transformational. It’s not: ‘You give me X amount of money and I give you a credential and a degree.’ Rather it is: ‘You give us four years, and you get a life-changing experience.’

Barker might have been speaking as well of the value of Clemson’s Calhoun Honors College, one of the most successful in the nation.

Barker recognizes the utility of digital learning methods, noting that for years Clemson has used a blended model in almost all math courses and in introductory chemistry. Students work in small groups while seated at round “technologically-enabled tables,” where they listen to short lectures and then complete exercises “to reinforce concepts and track progress.”  Using this model, students have had higher success and graduation rates.

Yet the success of this blended model in some kinds of instruction does not replace what Barker calls the “Idea of the Campus,” rooted in five concepts:

• Each campus is a distinct place. Each of us experiences it in a very personal way.
• The campus is a community – an intentional community. We are not born there. We choose to study or work there. It is a place of diversity and unity.
• The campus is stimulating and energetic. It bustles with ideas, creativity, and innovation.
• The campus is a work of art – for many of us, the first designed, beautiful, and cohesive landscape we experience.
• The campus is a place of pilgrimage – a place we return to, to renew a sense of belonging to the community we experienced in our youth.

But campus communities have another powerful value.  “Besides the cultural and historic value of our campuses, they also have economic value” Barker writes. “In a recent New York Times column, Thomas Friedman wrote that ‘the best entrepreneurial ecosystems
in the future will be cities and towns that combine a university, an educated populace, a dynamic business community and the fastest broadband connections. These will be the job factories of the future.'”

But the most important value of the physical campus is the impetus it gives to instruction.  “A beautiful, stimulating campus environment attracts the best students, faculty, and staff. It encourages personal reflection and group learning. Simply being together in a physical place, as a community of teachers and learners, has tremendous educational advantages,” the president-architect writes.

The real concerns for Barker and many other higher education leaders is not whether online instruction will have a significant role on campus but how that role should be defined in a way that does not diminish the overriding place of the campus as the principal seat of learning.

Most would agree with Barker that “he campus has always been the place where students begin separating from their families and gain independence. It’s a place where the deepest kinds of discovery and learning can and should happen. It’s a place where brains are fed, minds are opened, and lifelong connections and communities are formed. It’s a place that attracts creative, innovative people and creates the right ecosystem for community and economic development.”

 

 

 

 

Marshall Scholars 2013

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We now have a complete list of the 2013 winners of the Marshall Scholarships, which fund two years of graduate study at any university in the United Kingdom.

Up to 40 Marshall Scholarships are awarded each year to students at U.S. universities, but this year only 34 scholars were selected.  Below are the 34 students and the 31 universities they represent:

Abilene Christian University–Brittany Partridge, a political science major and founder of the Red Thread Movement, which raises awareness of modern-day slavery and works to save Nepalese girls from the sex trafficking, will study at University College, London. The Red Thread Movement has supporters at about 75 campuses across the nation.  She also won a Truman Scholarship this year.

Air Force Academy–Ian Gibson, also a Truman Scholar, will study political science at the London School of Economics.

Boston College–Aditya Ashok was a winner of the Truman Scholarship in 2011; he majored in history and biology and will study global health at the University of Glasgow.

Brandeis–Elizabeth Stoker, a graduate in theology and Christian ethics, will study philosophy at Oxford.

Brown–Nick Werle, a 2010 graduate in physics and modern philosophy, will work on master’s degrees at University College, London, and the London School of Economics.

Colorado State–Christopher Counts, a student in the honors program with majors in biomedical sciences and anthropology, will study at University College, London.  He is the founder of Hygiene for Humanity.

Columbia–Dylan Liu, an engineering major, will study theoretical physics at Oxford.

UConn–Ethan Butler, a chemical engineering graduate and previous winner of a Udall award, will study at Imperial College, London.

CUNY John Jay College for Criminal Justice–Nicolas Montano, a senior in CUNY’s Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies Program at John Jay College, will pursue two master’s degrees–one in research in the social sciences at the University Liverpool and the other in criminal justice policy at the London School of Economics.

Duke–Kenneth Hoehn, a biology major with minors in computational biology and bioinformatics, will study at Oxford.

Georgetown (2)–Shea Houlihan, an international politics major, will study social research methods and international migration at the University of Sussex.  Benjamin Buchanan graduated in 2011 with a degree in government and minors in Arabic and English, will pursue either a doctorate in war studies from King’s College, London, or a doctorate in information communication and the social sciences at Oxford.

George Washington–Stephanie Figgins, who graduated in 2011 with a degree in economics and international affairs, will study post-colonial culture and global politics at the University of London; she has been a journalist with the Voice of America in Cairo.

Georgia Tech–Jacob Tzegaebe, pursuing a five-year BS/MS degree in civil engineering, will work on a doctorate in the same field at University College, London. He has also earned an NSF grant and was a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.

Harvard (2)–Aditya Balasubramanium will study political science at the London School of Economics, and Alex Palmer will study at King’s College, London.

Illinois–Jonathan Naber, a 2011 graduate in materials science and engineering, designed prosthetic prototypes and established a non-profit organization to provide low-cost prosthetic devices to amputees in the developing world.  Jonathan will pursue a degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  He is now working in Guatemala on a project to make the devices out of native materials.

Michigan–Spencer Smith graduated in 2011 with degrees in economics and math and will study economics at Oxford.

Montana State–Bryan Vadheim, a member of the University Honors Program, is MSU’s first Marshall Scholar.  He will study at the London School of Economics and King’s College, London.  His interests are water science and governance.  Montana State also produced a Rhodes Scholar this year: Joe Thiel, who will study engineering at Oxford.

Naval Academy (2)–Katelyn Davidson, and English major, will work on an M.A. in gender and equality at Queen’s University in Belfast and an M.A. in international peace and security at Kings College, London.  Ronald Allen, an economics major, will study public policy at Kings College, London.  The Naval Academy also had two Rhodes Scholars this year.

Northwestern–Jennifer Mills, a triple major in earth and planetary science, integrated sciences, and chemistry, also has a minor in physics.  She is part of the university’s highly-selective integrated sciences program.  Already the author of two scientific articles, she will study and integrated science, she will study climate science at Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh.

NYU–Jessica Mason, a social work graduate, will study global policy at the London School of Economics and work on an MSc. at Oxford.

Ohio University–Keith Hawkins, already a Goldwater Scholar, studied astrophysics, math, and African studies in the university’s Honors Tutorial College.  He is doing research now at the University of Hawaii and previously did research at Caltech.  He will continue his studies at Cambridge.

Ohio State–Alexander Chaitoff, a Truman Scholarship winner in 2012, will complete an MPH at the University of Sheffield.

Oklahoma–Jerod Coker, a senior economics major, will pursue a master’s degree in economics and philosophy at the London School of Economics, after which he plans to obtain a JD/MBA from Harvard.  OU student Mubeen Shakir, a biochemistry major, was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship this year.

Pitt–Paras Minhas, a microbiology major and student in the honors college, will work on a Ph.D. at University College, London.

Princeton–Jake Nebel, a philosophy student, will work on an M.A. at Oxford.

Rice–Rahul Rekhi, a bioengineering major, will study biology and bioinformatics at Oxford.  He has also won both Truman and Goldwater awards.

USC–Alexander Fullman, a political science major, will continue his studies in that field at Oxford.

UT Austin–William Berdanier, a Dean’s Scholar honors student in physics and math, has also won a Goldwater Scholarship.  His undergraduate research has focused in part on developing fusion energy.  He will study at Cambridge.

Virginia–Hillary Hurd was a Jefferson Scholar at UVA and majored in Russian and East European Studies.  She will concentrate on international studies at Cambridge and at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Washington U St. Louis–Alexander Baron, also a Luce Scholar, has majors in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, and political science.  He will pursue graduate studies at Oxford.

Wesleyan–Zully Adler, a history grad in 2011, will study art history and print culture at Oxford.

 

 

 

 

 

UT Austin Plan II Alumna Joins Staff of First Lady

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Below is a recent story from the UT Austin Plan II site:

Marissa Nichole Duswalt, a spring 2010 Plan II Honors and Dean’s Scholars graduate in Nutritional Science (Registered Dietitian) will transition from her current position in the Office of the Secretary of the US Department of Agriculture to join the White House Office of the First Lady as Associate Director of Policy and Events for the Let’s Move! initiative.

The goal of the Let’s Move! initiative is to reverse childhood obesity, which impacts one in three American children. The initiative seeks to engage every sector of society in this effort, as everyone has a role to play to ensure that America’s kids have the opportunity to reach a healthy adulthood.

Duswalt says she is “honored to serve in this new role for this cause, as it has been a passion of mine since entering college at UT.  As an undergraduate in the Plan II Honors Program as well as the Coordinated Program in Dietetics, I had the privilege of studying this critical issue across multiple disciplines. That academic path prepared me for working in government, and specifically on this issue, which embodies the intersection of science, economics, culture, and policy.  It is a true honor to join Let’s Move!, and I am grateful to the incredible support from the University community that contributed to this moment.”

Although admitted to the MBA program at Stanford, Duswalt couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work in the White House on a project so close to her heart.  She was passionate about civic engagement as an undergraduate, and of course, was encouraged to follow her passions.  We have no doubts that when the time comes and she reapplies to Stanford, that she’ll be admitted once again as a Truman Scholar.

In 2009, Duswalt was awarded a Truman Scholarship.  The selection committee recognized her interest and leadership in the fields of childhood nutrition, behavioral and culinary science, and American food culture.  She’s particularly interested in investigating ways to remedy the increasing rates of obesity in American children.  Her new duties in the White House Office of the First Lady will engage all her interests and skills.

Duswalt, a native of Rosenberg, Texas, and the first in her family to attend college, was one of 60 Scholars selected from among 601 candidates in 2009.  Each Truman Scholarship provides up to $30,000 for graduate study.  Scholars also receive priority admission and supplemental financial aid at some premier graduate institutions, leadership training, career and graduate school counseling, and special internship opportunities within the federal government.

Recipients are United States citizens, have outstanding leadership potential and communication skills, are in the top quarter of their class and are committed to careers in government or non-profits.  In return for the funding, Truman Scholars pledge to serve for three to seven years in the public service sector after receiving their graduate degrees.

Marissa’s Plan II/Dean’s Scholars Honors thesis, supervised by Dr. John Stephen Hursting, Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences, studied the relationships between nutrition, metabolism and disease prevention. Marissa investigated how differences in the saccharide ratio comprising the carbohydrate portion of the American diet lead to obesity and metabolic dysfunction.

Duswalt is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  She was a 2007 Temple Scholar, a Plan II Distinguished Graduate and a Presidential Scholar. As an undergraduate, she initiated a service-learning initiative to integrate civic engagement into the Plan II curriculum, and worked at the Health Promotion Resource Center as a Nutrition Educator.

East Tenn State University: Exemplary Honors Coordination

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It is a dream of many honors deans and directors that their offices might one day be able to coordinate honors curriculum, undergraduate research, internships, and study-abroad under one roof.

That day has already arrived for the Honors College at East Tennessee State University, located in Johnson City, right on the border between Tennessee and Virginia.

Although the bedrock University Honors Scholars program was established in 1993, the advent of the Honors College in 2005 brought with it two more honors options along with the consolidation of all the above functions within the college.  Dean Rebecca Ann Pyles reports that graduation rates are high among the more than 400 students enrolled in all honors options–86–88 percent of students graduate in honors.

The University Honors Scholars program enrolls only about 22 students a year.  Minimum entrancement requirements include an SAT of 1290 and GPA of 3.5.  The UHS program extends across all four years and, like the other two options at the college, requires the completion of an honors thesis.

UHS students complete four year-long seminars, two in the freshmen year and two more as sophomores.  The freshman seminars focus on English and philosophy.  Students consider alternatives to their own views, often from global perspectives, and then reflect on how their own perspectives might be seen by others.

In the sophomore year, much of the emphasis is on the interrelationships of the sciences and the broader culture.  Students not only learn about the most significant scientific concepts but also the ethical responsibilities that accompany many scientific advances.

Sophomores also take a turn toward the creative side.  Students study and participate in studio and performing arts, learning the importance of aesthetics to all elements of human culture.

Juniors participate in the unique Honors Appalachian course, where they study the history, arts, economics,  and politics of the region.

Senior honors work focuses on research and the completion of the honors thesis.

The Midway Scholars option enrolls transfer students with an associate’s degree or at least 30 hours of credit, and with a minimum GPA of 3.5.  Midway Scholars take three honors or honors option courses and must complete a research course and write a thesis.

The Honors in Discipline (HID) option also requires honors or honors option coursework along with a thesis in the major, or “discipline,” of the student.  Currently, seventeen departments are involved in the HID program.

All honors students can take advantage of Washington internships coordinated by the honors office, and can participate in international study, also through the honors college.

Honors students at ETSU also have the option of living on the sixth floor of Governors Hall, new in 2007.  The hall includes space for more than 500 students who share double rooms with private baths.

 

 

 

Honors Student Reflects on Experiences at National Conference

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By Jini Curry, University of West Florida Honors Program

Being part of honors is not just about being smart or making good grades; it is also about learning leadership skills and growing as a student and a person. Coming into college I never realized that one program could have such a lasting impact on my life.

The opportunities that I have been given as an honors student at the University of West Florida are unlimited. As I freshman I went to the 46th annual NCHC in Phoenix, Arizona and I was hooked. Therefore, when the word was spread about proposals for this year’s NCHC in Boston, Massachusetts, I could not pass up the chance. The experiences I had during my stay in Boston are more than what I could have ever imagined, and the passion that it lit inside of me is unstoppable.

Preparing for a conference is not the world’s easiest task, but with the help of my other group members we put together a presentation that we felt would be worthwhile for us to talk about and beneficial for others at the conference to hear, and we went with it. Walking into our presentation room Saturday afternoon and seeing it filled with people was overwhelming, knowing that they were all there to see what our program was doing and how we were running things–that was nerve-racking to say the least. After we presented the questions started flowing in and that is when the real fun began.

For me, one of the greatest parts of the NCHC conference is the collaboration that comes from attending sessions. A question is posed, and then it is discussed. People from all over the United States and the Netherlands get to tell others what their program is doing, how they are running things at the institution, and even the struggles they are going through. At that moment you are able to see what NCHC is truly all about. It is about developing leaders and then teaching them how to work together to come up with a solution. Through feedback from other institutions, you are given an innovative idea of how to fix something that may not be working in yours.

I must admit from a student’s perspective NCHC is not just about the collaboration and the sessions—it is also about the friendships. Going to different sessions, often separated from the people that came from your institution, creates some awkwardness. After you get past that initial “should I talk to the person sitting next to me” worry, the doors open for conversation and oftentimes friendships. The passion that is in a room of Honors students is mind blowing. Everyone is eager to talk about their plans and what they are doing, and if not, someone is there to bring them out of their comfort zone.

For me, talking to random people is not a difficult task and I use that to my advantage. Talking to people is how connections are created and the NCHC conference gives us that opportunity. Whether it is at a session, reflections after the plenary speaker finishes, or even at the many student activities, you are bound to encounter someone that you do not know. You gain the courage to talk to them and the next thing you know, a new friendship is developing.

Overall the 47th annual NCHC conference was an experience that will never be replaced. I made connections with other institutions, I created friendships with people in many different states, I collaborated with others on Honors related topics, I learned skills that would enhance my leadership, and my passion for Honors grew greater. The experiences that come from attending the NCHC conference far outweigh the strife that it takes to get there. Never think that you have nothing to bring to the table if you attend or that the process is too difficult, because if you do believe that, you are missing out on the chance of a lifetime.

NCHC Conference: UC Irvine Develops Exemplary Transfer Option for CC Honors Students

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Already recognized as a leader among major public universities for the quality of its Campuswide Honors Program (CHP), the University of California-Irvine has also made a success of the “honors to honors” program that helps to guide high-performing community college students to CHP.

Before honors to honors, the number of community college transfers into CHP was extremely low, in the range of one or two students a year.  Now, 20 to 30 community college honors students are welcomed into CHP, and the best news of all is that they perform as well as, or in some areas better than, the “native” students in the program.

Successful transfer students into CHP must be nominated by their community college honors program.  At first, the CHP pilot honors to honors program had partnerships with only eight community colleges in California, but now the number has risen to 14.  To be nominated by one of these institutions, students must have a 3.7 g pa.  Then, since they are nominated in the middle of a term, CHP does an additional review when the student’s final grades for the term are available.

The honors transfer students fall into two basic types: students who are about the same age as juniors who entered the program as freshmen, and students who are older or “non-traditional” students.

CHP has tried with varying results to find ways to connect the freshman entrants with the transfer students, especially with the non-traditional students, but there can be significant differences between the groups.  On the other hand, the transfer students are themselves a part of the honors experience for freshman entrants because of the special experiences the non-traditional students have had.

Over the past few years, CHP has learned that the factors below are often involved:

–The quarter system can be confusing to transfer students who have been on the semester system.

–Study and writing skills for some transfer students may not be fully developed.

–The family responsibilities of transfer students are often very demanding.

–Transfer students may be more stressed, upset, or even depressed.

–They are also more likely to have job responsibilities.

Yet despite these differences, Lisa Roetzel, associate director of CHP, says that transfers perform as well and graduate as promptly as freshmen entrants, and they tend to be even more receptive to the thesis requirement, in part because many have already made plans for graduate school.  Transfer students also take full advantage of the increased faculty contacts afforded by CHP.

CHP advisor Mary Gillis has created a special schedule for transfer advising, including the use of paid peer advisors who are successful transfer students themselves.  The special advising also includes GRE preparation and counseling for degree planning.

The first semester advising is generally focused more on support, encouragement, and efforts to make the transfer students a part of the overall honors community.  Transfers are eligible for honors housing and priority registration, just like freshman entrants.

Since about half of UCI’s students now are first-generation college students, the matchup with outstanding community college scholars may be more feasible, as many of them too are the first members of their families to attend college.

One result of UCI’s close partnership with community colleges is that many of the best honors students from the two-year schools are choosing UCI honors instead of honors or regular admission at other UC campuses.

NCHC Conference: A Student Board of Directors Candidate Speaks Out

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Planning a national conference in Boston, the birthplace of American Independence, allowed the National Collegiate Honors Council to go with their instincts and tie many conference presentations to the individual and independent character of honors programs–and honors students.

One such student is Riley Cook from the University of Iowa Honors Program, who is a candidate for the two-year term as student representative on the national board of the NCHC.  It is fitting that the NCHC would include students on its board, and the presence of 600 honors students at the annual conference attests to the interest and commitment to honors students.

We ran into Riley at the conference and realized that his outlook corresponded closely with the overall theme of the meeting: challenging structures in higher education. Other articles about the conference have addressed the commitment of the honors community to insist that a high-level college education must go far beyond the acquisition of specialized skills to include an intellectual focus on “the things that matter” the most in life: a deeper understanding of ourselves and our relation to other human beings and institutions.

Or, to use Riley Cook’s own words, honors “should not just be something to put on a resume; it should be a medium through which students explore their passions on a personal level with faculty and fellow students to their full extent. My main concern is what honors can do intrinsically for students to enrich their academics rather than just be a series of requirements to fulfill.”

Now if you look at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, you will see the following: “Intrinsic value has traditionally been thought to lie at the heart of ethics. Philosophers use a number of terms to refer to such value. The intrinsic value of something is said to be the value that that thing has ‘in itself,’ or ‘for its own sake,’ or ‘as such,’ or ‘in its own right.'”

Intrinsic values are what we discover; instrumental knowledge is what we receive.  Honors education is about discovery.

Riley expressed concern to us that many institutions lack the commitment to honors education that would allow faculty to teach the smaller discussion courses that promote this kind of discovery.  The reason: faculty “productivity”is a metric used by administrators–and legislators–to assess how efficient departments are, productivity typically reflects only the quantity of students taught, and not the content or individual character of courses.

“Unfortunately,” Riley said, “the quantity of students in the classroom is considered more financially worthwhile than investing in the quality of personalized honors discussion.”

Riley sees this as shortsighted.   “I spoke with a business student in honors at [another] university who informed me that an honors program did not always exist there. The lack of honors directly affected enrollment, significantly enough to necessitate the establishment of such a program.” In other words, honors attracts more students, and these students, in turn, raise the overall quality and perception of the university.

Riley also sees the importance of honors programs in generating support from honors alumni who can become mentors and, in some cases, donors to the institution.

“Students aren’t the only ones who benefit from honors opportunities,” he said. “By offering research opportunities, professors are able to work with valuable research assistants. Even collaborating on a student’s independent research project could influence their research or at least deepen their knowledge of a certain topic in their field. In a university setting, professors are learners, too, and the students they collaborate with may become valuable partners in their field in the years to come.”

After hearing what Riley has had to say, it should be no surprise that honors faculty frequently find themselves in the role of partners or facilitators, and less as the intellectual masters who deliver wisdom from on high.  They, too, engage in the process of discovery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

University of Maine-Orono: Carefully Blended Honors Curriculum

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The Honors College at the University of Maine-Orono is highly-respected among honors professionals, and one reason is that the college curriculum is a well-balanced blend of a liberal arts core curriculum augmented by a carefully coordinated department focus in the junior and senior years.

The core is typically made up of four courses:

“The four courses constituting Civilizations: Past, Present, and Future follow a chronological trajectory from earliest recorded times through the present, examining philosophy, history, literature, the arts, and natural, physical, and social sciences. In particular, by incorporating primary sources, small group discussions, and multiple perspectives, these courses explore the way in which civilizations and cultures have been developed and have interacted with others.”

In the third year, students take honors tutorials and seminars, most of which satisfy the university’s general education requirements.  Through careful reading, honors students can select “from among eight texts nominated by the University community, the ‘Honors Read’ for incoming students in the Honors College a year hence.”

Honors students in a tutorial also select a visiting scholar in ethics for the succeeding year, a process that requires students to analyze writings and other “evidence presented about the candidates, deliberate using those criteria, and correspond and negotiate with viable candidates to determine availability and suitability.”  This exercise combines extensive research with a real-world decision-making problem.

In the senior year, honors students must take an honors directed study course, which prepares them for their senior honors thesis.  The directed study course and thesis count for three credit hours each.  Honors graduation requires at least 27 credit hours in honors courses, and AP credits are not applied to honors credit.

The university as a whole is increasing its focus on prestigious scholarship competition.  In recent years, Maine students have won four Goldwater scholarships in the last six years along with four Udall awards, all of which are earned by undergraduates.  Also in the last two years Maine students have won four National Science Foundation Graduate Research Grants.  In 2012, a Maine student was awarded the school’s fourth Truman Scholarship.

The best academic departments at Maine are earth sciences, social work, clinical psychology, education, and history.

The college does not publish average admission statistics, but we estimate the the minimum SAT score for the honors college is around 1200 to 1250, with a high school graduate place in the top 10-12 percent.  Again, this is only an estimate based on some comparable programs.

Honors students benefit from program advisors who are former honors students at Maine, and also have the support of honors preceptors/instructors in many academic departments.  About 120 freshmen honors students out of approximately 750 on campus choose to live in honors housing in Colvin and Balentine Halls.

Colvin remodeling was finished in 2008, and the facility also houses the Thomson Honors Center, home of the college.  Colvin is the smallest residence hall on campus, home to 36 students in 8 quads, one triple, plus the RA’s quarters.  “The floors are hardwood, the bathrooms are brand new, and Colvin is the only residence hall with wireless throughout.”

“Balentine Hall, arguably one of the most beautiful buildings on campus, was first occupied in 1914….Balentine Hall was an all-women’s residence hall until the fall of 2003; today it is part of Honor’s College housing, with room for 78 students in the residential areas.”

It may still be the case that a few honors students also live in Penobscot Hall.  All honors residence halls have both freshmen and upperclassmen.