Russell, Lauren. (2009). Priority Scheduling

If one is enrolled in an Honors College, one is required to take honors classes. These classes, because of their rigor and the low number of students willing to take them, are often scarcely offered and conflicts with scheduling are not uncommon. In order to graduate on time, students must take all of the required honors courses in a timely manner. Thus, students actively involved in their Honors College should get the first selection of courses so that their schedule will include all courses needed and can graduate on time. The Honors College at Southern Arkansas University is meeting this characteristic by providing it’s students with priority scheduling.

Gray, Darrell. (2009). Honors College Visibility

“The program should be both visible and highly reputed throughout the institution so that it is perceived as providing standards and models of excellence for students and faculty across the campus.” I do not believe that our program fits this standard. As I walk throughout the campus, there are many signs, banners, and advertisements for various sections of the college. I see many things that revolve around fraternities and sororities, but nothing involving the Honors College and the honors program. Without this visibility, many prospective students will not be attracted to our program. Many students may not even know the difference between the Honors College and the Honors Hall. I sure didn’t. Many potential honors students would end up in classes that are not challenging and don’t push them to achieve their potential.

The Honors College doesn’t really have visibility among our fellow classmates. Among us honors students, I believe that the consensus is that this is a pretty good program. Nobody outside of the Honors College really knows much about the program. Our program can’t provide models of excellence if it does not do anything to stand out or set itself apart. But I believe that in a few years, our Honors College can be a bright spot in this university and in turn be a great recruiting tool. The Honors Program should be one of the top sections of the university since it is composed of the “cream of the crop.” Our program isn’t as developed as other programs on campus so there isn’t as much hype centered around it as it is in others parts of the university. The program also doesn’t have many supporters. Other programs have alumni and others who donate and support in various ways. These programs are able to do more and able to generate more interest and revenue in turn. In time, our program should be up to par with the rest of the university’s many components.

Dawson, Stephanie. (2009). Honors Teachers Requirements

As outlined in the Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program, the staff who teach the honor classes must be “carefully selected,” capable of teaching advanced students, and able to provide them with “intellectual leadership.” Southern Arkansas University has not only met this criterion, but is also seeking to go beyond it.

Because the Honors College is new to SAU, the list of honor classes is short. For now, however, this is a positive thing as it shows the thoroughness of teacher selection. Not all teachers are capable of teaching advanced students who want to, not only get by, but to excel and get the most out of their time in college. Teaching alone is not nearly enough. Teachers must work with students on coursework as well as teaching them how to it applies to everyday life and how to rise above the norms of a typical college student. Selecting teachers for this task can be difficult, as there are few at SAU currently who meet these requirements. However, the teachers who do teach honors are excellent at what they do. Moving at a swifter and more advanced pace, current they allow their students freedom in the classroom to voice their opinions and grow as students.

With the expansion of Honors College courses comes the recruiting of teachers. The upcoming meeting: “So You Think You’d Like to Teach Honors” will be a way for prospective honors faculty to become informed of what is expected and also to decide if they are capable of achieving the requirements and what is expected of them by both the school and the students. Instead of merely wanting to expand the honors program for show, SAU seeks to expand the college in a way that can provide the most benefit for the student. Southern Arkansas University has met this demand of a fully developed honors program.

Tye Daniel. (2009). Honors Dorm and Other Facilities

Though the Honors College has its own dorm in name, and an office with the title Honors College on the door, there is much needed when considering suitable quarters and facilities for the program. According to the National Collegiate Honors Council’s list of basic characteristics of a fully developed honors program, “The program should occupy suitable quarters constituting an Honors center with such facilities as an Honors library, lounge, reading rooms, personal computers and other décor”. None of these are in actuality provided specifically for the Honors College, and by not doing so Southern Arkansas University cannot claim to have a fully developed honors program.

To begin, the idea of the Honors College currently having any of its own facilities or a reasonable office must be refuted. Honors students must share their dorm with the leadership college as well as other students outside of the honors college. Consequently, honors students must compete with other students for facilities such as the computer room, study space, and lounge area. This is particularly hard on honors students carrying a large workload. The thought of typing papers and conducting Internet research in a space with music blasting and loud conversations has caused some honors students to migrate to the library to compete for computer space in the quiet lab, or to deprive themselves of sleep by working on papers in the wee hours of the morning. Study rooms in the Honors College are on a first come, first serve basis resulting in many honors students having to find other places to study when students outside of honors occupy these rooms. This makes some members of the Honors College feel that the university isn’t taking them into consideration. The current Honors College office is not located in a central part of campus; rather it has a cramped office in Peace Hall without enough space for honors staff and the honors director.

The Honors College is in need of certain living quarters and facilities in order for it to continue its development. To begin, honors students are in need of full possession of their dorm, which would solve the issues of study space, living quarters, and computers. A suitable space for an honors lounge is necessary to the further development of the Honors College. This would provide needed entertainment and camaraderie among honors students, and perhaps develop enough morale to make students considering transferring to another college’s program desire to stay instead. Honors College is also in need of an office in the Reynolds’ Center or some other central location on campus capable of being comfortably visited by honors students. This central office would make the Honors College feel less segregated from the rest of campus. It would also make faculty and staff more aware of the Honors College.

In conclusion, the Honors College is in need of improvement when concerning quarters and facilities; however, these improvements are quite possible and within the capability of Southern Arkansas University.

Tye, Daniel. (2009). Problems in Higher Education

Post-secondary education has been available for those who wish to sharpen their academic prowess in America even before it became independent of Great Britain. Now, nearly a decade into the new millennium, post-secondary education has almost become a given for those who wish to succeed at a career and live above the poverty level. Institutions of higher learning are facing both old and new problems. These problems, if not remedied, could potentially cause the downfall of the university system and cause further harm to the reputation of our nation. This essay is being written in order to raise awareness of the crisis befalling universities across the nation. Problems facing these institutions include, but are not limited to: a need to restructure the university system, the idea of general education, and various pitfalls in the graduate education program.

To begin, the restructuring of the university is the key to its efficiency and survival. Departments at most universities are rigid, unchanging, and merely coexist with each other. Professors are given tenure, which allows them to be extremely independent of their coworkers and teach what they believe is relevant to the course (Taylor). This independence among professors does not allow for necessary collaboration. Tenure and such broad academic freedom cause narrow scholarship, and overly specific training and data that is rarely relevant to future careers (Taylor). Undergraduate and graduate students alike will continue to be ill prepared entering their careers, if the university model is not restructured to encompass a more collaborative effort among professors at achieving broad scholarship. Another matter relating to the efficiency of the university is communication with secondary schools. High school students are more likely to take advanced, specialized classes in order to be noticed by universities (Reid). Thus, although students may have outstanding test scores and have taken classes that make them stand out from their peers it may take a while for students to become acclimated to the college experience. This is a hard problem to remedy; however, the solution may lie within combining secondary and post secondary schools in the future.

Another problem that must be addressed lies within the idea of a “general education”. General education in university today is often used by professors as a way to get out of “general education.” Liberal education requires to students to be trained in multiple facets of their selected fields. What general education allows professors to do is to focus on aspects of their “specialty fields”, while a student may suffer the consequences in an increasingly competitive world. Another problem in granting degrees in general education is less obvious. Rather than training students to learn and to fulfill the goals of liberal education, professors are training them to be prepared for graduate school (Connor). These practices, again, relate to the idea of departments working together. That seems much more efficient than being a class a non major must struggle through in order to meet a prerequisite.

Still another notable set of problems with post-secondary education are the many pitfalls in the current graduate school programs. The major problem found with grad school programs is best described by Mr. Mark Taylor of the New York Times: “The dirty secret of higher education is that without underpaid graduate students to help in laboratories and with teaching, universities couldn’t conduct research or even instruct their growing undergraduate populations. That’s one of the main reasons we still encourage people to enroll into doctoral programs. It is simply cheaper to provide graduate students with modest stipends and adjuncts with as little as $5,000 a course -with no benefits- then it is to hire full-time professors.” This system, prevalent among universities, has no easy solution without considering extreme financial overhaul of the entire university system. Another problem a graduate student faces is heavy competition among a growing number of peers and few position openings. The benefits between starting a career out of high school and after achieving an undergraduate degree are still considerable, but steadily declining. This has led to many more undergraduates taking advantage of the benefits offered through masters and doctoral programs. This overcrowding of these programs is another issue not easily solved.

In conclusion, America’s post-secondary education programs are in need of a serious overhaul. While there are plausible solutions to all the problems listed in this essay, there is a need for joint individual and cooperative effort among universities in order for education in America to thrive once again.

Bibliography

Caitlin Reid, K. H.-C. (n.d.). "Re-envisioning Education and Democracy." . Retrieved from The Bridge Program: Connecting Performance-Based Reform with Post-Secondary Education.

Connor, R. W. (2005, November 17). College Makeover. Retrieved from Slate Magazine.

Taylor, M. C. (2009, April 26). End of the University as we Know It. Retrieved from The New York Times.

Irvin, Sarah. (2009). Honors Courses Needed

One area in which the Southern Arkansas University Honors College could use work is in the courses it offers. An Honors College’s curriculum should offer significant course opportunities across all four years of study.[1] As far as honors credit classes go, Southern Arkansas University Honors College is not doing so great.

The current honors credit hour requirement for Southern Arkansas University Honors College stands at twenty-four hours with eighteen hours to consist of general education courses and the remaining six hours to consist of upper division courses.[2] [Editor's Note: It is now 9 general educations courses minimum] While these seem to be solid numbers, there are multiple factors that can make achieving these required hours difficult for a student. The number one factor is concurrent credit. These are college level classes taken by a student in high school, which count for both high school and college credit. Concurrent credit course opportunities usually consist of general education courses and do not include any honors credit courses. This is a problem because when that student reaches college with all these pre-completed general education course credits, they must struggle to find honors credit in courses that have not already taken.

Another problem that occurs for Honors College students is trying to find honors credit courses in their chosen field. Southern Arkansas University does not offer an equal number of honors credit courses in all subject areas. For example, there are not many honors credit opportunities in either English or art but there are more than enough opportunities for science majors. This causes some students to resort to taking classes they do not need or want because they need the honors credit in order to graduate.

Overall, I believe this Honors College is an asset to Southern Arkansas University, but there is always room for improvement. One way Southern Arkansas University could improve is by offering a wider range of honors credit courses. If there are not enough students to fill a separate honors course, the university could consider contract or online courses. As far as the general education hours are concerned, Southern Arkansas University could solve this problem by either lowering the total number of required honors credit or by allowing students to take less general education honors credit, and more upper division honors credit.

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[1] SAU Honors College Report Card

[2] Southern Arkansas University Undergraduate Catalog 2009-2010 page 3.

Irvin, Sarah. (2009). Change the Baccalaureate?

A college diploma used to lead to a good job, financial security, and respect. Now, in a time of record college enrollment coupled with a growing economic recession, a college diploma no longer guarantees those results. A record 18.4 million students are currently enrolled in colleges and universities around the United States, compared to just 12 million in 1999. But what is happening to them after graduation? What will happen when those 18.4 million students are sent out in to the world armed with a brand new diploma? Will they reap the same reward as past graduates?

One of the biggest debates concerning colleges and universities today is the structure and value of the baccalaureate or the bachelor’s degree. That degree, developed more than 60 years ago, is still used by the majority of colleges today. It consists of four years of classes containing general education and major specific information.

On one side of the debates are those who are concerned that the current bachelor’s degree program no longer adequately prepares students for life after college. According to Mark C. Taylor, “Most graduate programs in American universities produce a product for which there is no market and develop skills for which there is diminishing demand.” The big question seems to be: while this system worked perfectly 60-70 years ago, is it still practical today?

On the other side of the debate are people who argue that new ideas and technology are allowing for more specialized degree options at some schools. These new degrees would offer solutions to current social problems and contribute to new scientific discoveries. While the old baccalaureate degrees focus on general subject areas, the new degrees would be centered on current issues. An example could be a degree all about “Going Green.” This major could deal with environmental science. Students would learn about environmental issues, resource technology, and problem solving skills. They could take classes in chemistry, physics, biology, geology, and geography. These degrees would be more focused on “hands-on” work as opposed to classroom time. They would include more field trips, internships, and work study opportunities. The focus would be on the student’s ability to learn and display skills rather than on memorizing facts. These new degree programs would allow students to explore their surroundings and learn new ways of approaching problems. Some argue that the current degree programs cause “cloning,” or where students learn to become exact replicas of their professors. The best way to solve the cloning problem is to reconstruct the American baccalaureate. Imagine what college would look like if these new degrees containing classes from all disciplines came to be the new norm.

[1] Source: Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2009, Table 211

[2] Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, October 1999.

[3] Source: End of the University as We Know It. Mark C. Taylor <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html>

Mawalagedara, Nimendra. (2009). Honors Admissions

The article states that one characteristic of fully developed Honors College is that “a fully developed Honors College should exercise considerable control over honors recruitment and admissions, including the appropriate size of the incoming class” and the Honors College of Southern Arkansas University does fulfill this requirement.

Honors College recruits students. But if should be more efficient. Personally, I never received information about the Honors College. It would be more efficient if the Honors College was able to inform all the applicants who have made a certain GPA, SAT or SAT score that they are eligible to apply.

Admissions to the Honors College is by a separate application. The applicants to Honors College are required to complete and submit an additional application. The application contains general questions and two essays. In addition to the academic requirements, the essays give the student a chance to tell the college officials why that student wants to be in the Honors College. This extra information allows the Honors College to choose or filter students and select those that would best meet the requirements of the Honors College.

The Honors College has and appropriate number of incoming freshman. By regulating the number of incoming freshman the college can maintain housing in an appropriate manner and provide comfortable accommodation to each and every student and I believe apt accommodation is vital for academic excellence. A regulated intake of students also allows the honors classes to be smaller. It is crucial to have a low enough number of students so that each on can communicate with the professor freely, but it is also important to have enough students in the class to make discussions more enriched. I believe the Honors College has done a good job at admitting an appropriate number of students.

Mawalagedara, Nimendra. (2009). Education as the Primary Focus

When Sherwood Anderson said “The whole object of education is to develop the mind” I am certain he was oblivious about future education systems. Maybe there was a time when education was a pristine entity that provided unlimited knowledge to whomever was willing to absorb it. But somewhere between the time when people started moving out of caves to the time when careers started dominating every part of life, we have lost our interest in learning. Somewhere down the line, we have stopped questioning why the sun rises in the morning and sets at night. Concepts which are seemingly simple have been taken for granted. If our thirst for knowledge and exploration dwindles, we could stagnate as a species. It is our will to explore, our ability to cope with change and our undying desire to question bleak ideologies that brought us this far. Therefore, I believe boundaries should not be imposed on education, I also believe that an extremely liberal education is not the answer.

A liberal arts education system gives a student broader insight into a wide range of subjects. Students learn to draw in ideas from a vast area. It promotes spontaneous inspirations. Although some courses may not seem worth exploring and others may have no connection to the student’s chosen major, filtering education by what is useful or not is impossible. That is why I believe dullest and seemingly unworthy courses could teach students something that would alter the way they view their field of study. The physicists in the 1800’s were confident that they had peaked in physics discoveries. They were so confident that in 1890, Michaelson announced that “the more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered.” With the dawn of 1900, Maxwell Planck was trying to decide if he should go into research physics. His advisors warned him against it because they, like Michaelson, believed that our knowledge of physics had reached its saturation point. But a few years later, quantum physics was discovered, and with it modern physics became the place where greatest and most exciting discoveries lay. The universe is infinite; our understanding of things is negligible. All it takes is a new angle or an innocent question to break the next barrier. By limiting students to one course and specializing in a particular field leaves little room for serendipity. So it is extremely difficult to classify any course as less important or of little use. Limiting education can be the most dangerous thing.
While I strongly believe that what one has learnt will not be wasted; I also believe that an education system which is too broad and the liberal arts can dilute one’s education. If an institution emphasizes too much diversity of course and less on the depth of each course, students would graduate with very little knowledge that can be channeled into something productive. Forcing university freshman to follow a general education system under the assumption that they are not experienced enough to choose a major who is related to their future career is absurd. Freshman add up experiences every day, with each experience their point of view gradually changes.

Our experiences define us, but we cannot predict when we will experience a defining moment which would enlighten us about a new career path. What is the gauge that tells us when we are ready to make that decision? How old must we be before we are certain of what we want? Focusing on a particular major that interests us at the time is much better than groping around indecisively.

Having a liberal education within a chosen major would be a reasonable balance between the liberal arts and structural education systems. If students can explore various fields related to their degree program, then that would give them a much deeper understanding of the subject than if they specialized in one particular area of their chosen field. But, if students can discover how to apply what they learned in several different classes to their chosen major, that would reflect the best of what they learnt.

However, I firmly believe that the problem is that we are trying to define is what constitutes a “perfect” university education is. The beauty of education is that one can learn the same thing is several different ways. Each individual would have their own preference. Some would prefer a more career oriented education while others would like to follow a more structured system which would prepare them for a future in academics. Trying to fit everyone into one particular system would cause more harm and hinder undiscovered potential. Rather than trying to come up with the best education system, it would be better to come up with the effective education SYSTEMS which would fit the needs of all the different people out there. For instance I believe establishing career oriented, academic, liberal arts, and traditional universities we can achieve an equilibrium. Perhaps it can be done within a particular university. Even now, universities have separate science courses for science and arts majors. If that idea is expanded on a larger scale would allow students to not only choose their major but also how they want to study it.

King, Samson. (2009). Honors and Decentralization

Southern Arkansas University has a much more centralized form of control over its departments and colleges when compared to other similar universities. This is in no small part due Dr. David Rankin’s status as president also essentially being an “aggregate dean” status that places him in a more direct line of power over the colleges present at Southern Arkansas University. This is not necessarily always a bad thing, but it does place more responsibility directly in his hands where it may in other cases be delegated to a dean overseeing one college.

Other universities feature a more decentralized system for the development and administration of their internal, specialized colleges. This makes the system employed at Southern Arkansas University particularly unfriendly to certain internal colleges, since some, such as Honors Colleges, stipulate that they must originate from universities who feature the decentralized system and, thereby, maintain a greater degree of control and autonomy within the college itself. While it is true that the Honors College at Southern Arkansas University, much like the other internal colleges at Southern Arkansas University, has a designated head, it does not have any position close to what could be considered “dean status.” This severely gimps the Southern Arkansas University Honors College and prevents it from meeting the requirements of a “fully developed” honors college one might find elsewhere.

The Honors College is surely not the only internal specialized college found at Southern Arkansas University that is, in many ways, not as fully developed as it could potentially be if it had a dean that oversaw its development, fund allocation, and curriculum free of outside intervention. It is, however, a newer college on campus, and is grossly under-represented. This state of being is further exacerbated by its facelessness; there is not as much talk of the Honors College as its own entity, as there is for other on-campus colleges. At the same time, the individuals that comprise the Honors College also make up parts of every other college on campus, making it uncertain as to whether or not the Honors College, as a group of individuals simultaneously representing other colleges, truly has a “face” of its own. Regardless of this, there is little to no chance for it or the other internal colleges at Southern Arkansas University to experience exponential growth under centralized, non-dean oriented control. In fact, in a local social environment that not only does not foster faculty and student involvement in school politics and decisions, chance for change from this model of governance is bleak at best. This is a perfect case of a cause for a problem further facilitating a problem and, in return, allowing the problem to propitiate the causation to create a cyclical pattern.

Harned, Kahle. (2009). Experimentation in Honors

“The Honors program, in distinguishing itself from the rest of the institution, serves as a kind of laboratory within which faculty can try things they have always wanted to try but for which they could find no suitable outlet. When such efforts are demonstrated to be successful, they may well become institutionalized thereby raising the general level of education within the college or university for all students. In this connection, the Honors curriculum should serve as a prototype for things that can work campus-wide in the future.” -- Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program

Does the SAU Honors program live up to this criterion for a fully developed honors college? I think we are getting there. Though there seems to be no mandate in SAU's honors program to actually experiment with honors students, I believe most of the faculty does this without being told to. With my limited experience in the honors program thus far, I see ample opportunity for professors to experiment with new teaching ideas, of which honors students would be able to test. In full honors classes, many professors test ideas they may think will work on more advanced students, and in turn see if it will apply to the general student body. In regular classes, professors are able to use honors students as a test bed for material that they may deem too complicated for their main classroom body of students. Our honors program does not fully live up to this criterion for two main reasons: First, our honors program has a very limited scope and implementation thus far. We have very few honors courses and students. Second, we have no system in place to make sure that professors experiment with honors students or if they do, we have no guarantee that they will implement it to the benefit of the student body as a whole. I give us a B+ for general implementation of this criterion.

Stress Data from Honors General Psychology Class

Dr. Chrisanne Christensen's honors general psychology class heard a presentation from three of its members about the results of a stress questionnaire they gave to 46 Southern Arkansas University honors students this Fall semester.

Using the CUSS (the College Undergraduate Stress Scale) they found that SAU honors students scored 9 percentage points higher than did a national sample of students (N = 12,000).

SAU honors students scored higher than they thought they would in the categories of academic and personal stress. Also, hardly any respondents believed that typical stress relieving activities would help them. Respondents desired more time to meet their commitments, both academic and personal, instead.

The student researchers (see below) concluded that learning better time management skills might be an important step in dealing with stress. They recommended that such skills be taught early on in the Honors Seminar. [Noted, BTW]

Here are the three student researchers (from left to right: Ben Bower, Daniel Kasper, and Sara Caller ):

Cannon, Amanda. (2009). Honors College?

In order to be truly regarded as a fully developed Honors College, rather than just an Honors Program, there are many qualifications. These can range from characteristics of the staff involved to the courses offered and even to the residence halls available. At Southern Arkansas University, there is an Honors College, but is it really able to be recognized as such? Does SAU’s Honors College meet all of the criteria?

One of the characteristics of a fully developed Honors College is that the head should be a dean who reports directly to the chief academic officer of the institution and serves as a full member of the Council of Deans. Also, the dean should be appointed full time for 12 months. At Southern Arkansas University, Dr. Ed Kardas is the head of the Honors College. He is a professor of psychology, but he’s not a dean. This situation means that Dr. Kardas is not a full member of the Council of the Deans. Therefore, in this aspect, SAU cannot be recognized as having an Honors College.

However, is having a dean in charge really of the utmost importance? Perhaps Dr. Kardas is just as well, or even more so, qualified as a dean at another university. If he seems to be teaching his classes well, and students are learning, then there is no reason why it should not be considered a legitimate Honors College.

All in all, technically Southern Arkansas University’s Honors College is not really an Honors College at all. Although it meets some of the requirements, it doesn’t meet them all. This is unfortunate because the Honors College at SAU seems to be fully functioning and well ordered. It also seems to be developing rapidly, so perhaps within the next few years, it will become a complete Honors College. In the meantime, it still sounds and looks prestigious.

Liu, Simin. (2009). Honors Alumni Needed

As far as I am concerned, SAU Honors College is not fully involved in alumni affairs and development and doesn’t have an external advisory board. The reason for this is obvious, that it simply doesn’t have an external advisory board, and at least up till now I haven’t been introduced to any honors college alumni. To me, alumni are very important resources to an institution, because they can be models for current students, provide external connections, and make donations to the improvement of the university. Also, alumni can teach the current students things that can’t be learned in textbooks or at school, but only through real life experiences. In terms of this aspect, College of Business actually does a good job. I take American Enterprise in College of Business this semester. We have three classes a week, but usually only two of them are spent in class on the knowledge from the textbook. Instead of studying solely from the textbook, we watch videos of the success stories of different entrepreneurs and corporations, and listen to lectures given by alumni. Three weeks ago, shortly after we learned the term “entrepreneurship,” College of Business invited an alumnus who graduated in 2002 to tell us about his story. He told us about his graduate study at University of Arkansas, fast promotion as a manager in a company, and finally, bored with the long-distance travel from home to work, he decided to be his own boss. He elaborated on his experience as an entrepreneur, which to me was a much more vivid and correct explanation than whatever a dictionary or textbook gives. Besides, this month is the College of Business’ Professional Development Month. Many outside speakers are invited to College of Business to give lectures, which can be considered as a precious outside advisory resource. For example, the president of Bancorp South came to give a lecture last week. He gave a lot of savings advice and explanations of services provided by banks, which is very beneficial for college students to have a good awareness of money and savings. I feel this is quite important because some of my friends really don’t have a conception of money, which is horrible.

To be honest, as a current honors student, I’m pretty interested in the development of honors graduates. However, I know that Honors College is not a specialized college such as the College of Business, and it is hard to have an outside speakers introduce something that is beneficial to all the honors students in different majors. Still, Honors College can make efforts to have an alumni advisory board to introduce their experience in Honors College, and give advice in general career development that is important in their experience.

Bower, Ben. (2009). Honors Hall

The SAU Honors College is a great program. It offers many of the basic characteristics of a developed honors college. I would like to discuss the residential component, which SAU does a magnificent job of offering.

The Honors Hall building is a completely separate building from all the other halls. It is also one of the newest buildings on the SAU campus. The Honors College does have to share the hall with the leadership college, but honors students are housed in higher quality rooms. Honors students enjoy larger rooms, suite style showers, and better windows, all of which actually open. These accommodations may encourage others who have the ability to be honors students to apply, enroll and reach their full potential in school.

Also, separating the Honors Hall from the other halls is a good idea because most honor students like to be around people like themselves. Honors students are at a different level intellectually and socially from most other students, so for them to best develop they should be around each other. Living together will also keep them from feeling as if they don’t belong because they will always be around people similar to them. Feeling accepted is a basic human comfort, so to put them in a place where they are around similar students just seems to make sense. As well as comfort, honors students generally take the same classes especially the first two years of college, so putting them in a building together makes it easier for the students to work together on projects or other group assignments.

Novotny, Alex. (2009). Honors Requirements

All colleges have a targeted student population: the smart kids. Intelligent students are flocked with letters from various institutions all over the country once the summer before their senior year begins. A really smart pupil would go through them all and pick one that has a respectable honors college that they can see themselves excelling in. Southern Arkansas University is a university that possesses a prestigious honors college. All one has to do is look at the requirements needed to be a part of the program. A seeking undergraduate must have a 26 on the ACT and at least a 3.5 high school G.P.A. In addition to those prerequisites, they must also provide an essay they have written for a class, a letter describing why they want to even be a part of such a program and what they could bring to it, and two letters of recommendation: one personal and one academic. According to the National Collegiate Honors Council, a fully developed honors program should require certain standards that all students must meet before being able to join. Southern Arkansas University meets this standard because of the above stated prerequisites.

Faulkner, Ashley. (2009). Admissions to Honors College

In today’s society admissions into college is no easy feat; likewise admissions into an Honors College is even harder. To be a fully functioning Honors College it must require certain standards from the its applicants. Among these requirements are separate admissions than the regular college, appropriate size of the entering class, minimum GPA’s and SAT/ACT scores, written essays, and expectations for retention in the Honors College.

Because the Honors College is a college inside of the university, admission to it is required as well as a separate admission to the Honors College. SAU’s Honor College meets this standard by requiring applicants to fill out a separate application for admission. To keep the Honors College a sacred and honored institution limiting the entering class size is an important factor. If the incoming class is too large it may seem like the College is too easy to enter or that its standards are low enough such that more students can meet them. At SAU the average entering class is around 30 students. This number is a good one for the College. Assuming that all the Honors College’s students remained enrolled for the full four years there would be 120 Honors College students out of the 3,000 who attend SAU. This ratio makes the Honors College look like a high society made up of only the brightest students at SAU.

Criteria for the applicants includes meeting certain requirements. Most honors colleges require a minimum GPA, usually above a 3.0, and students must retain a certain GPA to stay enrolled in the college. SAT/ACT scores are also a major requirement for admission to any honors college. SAU uses students’ ACT scores; they must have a composite score of 26 or higher to be considered for admission. Written essays are required for many normal college applications, however for admissions into honor colleges students are required to submit other materials. SAU’s Honors College requires two additional essays. One is a piece already written for a high school class, the other is a paper explaining their interest in the Honors College and what they believe they will bring to that community. In addition to the two essays, SAU also requires two letters of recommendation: one academic and one personal. To remain in the honors college students must keep a GPA of 3.25 or higher and complete at least 15 hours per semester and 24 total honors hours before graduation.

All in all, SAU’s Honors College meets all the admission requirements to be considered a fully functioning honors college. It requires separate admissions, regulates incoming class sizes, imposes minimum GPAs and SAT/ACT scores, obtains written essays, and states requirements for retention in the college. The SAU Honors College meets the national standards for admissions.

Kasper, Daniel. (2009). Honors College Needs a Dean

The National Collegiate Honors Council has put out a list of qualifications that it deems are necessary in an Honors College, such as the one at Southern Arkansas University at Magnolia. One of these qualifications is that the head of the Honors College should be a dean who reports directly to the president of the university. It is here, sadly, that SAU falls behind on the qualifications.

A dean, according to Merriam Webster Online, is simply “the head of a division, faculty, college, or school of a university.” But if that were the only qualification of a dean, the SAU Honors College would fulfill its requirements. However, Dr. Ed Kardas, who is the head of the college, is not a dean. He is a director. And his time is split between directing the Honors College and being a full Professor of Psychology: one quarter with the Honors College and the rest teaching. And Mr. David Wingfield, titled “Assistant to English and Foreign Languages/Honors College” by the university, also splits his time between two positions.

What does this mean for the Honors College? Not a great deal, yet. It is still early in the life of the College: we only opened our doors in 2004 after all. But in order for this Honors College to function as it should, a full time dean is necessary.
Not having a dean is a detriment to the students. It is more difficult to get the attention of someone juggling two positions. The head of the Honors College should make the Honors College their first priority, which is why the dean system was put into place. Deans can work whole-heartedly with their colleges in order to get things done. Further, it is unfair to ask someone to fulfill two positions in a university setting. The stress of one job is enough for one person; no one should be required to wear too many hats. As far as I can tell, Dr. Kardas and Mr. Wingfield are doing an excellent job with the Honors College. But I feel that if the university asks too much of them, they are going to burn out, and that would be an injury done to the university.

Having a dean is one of the most important things a fully functional Honors College should have. There is nothing as important as having someone in the arena for the college, so to speak. And unless SAU gets a full time dean soon, the Honors College will eventually suffer for it.

Tubbs, Chardai. (2009). Not Quite Honors College Yet

Southern Arkansas University has developed and sustained an elite Honors Program. It offers numerous honors-level courses, provide top-notch housing, and challenges the IQ’s of all accepted. I am not convinced, however, that it can be called an Honors College just yet.

The first and most important differentiating factor between the SAU Honors program and any Honors College is the fact that SAU does not employ an Honors College Dean. Having a full-time dean is one of the criteria for an Honors College. While SAU does have an Honors College Director, because he is not full-time and does not have the title of Dean, the program cannot be classified as a college.

Another separating factor is that at SAU, the Honors Program is not credited as an equal collegiate structure. Its name does not stand among the ranks with the College of Business, Science and Technology, and all the other ones. Maybe this can be attributed to the fact that the SAU Honors Program is fairly new. Until the Honors Program can be just as significant as all the other colleges at the multi-collegiate university that SAU is, it cannot have the Honors College title.

The last lacking characteristic in the Southern Arkansas University Honors Program is alumni. Because the SAU Honors Program is so new, there is not an abundance of alumni for support. It takes awhile for any program to grow and flourish and with time, the SAU Honors Program will gain the alumni that it needs to satisfy this criterion of an Honors College.

All in all, the SAU Honors Program, although very satisfactory, cannot be called an Honors College. While it does meet many of the goals of a full Honors College, it lacks completion of some of the bigger ones. Given time, I believe the SAU Honors Program will grow and be able to stand among the best. Maybe then will it be able to be call SAU Honors College.

Dr. Lynne Belcher visits Honors Seminar

On Friday, November 19, 2009, Dr. Lynne Belcher, founding director of the SAU Honors College visited the 8 a.m. meeting of the Honors Seminar class. Dr. Belcher told of the earliest days of the Honors College including how she had to scramble quickly to recruit the first class. She also related stories about some of the trips taken, the accumulation of honors courses, and success of honors graduates.

After her visit, she agreed to co-host a meeting of all current honors students. That meeting will be held on Thursday, December 3 at 3:40 p.m. in the Foundation Hall of the Reynolds Campus and Community Center. All students are urged to attend.



Above, Dr. Belcher addressing the class.

Vergo, Cecelia. (2009). Let's Get Out of the Dorms!

A very important characteristic of one who wishes to be considered intelligent and cultured is the love of travel. According to the National Collegiate honors Council, a fully developed Honors Program, and subsequently Honors Colleges, should "emphasize the participatory nature of the Honors educational process by adopting such measures as offering opportunities for students to participate in regional and national conferences, Honors semesters, international programs, community service, and other types of experiential education." To my knowledge, the Honors College at Southern Arkansas University does little of this.

It is true that the Honors College does enough to barely meet the criteria by planning scattered trips to places such as the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas and NASA in Houston, Texas, but I believe that only scrapes the surface of what is meant by this criterion. Generally, these trips would fall under the "other types of experiential education" category, the "miscellaneous" category, the "if you don't do anything else make sure you do this" category. And this simply is not fair. Not once have I heard of an opportunity to participate in any sort of Honors related conference. Quite frankly, I was not aware of their existence. I am not sure of what exactly an Honors semester is, and I can assure you I have never been offered the chance to travel to of the country with the Honors College for any purpose whatsoever. In fact, none of these points are even mentioned on the Southern Arkansas University Honor's College report card. It's no wonder they are not put into practice.

The easiest place to start would be with community service. Southern Arkansas University just so happens to be situated in the heart of the community often known as Magnolia, Arkansas. I am positive that Magnolia, Arkansas would not mind being "serviced" in any way, from cleaning up the neighborhood to talking to local school-aged children about college, specifically Honors College. As funds increase, trips to different countries for international study could easily be worked into the curriculum. The Honors College could charge the students a portion of the price to make the trip optional yet affordable. With further research, Honors semesters and conferences could work their way into the Honors College at Southern Arkansas University.

Miles, Majesta. (2009). Is SAU's Honors College Co-equal?

There were many required characteristics that must be met to be considered an “honors college”. Many of them I was aware of, while others I was not. The most obvious characteristic, in my opinion, would be that: A fully developed Honors college should exist as an equal collegiate unit within a multi-collegiate university structure. At Southern Arkansas University, there are four main colleges: Business, Science and Technology, Liberal and Performing Arts, and Education. So, naturally, being located on campus and existing as an equal collegiate unit, the Honors College at Southern Arkansas University meets this required characteristic. If one were to consider the Southern Arkansas University Honors College as a “college” there would, of course, in fact be five colleges within the university’s structure.

However, there are several other characteristics that are not met by the Honors College and that hinder its technically being considered an actual “honors college”. The head of a fully developed Honors college should be a dean . . . is a primary example of one of the important characteristics not met by the Southern Arkansas University Honors College. As well loved as Dr. Edward Kardas is, he is, most unfortunately, not a dean and thus does not fit into the appropriate category necessary to make the Southern Arkansas University Honors College a nationally recognized honors college.

The Honors College does have various other characteristics mentioned in the “Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors College” list given us by Dr. Kardas. ‘The curriculum of a fully developed Honors college should offer significant course opportunities across all four years of study’ and ‘the distinction awarded by a fully developed Honors college should be announced at commencement, noted on the diploma, and featured on the student’s final transcript’ are two characteristics on the list, both of which the Southern Arkansas University Honors College meets.

All in all, I believe that the Honors College at Southern Arkansas University may not meet all required characteristics of a national honors college, but should in fact be considered as a true “honors college.”

Wright, Kiley. (2009). Honors College Facilities

While our honors college may still be in the growing process there is no doubt that this specific piece of the project has been completed. At Southern Arkansas University today there is an entire building dedicated strictly for the use of the honors students. This building, known as Honors Hall, includes housing, classrooms, and many other facilities just for the honors students at the University. Not only does it offer multiple services to the honors students, but the building also gives the students a chance to interact and work with students who share similar interests, all of whom are dedicated to their studies. Honors Hall provides the perfect environment for students to study, work on group projects together, or just hang out and relax. There is also an entire computer lab specifically for the honors students complete with wireless Internet and printers.

Although this seems to be the perfect area, there are a few particulars in which the Honors College could improve. Of course, these areas are very miniscule and there aren’t really any complaints to be heard of them but they still exist. You may ask how these improvements could be made or what areas should be improved upon, but a simple solution has already been put into place. Honors students have the chance to fix or install anything they feel needed using a three hundred grant given to the by the university. During class topics are discussed and by the end of the year a project will be put into motion.

Facilities for the Honors students are amazing and continue to get better everyday. The growth of the Honors College may be attributed to students and staff all over campus and this process couldn’t be done in any better way. The collaboration of all these intelligent and sincere people who only want the best for this concept is leading to a better Honors program each and every day.

Chafin, Tyler. (2009). Honors Scheduling Flexibility

The Honors Program at SAU shares many characteristics with the model of an appropriate Honors Program outlined by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). One of these elements that I find particularly to be an advantage is the priority enrollment allotted to active members of the program, which fits exactly with one of the attributes summarized in the basic characteristics of a fully developed honors college published by the NCHC that reads: “A fully developed program will provide priority enrollment for honors students who are active in the program in recognition of their unique class scheduling needs.”

As honors students, we often have unique scheduling needs due to the honors coursework that is required of us, and because the program is in its fledgling years there are a very limited number of classes offered, and often the class that we may need can only be offered once a year, meaning we have to base our schedule around such classes. This sometimes makes it difficult to fit in classes that are necessary for the completion of our majors. Honors makes up a substantial amount of our coursework, usually around 20 percent. This ability to create our schedules before the majority of the students is also a major advantage because many students in Honors have been taking advanced courses throughout high school, thus they enter college having already completed many of their lower level general education courses, either through Advanced Placement, or Concurrent Enrollment programs. I myself came into my freshman year with 19 credit-hours, and there are others with more. This makes it very difficult for some students to find enough honors courses to meet the required hours, but early registration helps with preventing the opportunities to receive honors credit from conflicting with our major-specific work.

The Honors College at Southern Arkansas University definitely meets the basic model of an honors program as described by the NCHC, and although it might not be considered “fully developed”, it is still in its early years, and with opportunities such as priority enrollment that it provides, it will continue to attract the best students available and flourish.

Report: November 13, 2009

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Honors College Director’s Report/November 13, 2009

Training: I attended the national meeting of the National Council of Honors Colleges (NCHC) held in Washington, DC from October 28 to November 1, 2009. I met honors directors from UALR and UCA and re-united with fellow first-year directors from the NCHC Summer Camp that I attended in July.

Sessions Attended:

· Developing in Honors

· Protecting our Programs from External Demands

· Fundraising for Honors

· Small College Honors Programs

· Best Honors Administrative Practices

· Care and Maintenance of Honors Faculty

· The First Year Introduction to Honors Course

· First Year Experience Courses for Honors Students

· Reimagining the Honors Address on the WWW

· Building Support for Honors with Central Administration

· New Director/Deans Summer Camp Reunion

Contacts Made:

· Rick Scott-UCA

· Marcia Smith-UALR

· Christina McIntyre-VA TECH

Trips: Honors College visited the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Arkansas Arts Center and toured Heifer International on Friday, November 6, 2009.

Recruiting: Several students and I participated in Preview Day on November 5, 2009. I spoke briefly to students and parents during the introductory session. Later, the students and I worked a table handing out brochures and other information about Honors College. We identified some potential students and later received our first applications for the class of 2014.

I will travel to Texarkana on November 19, 2009 to recruit high school students from Texas High School. Later that evening, I will speak to a graduate class at TAMUT; they are in the process of creating a University College. The new $600 stipend should be a boon to recruiting.

Fund Raising: Honors students have formed an Honors College Association (see below). That group will be in charge of fund raising. Currently, they are selling chocolate bars in order to raise money for a spring trip to Houston. A representative will explain the work of this group. In the future, the Honors College Association should have a representative on the Honors Committee.

Honors College continues to look for donors to the SAU Foundation and is grateful for the tickets the Foundation donated to honors students so that they could attend the Olmert lecture.

Organizational Issues

Registration: The early registration system is working well. I met with all freshmen at midterm and reviewed their academic progress and advised them. David or I have been registering all honors students as well. All students must still confer with their regular academic advisor. We simply facilitate the process. The regular advisor is the advisor of record.

Housing: Honors College is looking for permanent quarters in a central campus location, preferably near a student lounge/study area.

Honors students asked if seniors might reside in an honors wing of the Village.

Web Page: One of the sessions at NCHC covered honors Web pages and SAU Honors College is in the process of redesigning its Web page according to some of the suggestions made at that session.

Community Council: The NCHC meeting emphasized the need and utility of a community council to support the Honors College. Setting one up is a high priority.

Honors College Association: Honors College students have formed an association. Faculty Recruiting: The most difficult aspect of my job is recruiting faculty. In the near future the Honors Committee will be addressing strategies to make such recruiting easier and more effective.

Arkansas Honors Directors Group: Interest exists to establish an Arkansas Honors Directors group. I will begin work on that soon.

National Awards: SAU Honors College is behind when it comes to identifying and applying for national competitive fellowships for honors graduates.

SAU Faculty: Honors College is planning a breakfast for honors faculty before the end of the Fall 2009 semester. We will invite experienced honors faculty to share accounts of successful strategies for teaching honors courses.

Honors Faculty List:

Fall 2009: Cary (1), Chace (13)*, Clanton (11)*, Christensen (14)*, Kardas (36)*, S. Kist (1), Krosnick (7), Paulson (15)*, Parnell (1), Tucker (1), Young (8) [Total Registered: 108]

Spring 2010: Belcher (16)*, Brandon (4)*, Cheng (2), Cho, Christensen (15)*, Kardas (2)*, Krosnick (17), May (9), Paulson (3), Rasmussen (3), Sanson (1), Stout (2) [Total Preregistered as of 11/13/09 at 12:20 p.m.: 74] Two of the full courses are new (Cognitive Science and Anthropology of Pop Culture).

*Full Honors course

New Courses: Honor Thesis I (HC 4911-3) and Honors Thesis II (HC 4921-3) were approved by the Academic Affairs Committee and Honors Seminar I is on the Spring 2010 schedule as electives. We plan to change Honors Seminar from a 3 credit one-semester course into two courses. The Fall Semester course will become 2 credits and a new 1 credit course will be added in the Spring Semester. This change is to provide a better first year experience for honors freshmen.

Pharaohs and Heifer

Honors Trip to Little Rock includes visit to Arts Center and to Heifer International



Today a large group from the SAU Honors College visited Little Rock and took in the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center. That thematic exhibit examined the art and lifestyles of ancient Egypt. Here are some representative pieces. The fragment on the right depicts a husband and wife, presumably. There were several exhibits which featured this theme of family life.


Near the start of the exhibition was a large head of Ramesses II carved from granite. It featured the typical head dress worn by pharaohs. Another interesting object was a shabti, or funerary assistant. Shabtis were left in tombs and were supposed to take care of the day to day activities of life (e.g., cleaning, cooking, and other tasks).







Here is a shabti:




After viewing the exhibit and wandering through the other galleries, we decided to visit the headquarters of Heifer International. According to their Web page:

• "Heifer's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. Heifer does this by providing appropriate livestock, training and related services to small-scale farmers and communities worldwide."

Further information about their mission can be found HERE. After spending some time at the Heifer Village, we took a guided tour of their new building. It was planned and built as a green building and features many energy saving and resource conserving features.

Here are a couple of shots of their building. Note that its shape (an arc) maximizes its tracking of the sun and that the face of the building either shades the interior or collects additional light depending on the time of year. The building also collects rainwater and stores it for future use.



Here is a view from the parking lot showing the building's shape.



In the Heifer Village, Majesta Miles, John Lee, Lauren Russell, and Monica Stubbs interact with an exhibit designed to educate visitors about food:


At the Heifer Village's Snack Bar, Kristin Sams and Sarah Irvin enjoy a brief moment of rest:








At another table, Singha Dhungana, Kahle Harned, Darrell Gray, and Samson King also spend some time off of their feet.


Meanwhile, Joshua Manual, Sidney Kilgore, and David Wingfield examine the model of a self-sustaining village in Africa.






Samantha Lamb poses for the photographer as she examines some of the food products Heifer recipients grow.








The Honors College will be selling The World's Finest Chocolate bars starting next week in order to fund its Spring trip to Houston. Be on the lookout for them as you perambulate through Reynolds next week. That trip will take place during Spring Break and will last several days.

Iyorkar, Yohane. (2009). A Scorecard for the SAU Honors College

The Honors College of Southern Arkansas University has done a lot to improve the quality of the service it provides to its honors students. Over the years it has taken giant steps towards the direction excellence and scholarship. Irrespective of all these developments, innovations and improvements, the Honors College of Southern Arkansas University falls short from being an Honors College or rather a fully developed Honors College if it doesn’t meet certain criteria and possess certain characteristics. So the question now is, does the Honors College of southern Arkansas University meet the standards as set by the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC)?

The Honors College of SAU definitely meets some of the criteria set by NCHC, its national governing board. The standards set by the board require that an Honors College exist as an equal collegiate unit and the SAU Honors college certainly does so. Also the NCHC requires that an Honors College exercise considerable control over admission policies, class size, curriculum and selection of faculty. SAU’s Honors College staff have the power to assign and appoint teachers who teach Honors courses. They also determine which teachers are no longer eligible to teach honors courses. The Honors College staff also has jurisdiction over class size and admission policies. Its enforcement of the 3.25 cgpa requirement is an example of its exercise of this power. Furthermore, Honors Colleges are expected to offer substantial residential opportunities and offer recognition of their graduates on their commencement. Southern Arkansas University houses its honors students in Honors North residential hall. This hall is exclusively for honors students. Also, upon graduation, graduates of the Honors College are recognized and their diplomas indicate that they are graduates of the Honors College.

Irrespective of the fact that SAU”s Honors College meets the above standards as set by the honors college national body. It fails to meet some. The NCHC requires that a dean head the Honors College. But this is not the case at SAU. Instead, we have a director as a head. Furthermore our Honors College does not participate in alumni affairs and development. I guess this is so because the program is a pretty young one and doesn’t have many graduates yet.

In conclusion, despite the few loopholes that the Honors College seems to have, there is no doubt that one day, these would be overcome and the Honors College would run at full gear.