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.