SAU Honors College

The SAU Honors College was founded in 2003 by Dr. David Rankin, president of SAU. Dr. Lynne Belcher served as founding director and recently retired from SAU. The Honors College seeks and admits qualified students who seek to pursue a serious academic program with equally gifted peers and committed teachers. Honors classes are small and provide academically enriching opportunities for students and the faculty who teach them. Currently, SAU enrolls nearly 170 honors students and graduates about 66% of admitees in four years or less. Anyone interested in applying to the Honors College or seeking further information should contact the director, Dr. Edward P. Kardas at epkardas@saumag.edu or at 870 904-8897.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Pool Party

 Chowing down Marlar's chicken, fries, buns, and desserts
Saying "cheese" in the deep end of the new Magnolia Country Club pool

Celina Alas, Olivia Reeves, Jakari Holland, Jonathan Mitchell, Elexys Gilbert, Kaylee Courtney, Michelle Shay, Savannah Wise, Caleb Burton, and Seth Horn enjoyed an afternoon swim and meal at the Magnolia Country Club. The event was catered, as always, by Marlar's Cafeteria thanks to Ray Lindsey.

So be sure to stop by Marlar's sometime (2116 Vine Ave., Magnolia, AR 71753) for some traditional home cooked Southern cooking. It's all good!


Monday, August 26, 2019

Drew Glover Visits Honors Seminar

Drew Glover, SAU's new Director of Online Learning

Drew Glover visited both Honors Seminar classes today to discuss Blackboard, the course management system. Several honors students are already using Blackboard in online and in face-to-face classes and none (thankfully) are reporting any problems.

Glover provided some hints about Blackboard including composing long answers outside of Blackboard (e.g., on Word, Google Docs, or Pages) so as to avoid Blackboard's built in timer. It times out at 40 minutes and work cannot be recovered. Using those other applications also provides a backup file outside of Blackboard.

He also recommended taking screen shots or digital pictures when encountering problems. SAU pays for 24-7 support, so he showed how to access that.

He invited students to visit his office in Nelson 220 anytime if they had questions or problems.

Here's an Honors College welcome to Drew! Hopefully, we won't need your services to often :-)



Monday, August 19, 2019

Venice's Grand Canal

Grand Canal, Venice

The blog is back! I've been remiss in updating it.

Travel is a big part of honors education. Last June, 20 SAU students (10 from Honors College) and 13 others spent 10 days in Italy. We visited Venice, Florence, and Rome. Personally, I liked Venice the best although that was unexpected. I guess its smaller size and unique environment won me over.

I'm taking honors students to New Orleans for the annual NCHC meeting in November. In the future, you should plan to travel with us too. Watch this space!