The Honors Seminar hosted three distinguished visitors in 2015, President Trey Berry, VPAA/Provost Ben Johnson, and Chair Deborah Wilson.
Dr. Trey Berry, President, Southern Arkansas University
Dr. Berry retold the story of the Hunter-Dunbar expedition that explored the Ouachita River at the behest of Thomas Jefferson in the earliest years of the 19th Century. That expedition was one of several to explore the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. (Others included the Lewis & Clark expedition and Pike's expedition.) Berry brought the original journal kept on the Hunter-Dunbar expedition and the compass given to it by President Jefferson. As always, he brought out those items slowly near the end after earlier promising to "rock their world." He did it again. Those artifacts are housed at Ouachita Baptist University.
Dr. Ben Johnson, VPAA/Provost (Interim), Southern Arkansas University
Dr. Johnson spoke about the history of the American university. He did so from the context of his position as VPAA/Provost noting that, historically and currently, different forces pulled at the mission of universities. He reminded us that the University of Arkansas, the state's land grant university, was not founded until 1871 or nine years after the passage of the Morrill Act. In 1862 Arkansas was at war with the Union. The land grant universities emphasized practical knowledge, e.g., Agriculture and Mechanics, hence many were designated as A&Ms. Other historical forces included teaching the liberal arts, and after Sputnik in 1957, a greater emphasis on science and technology.
Dr. Deborah Wilson, Chair Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Southern Arkansas University
Dr. Wilson reflected on her past involvement with the Honors College, especially on her work with students in her contract courses. She told of taking those students to the meetings of the NCHC in Phoenix, Boston, and New Orleans. After becoming chair, she regretted not being able to attend NCHC meetings in Denver and Chicago in spite of having students who worked with her attend them. She reported that contract students were lucky in that they were able to engage more deeply with her as they built datasets, coded the data, analyzed them with SPSS, and presented their results both locally and at NCHC. Travel, she said, helps distinguish honors students from others who may be competing for space at professional schools and graduate schools. She vowed to make time to attend the next meeting of NCHC to be held in Seattle in 2016.
