Table
3
Departments Offering More Than 10
Honors Courses/Sections*
*Data
for students entering prior to Fall Semester 2005 and after Spring Semester
2007 is incomplete
and was not included in this table. Drawn from Admissions
Office data available in Banner.
Table
4
Graduation Status of Honors Students*
Table
5
Graduation
Status of Non-Honors Students
(Drawn from Admissions Office data available in Banner.)
East
Carolina University Honors Students have accomplished many notable achievements
beginning as far back as Rick Atkinson (BA, '74), noted journalist and author,
recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes.
Health
fields are the most popular area of study for Honors Students at ECU. At least
18 ECU Honors graduates are currently enrolled at the Brody School of Medicine.
Others are enrolled in Medical Schools at Wake Forest, Duke, Emory, UNC, and
the University of Kentucky. Two have earned full scholarships to BSOM. Three
Honors Students are in Dental School at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Many recent
Honors graduates have entered graduate and professional programs at ECU and
other institutions including University of Washington, Northwestern University,
University of Virginia, University of Michigan, Indiana University, University
of Toronto, UNC-Chapel Hill, William and Mary, and Duke University in fields as
diverse as School Psychology, Music, Medical Physics, and Divinity.
Three
Honors students received Fulbright Awards in 2009: Diana Gliga (Romania), Katrin Haege (Germany)
and Sarah Searcy (India). In previous years, one student received a Fulbright while
another was awarded a Goldwater. In the past nine years, six honors students
have won national Phi Kappa Phi graduate fellowship awards. This year's winner
was also named Outstanding Student for the Southeastern United States. During
this time period, five other honors students have won national Phi Kappa Phi
Study Abroad grants to support international study.
The Honors
College Task Force solicited feedback from Honors Program alumni. Comments received were similar to those
reported in a recent external evaluation.
Honors Program alumni perceive the Honors Program as a powerful
recruiting tool to encourage high-ability students to come to East Carolina
University. The experiences provided by
the Honors Program helped students expand their horizons, pursue study abroad
and undergraduate research opportunities, and develop leadership skills. Former students described the Honors staff as
helpful and committed, but lacking in support and resources. This was, as described in the next section of
this report, a view shared by external reviewers. Students commented that moving to an Honors
College would represent a commitment to Honors Students by the East Carolina
University administration and would increase the program’s visibility and
quality. Selected excerpts from comments shared by Honors Program alumni may be
found in Appendix A.
Part II
The Case for an Honors
College at East Carolina University
The Honors College Task Force recommends that East Carolina University
establish an Honors College to replace the current Honors Program. If carefully designed and appropriately
supported, the East Carolina Honors College will offer a number of important
benefits including:
·
enhancement of academic quality throughout the
university
·
creation of an environment that fosters innovative
curriculum development
·
recruitment and retention of superior students and
faculty
·
development of new collaborative relationships among
colleges, schools, departments and programs on campus
·
increase in university prestige, especially with
respect to peer and other UNC institutions
·
extension of the university’s commitment to
community engagement and development of leadership skills in high achieving
students
·
advancement of key strategic goals of the university
as outlined in ECU Tomorrow: A Vision for
Leadership and Service.
The transition to an Honors College would establish East Carolina
University as a model of academic excellence in the state and throughout the
Southeast. In order to make the case for
this transition, it is useful to examine criteria that distinguish an Honors
Program from an Honors College as established by the National Collegiate Honors
Council (NCHC). It is also important to
assess the readiness of the current Honors Program to move to the next level by
assessing how well the program meets the NCHC criteria for “fully-developed
honors programs” and by examining our current efforts in comparison to the
programs offered by peer, peer plus institutions, and the 16 constituent
institutions of the UNC system.
A Brief History of Honors
Initiatives in U.S. Universities
Most U.S. colleges and universities
incorporate some kind of separate honors component designed to enrich the
academic experience of high-achieving students into their administrative
structure. For several decades, such an entity was typically referred to as an
Honors Program. More recently, an increasing number of these units have been
designated as Honors Colleges.
Apart from some tentative
experiments among Ivy League institutions in the 19th century, the earliest
documented Honors Program in the U.S. was established at Swarthmore College in
1922. Since then most four-year colleges and universities in the country have
followed suit by forming their own honors unit. However, no single
organizational model or pedagogical agenda exists. According to one expert in
the field:
At some
institutions Honors Programs have consisted of a set of prescribed courses; in
other cases they have been completely elective in their requirements. What they all have in common is a notion that
the brightest students will benefit from a curricular program different from
that available to the average college student (Haarlow, Great Books, Honors Programs, and Hidden Origins, 12).
The concept of an Honors College, on
the other hand, is considerably more modern: the Robert D. Clark Honors College
at the University of Oregon, founded in 1960, claims in its website to be “the
nation’s oldest four-year public Honors College.” Over the past two decades, an
increasing number of higher education institutions have been transforming their
Honors Programs into Honors Colleges.
Despite the existence of alternative
terms, no uniform interpretation of what constitutes an Honors Program, as opposed to an Honors College, is followed among institutions of higher
learning. Theoretically an Honors
College should be more prominent than an Honors Program and have a higher
profile within the university infrastructure, but standards are not observed
universally. In practice, Honors
Programs at some universities seem to be more substantial than entities at
other universities that call themselves Honors Colleges.
Characteristics of a Fully-developed Honors Program
In order to arrive at a set of
objective criteria distinguishing an Honors Program from an Honors College, the
Honors College Planning Task Force applied standards adopted by the National
Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). The
NCHC, as “the professional association of undergraduate Honors Programs and
colleges” (http://www.nchchonors.org/), represents the leading
independent source for information and standards regarding the honors
experience in higher education.
The first NCHC characteristic
of a “fully-developed” Honors College
requires that it incorporate the characteristics of a “fully-developed” Honors
Program. The Honors College Planning
Task Force reviewed available data on the existing Honors Program to determine
the extent to which it meets this NCHC standard.
Below is a list of the 17 characteristics of a “fully-developed” Honors
Program as
identified by the NCHC. Each
characteristic is accompanied by an assessment of the
extent to which East Carolina University’s current Honors Program meets
the standard.
HP
01: An Honors Program identifies and accommodates its targeted students
As noted in Part I, the East Carolina University Honors
Program invites incoming freshman with at least a 3.5 unweighted GPA and a
score of at least 1200 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), or a current East
Carolina University student with a cumulative GPA of at least 3.3 to join the
Honors Program.
The Honors Program
accommodates Honors students in varied ways, as indicated in this statement
from the Honors Program website: “An invitation to the East Carolina University
Honors Program is an honor in itself. Students who take honors classes have the
opportunity to interact with other honor students. Classes are kept small
(15-20) and are taught by some of the most exciting instructors on campus.”
HP
02: An Honors Program has a clear institutional mandate/mission statement.
The Provost has taken a number of actions that indicate the strong
institutional mandate required by NCHC: 1) elevation of the Honors Program
Director’s position to Associate Vice Chancellor, 2) formation of a
faculty-administrative Task Force to develop a plan for transforming the
current Honors Program into an Honors College, and 3) publicly-stated
commitment to increasing the Honors Program budget in order to redress
deficiencies identified by external reviewers and to facilitate the transition
from program to college.
In all of these respects, the
institutional mandate is consistent with the University mission statement: “The
East Carolina University Honors Program is an exceptional, residential
educational experience designed for academically motivated students to provide the
academic challenge, support and attention of a smaller college with the
opportunities of a large comprehensive university” (from East Carolina
University Undergraduate Catalog 2008-2009).
HP
03: The Honors Program director reports
to chief academic officer.
According to East Carolina
University’s organizational chart for the Division of Academic Affairs, the
Associate Vice Chancellor of the Honors Program reports directly to the
Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
HP 04: The Honors Program curriculum follows the
mission statement.
In keeping with the University mission
statement, the Honors Program “offers honors sections of many regular
introductory courses each semester (in such disciplines as English, history,
anthropology, and psychology)” as well as special, often interdisciplinary,
honors
seminars designed to meet foundations
curriculum requirements” (from East
Carolina University Undergraduate Catalog 2008-2009).
HP
05: Honors Program requirements = 20-25% of total course requirements.
According to
the 2008-2009 Undergraduate Catalog,
“in order to graduate with University Honors, a student must complete thirty
semester hours of honors courses” (i.e., 23.8% of the 126 hours required for
graduation, which meets the 20-25% range stipulated by the NCHC guidelines).
HP
06 Honors Program requirements relate to both general and major requirements.
See HP 04
HP
07: An Honors Program is visible, highly reputed, providing a campus model.
The University Honors Program is situated within the Office of Academic
Affairs and, as such, is well-known across campus. Its visibility is enhanced by its
well-designed, comprehensive and accessible website, and its reputation is
strengthened by its close institutional relationship with the University’s most
prestigious scholarship program, the EC Scholars.
HP
08: Honors Program faculty are selected
for excellence, leadership.
Of the 14 different instructors who have
taught honors seminars over the past three years, 3 have received university
teaching awards, 2 have received departmental teaching awards, and 2 have
received the East Carolina University Teacher-Scholar award. Another
Honors professor was the recipient of the Max Ray Joyner award for service
toward continuing education. Five of
these faculty are Directors of interdisciplinary programs including ethnic
studies, the Global Classroom program, Medieval and Renaissance studies,
Russian studies, and interdisciplinary studies in the health sciences. Four of the faculty have directed study
abroad programs or summer field schools in their disciplines and seven have
received externally funded grants for research. Many other faculty teach
special honors sections of regular courses offered throughout the university.
These faculty are chosen by the individual departments and many of them have
been recognized for excellence in teaching, research, and service.
HP
09: An Honors Program has suitable quarters/honors center.
As the Honors Program website explains, “Honors Students, EC Scholars and
International Students are required to live in a designated Honors residence
hall, a special living learning community,” and students also “have the
opportunity to use a special study room in Joyner Library.” The Honors Program is located in a suite of
offices in Brewster Building.
HP
10: An Honors Program maintains an advisory council of faculty members.
The Honors Program has an Honors Advisory Council consisting of
faculty members and two students, the presidents of Phi Eta Sigma and of the
residence hall housing the Honors Students.
HP 11: An Honors Program maintains a
committee of students as liaison with the advisory council.
The students of each class
year, depending on their status, elect either an honors representative or
an EC Scholar representative. The total of eight representatives constitute the
liaison committee, which meets
monthly with the Associate Vice Chancellor.
HP
12: An Honors Program offers special academic counseling to its students.
East Carolina University offers Honors students a number of special
advising benefits: “Honors Students have the privilege of early registration
with the assistance of the Honors Program Academic Advisor. The Honors Advisor
is available to guide Honors Students toward appropriate decisions in the
selection of Honors courses and seminars, fulfillment of Honors Program
requirements, and Honors Program academic probation” (from Honors Program website).
HP
13: An Honors Program acts as pedagogical laboratory for the entire university.
The Honors Program is designed to foster pedagogical exploration and
innovation “at every level, incorporating Academic Service-Learning, diversity
awareness, opportunities for Study Abroad and undergraduate research, an
exclusive living/learning community, exciting, seminar-style classes with
limited enrollment, and access to special curricular and co-curricular
experiences” (from East Carolina University Honors Program website).
HP 14: An Honors Program is open to
continuous review by the university administration.
The Honors Program
has just completed a comprehensive self-study and has been evaluated by
external reviewers from two of East Carolina University’s peer institutions.
The program and the Associate Vice Chancellor are also subject to regular
annual review by the Provost/Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs as well as to
periodic external review by SACS.
HP
15: An Honors Program emphasizes the participatory experience of its students.
As evidenced by the following excerpts from the Honors Program website, the
current East Carolina University Honors Program emphasizes the participatory
nature of the honors experience in many aspects of the program:
· “Students who take honors classes
have the opportunity to interact with other honors students. Classes are kept small (15-20) and are taught
by some of the most exciting instructors on campus.”
· “Honors students are encouraged to
participate in a study-abroad experience to learn about different cultures and
learn more about themselves.”
· “Honors students have the
opportunity to attend events sponsored by the School of Music with
complimentary tickets from the University Honors Program.”
· “The University Honors Program also
emphasizes involvement. Students are challenged to reach out to the local
community through service projects and other activities.”
· The Honors Program encourages
students “to start student groups, plan events, present at professional conferences,
study abroad” and “get involved in ECHO (East Carolina Honors Organization),
Phi Eta Sigma (Undergraduate Honor Society) and The Honors Council.”
HP
16: An Honors Program has reciprocal agreements with 2-year colleges.
The Honors Program is open to
transfer students with a GPA of 3.5 from a two-year college or 3.3 from a
four-year college or university. Once accepted, transfer students complete the
same requirements.
HP
17: An Honors Program offers priority enrollment for its students.
According
to the Honors Program website, “Honors students have the privilege of early
preregistration with the assistance of the honors academic advisor.”
Comparing East Carolina University’s Honors Program to the
standards established by the NCHC for a “fully-developed Honors Program”
documents that the current Honors Program incorporates each of the
NCHC’s 17 criteria. East Carolina
University is prepared, by the NCHC’s standards, to begin the transition to an
Honors College.
Strengths and Limitations of Current
Honors Program
An external
review and evaluation of the Honors Program at East Carolina University was
conducted in April 2008. This review was conducted by Dr. Gary M. Bell, Honors
College, Texas Tech University and Dr. Sally Pyle, Honors Program, University
of North Dakota. Both universities are
East Carolina University peer institutions.
The report
included an overview of the site visit, narrative summaries of the reviewers’
assessment of strengths and deficiencies of the Honors Program, recommendations
for improvement in areas of weakness, and a series of additional
recommendations for the East Carolina University Honors Program.
Among the
strengths the reviewers noted were the following:
• The Honors Program staff
was described as “highly motivated” and “enthusiastic.”
• The Honors Program has a
high level of support at “virtually all levels of the university.” The reviewers found “intense backing” for
the role of Honors on campus at East Carolina University.
• The reviewers found the
Honors Program to be “well conceived and articulated.”
• The study-abroad feature
of the Honors Program was described as “one of the great strengths” of the
program.
In addition to the above points, the Honors College Planning
Task Force has identified in the current program additional strengths not
mentioned by external reviewers. As
reported on the Honors Program website, these include:
• The current Honors Program
incorporates a strong service learning component, which “presents opportunities
for exposure to social problems and forms a civic engagement, and is itself, a
form of experiential education under which students learn through well-designed
service experiences that meet community needs and relate to a particular area
of the curriculum”
• The Honors “Passport
Program” is designed to “encourage students to take advantage of all East
Carolina University has to offer and to seek out diverse educational
experiences on their own“
• The Honors “Buddy
Program,” which pairs new students with upperclass Honors students, is designed
to “to ease the transition for incoming freshmen Honors students.”
Along with
the strengths just enumerated, the reviewers also noted a number of limiting factors
in the existing Honors Program, which reduce the program’s ability to achieve
“its full potential.” The reviewers expressed concerns in the following areas:
• The Honors Program does
not have sufficient visibility to position it to realize its potential as a
powerful tool for recruiting high-caliber students.
• The Honors Program has
significant “physical limitations” on campus and requires improved facilities.
• The Director of the Honors
Program has responsibilities that result in his being drawn in too many
directions. The role of Director should
be better focused and additional support should be provided.
• The reviewers recommended
the relocation of related but separate programs, namely the Undergraduate
Research Program and the East Carolina Scholars Program.
• The reviewers noted that
the budget is “grossly inadequate.” They
emphasized, in particular, the importance of having the resources to “buyout”
faculty time in support of teaching Honors classes. The reviewers observed that, “additional
financial assistance is thus imperative.”
• The reviewers expressed
concern regarding the “imprecision” of current data collection procedures and,
as a result, the dearth of clear and accurate data describing the Honors
Program and Honors students (budget, enrollment, student characteristics,
retention rates, graduation rates, etc.).
• The reviewers noted that
the Honors curriculum available to Honors students is not sufficient. They
expressed concern regarding the small number of seminars being offered in any
one semester, and the limited number of stand-alone Honors courses.
It is important to recognize that many, if not most, of the
limitations listed above relate not so much to the Honors Program itself as to
the university’s administrative and financial commitment to supporting it.
Differentiating an Honors Program and an Honors College
As East
Carolina University moves toward establishing an Honors College, it is
important to identify the differences between an Honors College and an Honors
Program. A comparison of the NCHC
standards for “fully-developed” Honors Programs and “fully-developed” Honors
Colleges provides a useful strategy for planning the transition.
·
The
NCHC guidelines state that the characteristics of a fully-developed Honors
Program should form the basis of an Honors College. An Honors College should fulfill all of the
roles and obligations of an Honors Program, but in addition should constitute a more integral and independent
component of the university structure. The establishment of an Honors College
from an Honors Program is characterized by NCHC as a transformational moment.
·
A fully-developed Honors College should exist as an equal collegiate unit within a
multi-collegiate university structure.
·
An
Honors College is headed by a Dean, not a Director. The Dean of the Honors College should report directly to the chief academic officer of the
institution and serve as a full member of the Council of Deans. The Dean should
be a full-time, 12-month appointment.
·
The operational and staff budgets of a fully-developed Honors
College should provide resources at least
comparable to other collegiate units of equivalent size within the university.
·
An
Honors College has more autonomy in its relations with various university
departments than does an Honors Program. This includes decisions regarding the
selection of participating faculty, as well as coordination of departmental
honors awards.
·
An
Honors College is more directly involved with decisions regarding the way in
which its curriculum fits into the general university infrastructure than is an
Honors Program. The
curriculum of a fully-developed Honors College should offer significant course
opportunities across all four years of study. The curriculum of the
fully-developed Honors College should constitute at least 20% of a student’s
degree program. An Honors thesis or project should be required.
·
An
Honors College has more control over the recruitment and admission of its
students than does an Honors Program.
·
An
Honors College is more directly involved with the communal aspects of the
Honors experience and with Honors Students’ living arrangements, than is an
Honors Program.
·
An
Honors College puts more direct emphasis on advisory committees and alumni
relations than does an Honors Program.
East Carolina University’s Honors
Program in the Context of Competitors
The Honors College Planning Task
Force examined Honors Programs and Honors Colleges at peer institutions and
across the 16 universities in the UNC system.
Note, as reported in Table 6, there are no universities among the peer
institutions that do not have either an Honors College or an Honors Program,
and only one within the UNC system without such a program.
Table 6: Honors Programs and Colleges at
Peer and UNC-System Institutions*
|
Category |
Honors College |
Honors Program |
No Honors Component |
|
Peer Institutions |
Florida International University Ohio University Old Dominion University Texas Tech University Virginia Commonwealth U. Western Michigan University |
Northern Illinois University University of Missouri University of Nevada – Reno University of North Dakota U. of Wisconsin – Milwaukee Wright State University |
N/A |
|
“Peer Plus” Institutions |
SUNY Buffalo University of South Carolina |
Louisville University |
N/A |
|
16 UNC Institutions |
UNC Charlotte UNC Greensboro UNC Pembroke Western Carolina University |
Appalachian State University East Carolina University Elizabeth City State University Fayetteville State University UNC Asheville UNC Chapel Hill NC A&T University NC Central University NC State University UNC Wilmington Winston-Salem State University |
UNC School of the Arts |
*Based upon review of each university’s website
Sederberg (2005), formerly Dean of
the Honors College at the University of South Carolina, has pointed out that
most Honors Colleges have been founded within the past 15 years. Six peer institutions and two “peer plus”
institutions have created Honors Colleges which indicates that the concept of the Honors College, as opposed
to the Honors Program, is becoming an attractive and important new priority
among mid-level universities. In addition, four institutions in the UNC system
have moved in this direction recently, most notably, UNC-Charlotte and
UNC-Greensboro. The various websites indicate that this trend is largely
attributable to its perceived benefits in recruiting talented students and in
raising the academic profile of the university generally. A recent article in the Journal of College Student Development clearly identifies the
perceived enhancement in recruiting potential of a highly developed honors
component:
It is
understandable why colleges and universities would be interested in recruiting these
students. As Bridget Long of the Harvard
Graduate School of Education recently noted, high-achieving students offer
positive peer effects to the campus milieu. Additionally, a host of external
stakeholders often point to the successes of high-achieving students in the
labor market as a measure of overall institutional effectiveness.… From a
student perspective, with college tuition outpacing increases in the median
family income, students view Honors Programs as providing the opportunities of
an Ivy League education at a state university price, thus decreasing the degree
of overall stratification between colleges (Seifert, et al., 2007).
If East Carolina University is to
maintain and strengthen its competitive position within the UNC system in
curricular and academic matters, forming a solid Honors College will contribute
toward that outcome.
East Carolina University’s Readiness
for Transition to an Honors College
Assessing
the current East Carolina University Honors Program utilizing the NCHC standards
for a “fully-developed” Honors Program and evaluating the existing program
against the standards for a “fully-developed” Honors College, the Honors
College Planning Task Force believes that East Carolina University is prepared
to establish an Honors College. Based
upon their evaluation of the Honors Program at East Carolina University and in
direct support of this conclusion, external reviewers of the Honors Program
recently offered the following observation:
Given the organizational
appearance of Honors at East Carolina University, and given what we detected
are some of the aspirations that East Carolina University has, it may well be
time to consider establishing an Honors College.
In support of that recommendation,
the reviewers offered the following points:
• An Honors College would
give “additional intellectual cachet to East Carolina University” and better
position East Carolina University to compete with other top-flight universities
in North Carolina for the most capable students.
• An Honors College at East
Carolina University would provide a “home” for academically talented and
motivated students, and it would also create a greater sense of “community”
among honors students and faculty.
• An Honors College would
provide an environment that would encourage greater curricular and programmatic
experimentation than is currently possible.
• An Honors College would
provide an enhanced organizational framework, facilitating greater “coherence”
for honors, scholarship, and leadership experiences presently housed and
administered at diverse locations across campus.
• An Honors College would be
led by a dean who would be positioned to operate as a more visible advocate and
program leader across campus.
• An Honors College would
provide an adequate organizational infrastructure (assuming appropriate
budgetary support) to hire honors faculty, as well as to design and manage new
interdisciplinary degree programs. The reviewers
emphasized the importance of strengthening the curriculum by noting, “If East
Carolina University is to move to an Honors College then it is necessary to
hire more honors faculty and offer more stand-alone honors courses for
students.”
Commitment by East
Carolina University Administration to Establish an Honors
College
East
Carolina University recently took an important step toward strengthening the
Honors Program by upgrading the title of the Honors Program head from Director
to Associate Vice Chancellor. Even more
significantly, a 16 member university-wide Honors College Planning Task Force
was created with the express charge of preparing a report describing the
pertinent issues and current conditions, weighing the arguments in favor of
establishing an Honors College, and providing an institutional framework and
timeline for its creation. In forming
this task force, Provost Marilyn Scheerer committed the university to serious
consideration of undergoing the “transformational moment” wherein a university
institutes an Honors College. The Honors College Planning Task Force believes
that this course of action is in the best interests of East Carolina University
as we move forward into the twenty-first century, and that it is fully
congruent with the university’s strategic goals.
The commitment
to make the transition from an Honors Program to an Honors College carries with
it an obligation to provide the necessary resources to accomplish the stated
goals (as stipulated in NCHC Characteristics
of a Fully-developed Honors College). The Honors College Planning Task
Force feels that, as paradoxical as it may sound given current budgetary
circumstances, this may well be the best time for East Carolina University to
initiate this transformation, as it can position ECU well ahead of the competition
when economic times begin to brighten, when ECU's competitors are scrambling to
formulate a revised set of strategic priorities. The idea that now is the time
to build a solid Honors College finds support in the following observation:
Shrinking endowments at private schools and top universities
have left the class of 2013 scrambling for admission to schools such as Indiana
University of Pennsylvania's Robert E. Cook Honors College where administrators
are seeing a record surge in late applications. Families are facing the perfect
financial storm: shrinking value of their savings, loss of equity in their
homes, increases in tuition, threat of layoffs or job loss, and fewer
opportunities to borrow for college.… Schools previously known to offer large merit
awards to students who are at the top of their class with superior standardized
test scores have been offering slimmer packages.… This trend is impacting
schools across the nation, according to Don Asher, one of the nation's foremost
experts on colleges and careers.… “Elite schools have been quietly dropping
their need-blind admission policies,” said Asher, “They are dropping qualified
students who can't afford to pay in favor of helping less qualified students
who can afford to pay” (The Robert E. Cook Honors College at Indiana University
of Pennsylvania, 2009).
In conclusion, the Honors College Planning Task Force
submits the following in support of creating an Honors College at East Carolina
University:
·
It
has been done at half of East Carolina University’s peer institutions, a fact
which indicates that the creation of an Honors College is seen as a beneficial
move among universities of East Carolina University’s stature.
·
It
would position East Carolina University in the vanguard of universities in the
UNC system (only four Honors Colleges have so far been created within the UNC
system) and would therefore offer competitive advantages in student and faculty
recruiting.
·
It
would allow East Carolina University to profit immediately in terms of
recruiting the best and brightest students from across North Carolina and the
nation.
·
The
creation of an Honors College was one recommendation of the panel of external
reviewers that evaluated East Carolina University’s Honors Program in the
Spring 2008.
·
The
current Honors Program is sufficiently developed so as to provide a firm
foundation for the creation of an Honors College.
Part III
The Honors
College at East Carolina University
The
Honors College Planning Task Force bases its recommendation that East Carolina
University establish an Honors College on the following:
· a thorough examination
and review of the existing Honors Program (reported in Part I).
· an examination of Honors
Colleges at peer and other institutions (reported in Part II).
· an assessment of East
Carolina University’s Honors Program’s readiness to move to an Honors College
with particular attention to the standards established by the National
Collegiate Honors Council for “fully-developed Honors Colleges” (reported in
Part II).
· an assessment of
benefits likely to accrue as a result of establishing an Honors College
(reported in Part III).
The
Honors College Planning Task Force makes this recommendation fully cognizant of
the budgetary constraints currently facing the university. It is the judgment of the task force that a
carefully designed and appropriately marketed Honors College will represent an
investment likely to pay dividends in the form of increased enrollment of
outstanding students and enhanced recruitment and retention of outstanding
faculty. As a direct product of these
outcomes, East Carolina University’s reputation for academic excellence will be
strengthened.
Part
III of this report provides the goals for an Honors College at East Carolina
University, the model proposed for this Honors College with a focus on key
features, a proposed timeline for the establishment of an Honors College, an
overview of resources required to establish and operate a fully-developed
Honors College, and a summary of the benefits likely to accrue as a result of
establishing an Honors College.
Goals
of the Honors College
The
East Carolina University Honors College will:
·
Recruit the most academically talented students from North
Carolina and across the nation.
·
Provide for these students educational experiences that enhance
their capacity and commitment to critical and independent thinking, inquiry,
research, and discovery.
·
Provide for these students educational experiences built upon the
principle that “diversity and respect for human difference within the academe
is a key source of intellectual vitality and innovative spirit.” (http://www.ecu.edu/)
·
Provide for these students educational experiences that build
their capacity and lifelong commitment to assuming roles as leaders in their
lives as citizens and professionals.
·
Provide for these students educational experiences that build
their capacity and lifelong commitment to meaningful service in their lives as
citizens and professionals.
·
Provide educational experiences that prepare these students to
meet the challenges of leadership in a global environment including foreign
language acquisition and study abroad opportunities.
·
Offer courses, seminars, and other educational experiences
designed and delivered by the strongest and most effective faculty at East
Carolina University.
·
Offer courses, seminars, and other educational experiences characterized
by multidisciplinary design and delivery.
·
Build enhanced interdepartmental and interdisciplinary
communication and collaboration between the Honors College and faculty and
programs across campus.
·
Offer a curriculum laboratory within which faculty are encouraged
to design and deliver innovative curriculum to Honors College students.
·
Establish and maintain an Honors Learning Community through shared
residential, educational, cultural, and social experiences.
Organizational
Model for the Honors College
The
Honors College Planning Task Force proposes that East Carolina University adopt
“Leadership and Engagement” as the organizational theme for its Honors
College. This theme aligns well with the
university’s strategic directions as identified in ECU Tomorrow. As an
organizational theme, “Leadership and Engagement” will drive curriculum design
and delivery throughout the Honors College.
This theme will actively engage Honors College students in the
university’s goal to “build a leadership culture within the university.” (http://www.ecu.edu/)
The
following represent key features proposed for the East Carolina University
Honors College:
·
The Honors College will
be led by a Dean who will report directly to the Provost and will hold membership
on the Council of Deans. The Dean will
be a full-time 12 month appointment.
·
The Dean of the Honors
College will be advised by an Honors College Advisory Council comprised of Honors
Faculty (see below) and Honors Students.
·
Faculty who teach within
the Honors College must hold appointment as Honors Faculty. This appointment, similar in design and
purpose to Graduate Faculty status, will be required in order to teach an
Honors Course or Honors Seminar. Faculty
may apply for Honors Faculty status and will be evaluated by the Dean of the
Honors College and the Honors College Advisory Council. A record of outstanding and innovative
teaching will be required to achieve Honors Faculty status.
·
The Honors College will
build an Honors Learning Community. The
Honors Learning Community will emphasize and nurture a sense of shared purpose
and experience. A variety of design
features will contribute to this sense of community including, but not limited
to, shared on-campus residential experiences for the first two years at East
Carolina University, selected courses and seminars delivered in the residential
setting, shared participation in service learning opportunities, a required
common orientation experience during the summer prior to enrollment, and cohort
enrollment in common sections of foundation curriculum courses.
·
The Honors College experience will be characterized by a strong emphasis on international/global
learning opportunities. These will
include, but are not limited to, study abroad opportunities; shared
educational, cultural, social, and recreational experiences with international
students; courses and seminars designed to provide international knowledge and
experience; and foreign language requirements.
·
The Honors College experience will be characterized by a strong emphasis on service. Honors Students will be actively engaged in
service learning experiences through requirements associated with Honors
courses and seminars. An emphasis will
be placed on service learning opportunities that provide engagement with
diverse programs and populations.
Students graduating with Honors will qualify for membership in the
Servire Society (at least 100 hours of community service).
·
The Honors College experience will be characterized by a strong emphasis on leadership. Courses and seminars will be designed that
provide opportunities to develop and refine leadership skills. The Honors College will work closely with
personnel in East Carolina University’s four centers devoted to building
leadership to explore opportunities for Honors Students (The Center for Transformational Leadership in
Eastern North Carolina, The BB&T Leadership Center, Chancellor’s Leadership
Academy, and ECU’s Center for Student Success).
·
Students graduating from East Carolina University with
Honors will have a four year experience that includes
curriculum credit in Foundation Honors courses and a significant capstone
experience. The Honors College Planning
Task Force recommends that other Honors designations be re-evaluated and, as
appropriate, placed under the Honors College.
Departmental Honors, for example, is currently operated in such a manner
as to provide little consistency relative to requirements and standards from
one department to the next. If the
designation “Departmental Honors” is to be retained, these programs should be
reviewed and approved by the Honors College.
Honors-by-Contract arrangements should also be carefully reviewed and,
if retained, a strengthened and better articulated process of review and
approval by the Honors College should be required.
·
The current Foundation Curriculum requirements for the
Honors Program should be reviewed and strengthened to assure that Honors College students are required to complete
specified courses that include a common set of Honors Courses and Honors
Seminars.
·
The number, range, and
quality of Honors Courses and Seminars must be significantly expanded and enhanced in the
Honors College. This will require, in
part, an institutional commitment to building the Honors College
curriculum. This institutional
commitment should include building a sense of ownership and responsibility for
the Honors curriculum across the university.
With Honors Students participating in more than 100 programs across
campus, strengthening the Honors curriculum is clearly an initiative of
university-wide interest and relevance. Strengthening the Honors College
curriculum will require increased funding to support the buy-out of faculty
time to teach a larger number and wider range of Honors Courses and Honors
Seminars.
·
Marketing of the Honors
College must be significantly strengthened.
The potential of the Honors College to increase recruitment of high
caliber students will be realized only to the extent that the university
commits to the design and implementation of a well-organized and fully supported
marketing campaign.
Resources
Successful
implementation of the Honors College will require the infusion of new
resources. These resources will support
expanded and enhanced staffing, physical facilities, curriculum development,
and operating budget.
The
recent external review (see Part II) noted that staffing of the current Honors
Program is inadequate. The Honors College Planning Task Force proposes, at a
minimum, the following staffing additions to support a fully-developed Honors
College:
·
An Associate Director for the Honors Program should be hired as
soon as possible (see position description attached in Appendix B).
·
Advisors dedicated to serving Honors Students should be added.
As
enrollment in the Honors College grows attention should be focused on assuring
that marketing and recruitment efforts are appropriately resourced. The Task Force believes that with appropriate
support the Honors College will provide opportunities for enhanced advancement
and fundraising efforts. Whether through new position allocations or
in concert with more integrated staffing models, the new Honors College should
be aggressively marketed with statewide and regional recruitment goals. Increased advancement and fundraising efforts
should begin with the opening of the Honors College.
While
the Honors College Planning Task Force recognizes the constraints the
university currently faces regarding physical facilities, the task force
strongly encourages consideration of improved facilities for its Honors
College. The facility within which the
Honors College is housed conveys to visitors, including (and perhaps most
importantly) prospective Honors Students and their families, the value the
university places on the Honors College.
External reviewers, upon visiting the physical facilities assigned to
the Honors Program, noted in their report that the “physical limitations are
manifest.” Improved office space and
dedicated study and seminar areas will be necessary to support the expanded
enrollment and broadened curriculum of the new Honors College.
In
order to increase the number and expand the range of Honors Courses and Honors
Seminars available to students in the Honors College, it will be necessary to
provide increased funding to support the buy-out of faculty time. It must be realistic for departments to
support courses designed and delivered to students in the Honors College. Typically these courses will, with limited
enrollment, generate fewer student credit hours and, as a result, create some
challenges for departments with already limited faculty. The Honors College should have the resources
necessary to provide departments with funding to pay for replacement of faculty
who teach an Honors Course or Honors Seminar.
In
order to meet the standards of a “fully-developed Honors College” established
by the National Collegiate Honors Council, “the operational and staff
budgets…should provide the resources at least comparable to other collegiate
units of equivalent size.” External
reviewers recently noted that the budget of the Honors Program was “grossly
inadequate.”
In
order to successfully compete with Honors Colleges at other universities,
scholarships and other forms of financial support must be more readily and
widely available to Honors Students.
Timeline
The
Honors College Planning Task Force recommends a three year implementation
timeline. The goal should be full
implementation of the Honors College model by the close of the third year.
The
first year will include the following:
·
A series of open hearings will be conducted by the Provost and the
Chair of the Honors College Planning Task Force to invite full faculty input
into the planning of the Honors College.
·
An Honors College Advisory Council will be appointed by the
Provost and the Director of the Honors Program with input from the Council of
Deans and the Faculty Senate.
·
The Honors College Advisory Council in collaboration with the
Director of the Honors Program will draft a Unit Code for the Honors College
(see Appendix L of the East Carolina University Faculty Manual).
·
The Honors College Advisory Council will adopt criteria and draft
policies and procedures governing Honors Faculty status.
·
The Director of the Honors Program and selected members of the
Honors Advisory Council will visit selected model Honors Colleges.
·
The Director of the Honors College will work closely with facility
planners to identify options for improved facilities for Honors College offices
and study areas.
·
The Director of the Honors Program will meet with Residence Life
to plan for two year residence needs of incoming Honors College students.
·
The Associate Director of the Honors Program will meet with IPAR
and other offices on campus (Registrar, Admissions, etc.) to design and
implement more effective data collection and reporting procedures.
·
The Director of the Honors Program and the Honors College Advisory
Council will design a recruitment campaign focused on increased recruitment of
students for the Honors College.
·
A fully-developed marketing campaign will be designed and prepared
for implementation in the following year.
This campaign will include new print materials (brochures, etc.), a
re-designed web presence, visits and presentations at schools across the state,
and other marketing events.
The
second year will include the following:
·
Planning for revised Honors College Foundation courses and seminar
requirements will be finalized.
·
The Director of the Honors Program will move the Unit Code forward
for approval. Upon approval, the
position of Director of the Honors Program would be replaced by the position of
Dean of the Honors College.
·
A series of meetings will be conducted with departments across
campus to present the process and criteria for approval as Honors Faculty.
·
Proposals for new Honors Courses and Honors Seminars will be
invited across campus. The Honors
College Advisory Council will review and act on approval of these proposals.
·
Meetings will be conducted with Deans and Department Chairs to
develop new policies governing departmental honors designations and
honors-by-contract arrangements.
·
The Director of the Honors Program will meet with the Division of
University Advancement to plan strategies for more active and visible
involvement of the Dean of the Honors College.
The
third year will include the following:
·
The Honors College will be implemented.
Benefits
of an Honors College
An
Honors College at East Carolina University built around the theme of Leadership
and Engagement will benefit the university in a number of important ways.
·
The Honors College will significantly enhance East Carolina
University’s capacity to recruit and retain the highest caliber students from
across the state and nation.
·
The Honors College will significantly enhance East Carolina
University’s capacity to attract and retain the highest quality faculty. The strongest faculty are attracted to and
likely to remain at universities that enroll the most academically talented
students. Such faculty are also likely
to join and remain with universities that provide opportunities to engage in
creative curriculum design and innovative teaching. The Honors College will offer faculty
opportunities to work with the best students within the context of innovative
multidisciplinary instructional models.
·
East Carolina University’s reputation for academic excellence will
be enhanced as higher caliber students and stronger faculty are recruited.
·
The Honors College will expand existing collaborative
relationships and build new partnerships with colleges, schools, departments,
and programs across campus. These
relationships and partnerships will produce new and innovative
multidisciplinary curriculum, service learning opportunities, and research
experiences for both students and faculty.
·
With its emphasis on community engagement, the Honors College will
make direct and substantive contributions to the service mission of the
university while, in the process, preparing Honors Students for lives in
service to their professions and communities.
·
The Honors College will contribute to the strategic directions
identified in ECU Tomorrow: A Vision for Leadership and Service.
Education
for a New Century. ECU will prepare our
students to compete and succeed in the global economy. As described earlier in this report, the
Honors College will place a strong emphasis on global education. Educational, cultural, social, residential,
and recreational opportunities will be selected and designed to equip Honors
College Students with the skills and dispositions necessary to not only
compete, but lead in a global economy.
The
Leadership University. ECU will
distinguish itself by the ability to train and prepare leaders for our state
and nation. The Honors College will be
designed around an organizational theme that focuses on “Leadership and
Engagement.” This focus on building
leaders contributes directly to the university’s second strategic direction, as
East Carolina University moves toward becoming the leadership university. Clearly, if the university is to accomplish
this goal, it is essential that its best and brightest students become a focal
point in efforts to develop leaders.
Economic
Prosperity in the East. ECU will create
a strong, sustainable future for the East through education, innovation,
investment, and outreach. Efforts to build
economic prosperity in eastern North Carolina will require the talents and
commitment of the very brightest students.
The “entrepreneurial mindset” and “innovation and research” emphasized in the
university’s description of this strategic direction will be focal points in
the educational experiences of students in the Honors College.
Health
Care and Medical Innovation. ECU will
save lives, cure diseases, and positively transform the quality of health care
for the region and state. As reported in Part I of
this proposal, a significant number of Honors Students select educational programs
and career tracks in health related fields.
The university’s capacity to realize this strategic direction is linked
to its ability to attract and educate the very brightest students.
The Arts,
Culture, and the Quality of Life. ECU
will provide world-class entertainment and powerful inspiration as we work
together to sustain and improve the community’s quality of life. An Honors College that successfully attracts
and retains students with great creative potential will produce graduates that
can and will contribute to this strategic direction.
The
Honors College Planning Task Force believes that East Carolina University has
reached a point in its institutional maturation that an Honors College is the
logical and most appropriate next step.
An Honors College represents an investment in the academic future of the
university.
Appendix A
Selected Comments from
Honors Program Senior/Alumni Letters
“…the
senior honors thesis helped prepare me for a career in research and assisted me
develop ideas … for my dissertation during a PhD program.”
“…the ECU
Honors program needs to have the resources and means to provide more honors
courses within departments.”
“…where the
global economy is getting increasingly interconnected and when domestic
decisions have a larger effect on international outcomes, (study abroad is)
essential for a …student to be informed and competitive in the global arena. …
“…ECU Honors
Program office needs more advisors and support staff.”
“I will be
leaving ECU with a fellowship from Ohio State University to pursue a PhD in
economics, and I do not think this would have been achievable without the
personal growth provided by the Honors Program.”
-Korie
Amberger
Combined
BS/MS, 2009
Economics
“(An Honors
College)…shows that the University values its honors students as an integral
part of the campus community and an essential component of the University’s
outreach to the world.”
"...opportunities
given through the Honors Program aptly prepared me for post-graduate life...My
honors thesis was completed in the laboratory of Dr. John Stiller. The Honors
Program facilitated my relationship with Dr. Stiller for four years of intense
guidance and mentorship...Not only did it provide the laboratory experience and
academic stimulation that an undergraduate needs, but it also resulted
in...publication of the research in a reputable peer-reviewed journal."
"...most
memorable was my time at Jarvis United Methodist Church after school care. (Middle school) students from lower
socioeconomic levels...received opportunities to...forge friendships during a
tumultuous time for adolescents. The Honors Program facilitated this
relationship which proved to be a successful venture for both the children and
for the volunteers."
-Matthew S.
Cook
BS,
Biology, 2005
Doctoral
Student, Department of Cell Biology
Duke
University Medical Center
“My
personal project focused on ocular healthcare. With the help of…(Dr. Michael
Bassman, Dr. Maria Clay, Dr. Annette Greer, and Mrs. Sue Chapman)…I was able to
…design a research project …investigating the eye-health care disparities in
rural North Carolina and in rural Romania…”
“…I am one
of the recommended finalists for a research grant under the Fulbright U.S.
Student Program by the National Screening Committee of the Institute of
International Education to…Romania.”
-Diana
Andreea Gliga
BS,
Biology, 2009
Fulbright
Scholar, 2009
Accepted to
Brody School of Medicine
“(Honors) courses caused me to think about my
world in new ways, to become more accepting of others and to understand and
appreciate differences and similarities among people.”
“My freshman
year, I decided to make my biology course honors by contract. In a class of…200
students, I had a unique opportunity to get to know my professor through being
an honors student…my professor asked me if I would like to work in her lab as
well. My experiences working in a professional lab allowed me to apply what I
learned in my courses…I was able to start my own project, which eventually
became the topic of my senior thesis.”
“At a
school with over 23,000 students, being able to live and work with other
students, whose goals were similar to mine, made East Carolina seems much less
intimidating.”
“…not only
East Carolina, but the greater community of Eastern North Carolina…would
benefit from (an Honors College).
-Christina
Peroutka
BS,
Biology, 2009
Accepted to
Brody School of Medicine
“What
attracted me to ECU over (Duke, UNC-CH and NCSU) was the dynamic character of
the Honors Program, the camaraderie of the ECU Scholars Program, the commitment
to service, and the proud spirit of the campus.”
“As an ECU
alumnus, I am in full support of the foundation of an ECU Honors College. An
Honors College will have a greater scope, more employees to administer its
programs, the ability to teach true Honors courses across disciplines with
Honors faculty, and a reputation that will benefit the students in their years
following ECU.”
-Geoff
Handsfield
BS,
Physics, 2008
Graduate
Student in Engineering
University
of Virginia
“When I
first came to ECU…no one would say that I was a natural leader, outspoken and
actively engaged. It was the Honors Program that guided me through my first
leadership experiences, which included organizing a religious conference for
the university, preparing me for research symposiums and publications….These
experiences would help me to evolve into
the person I am today.”
Aadil Lodhi
BS, Applied
Physics, 2007
Brody
School of Medicine
Appendix B
Position Description for Associate Director of the Honors Program
The Associate Director of the Honors Program will
work closely with Associate Vice Chancellor
for the University Honors Program to:
·
Develop well
articulated and comprehensive data collection systems for the Honors Program
·
Strengthen and
expand the range of curriculum options available to students in the Honors
Program including increasing the number and variety of Honors courses and
seminars and clarifying and articulating consistent policies governing Honors
by Contract.
·
Develop and
implement systematic data reporting
protocols and procedures
·
Develop and
implement dissemination methodologies to ensure accurate, clear, and timely
communication to constituencies both on and off-campus
·
Develop and
implement systems for centralizing and
disseminating program materials
·
Develop and implement course and program evaluation
policies and procedures
·
Develop and
implement follow-up studies of University Honors Students that will become a
part of ECU’s response to SACS 2.10 Core Requirement: “The institution provides
student support programs, services, and activities consistent with its mission
that promote student learning and enhance the development of its
students.” One of the relevant questions
for consideration is: “How are the student support programs and services
assessed for their effectiveness and adequacy?
What is evidence that the programs are effective?”
·
Develop and
implement strategies for budget planning and fiscal management
·
Develop and
implement goals and strategies for increasing enrollment and retention in the
University Honors Program
·
Develop a
University Honors alumni database
·
Develop and
implement long range strategic planning
Appendix C
References
Haarlow, W.
(2003). Great books, honors program, and
hidden origins: The Virginia Plan and the University of Virginia Liberal Arts
Movement: RoutledgeFalmer.
Sederberg,
P. C. (2005, 22 Sept.) Characteristics of the contemporary honors college: A
descriptive analysis of a survey of NCHC member colleges. Journal of National Collegiate Honors Council.
Seifert, T.
A., Pascarella, E. T., Colangelo, N., , & Assouline, S. G. (2007). The effects of honors program participation
on experiences of good practices and learning outcomes. Journal of College Student Development, 48, 57-74.
The Robert
E. Cook Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, http://old.www.iup.edu/honors/News/NEWS.HTML#storm
(May 19, 2009).