By Sarah Carlson, Staff Writer
Honors Program officials said they hope to convert the Honors Program into an Honors College with Centennial Campaign funds.
Dr. Jonathan Wade, assistant professor of English and assistant director of the Honors Program, said an Honors College would provide more resources and different types of scholarships for its students.
Dr. Chris Willerton, professor of English and director of the Honors Program, said University trustees approved the conversion, which is contingent on a $5 million endowment from the Centennial Campaign, in February 2001.
Willerton said the endowment is part of a “huge wish list” for the Centennial Campaign.
He said he has not received any feedback from fund-raisers yet, and it is too early in the process to know if the change will take place.
Willerton said many of the over 900 honors programs that comprise the National Collegiate Honors Council are making the change from programs to colleges but not changing to separate degrees.
“The point is not to give separate honors degrees,” Willerton said. The point is “to have a more distinctive curriculum.”
Wade said the conversion would boost the Honors Program, promote learning and help students acquire better jobs after graduation.
Willerton said the endowment would mainly go toward student research, study abroad travel grants, honors course development and student teaching internships.
The Honors Program does not have full-time faculty, and Willerton said that will continue with professors teaching in their areas of expertise as well as “integrative and cross-disciplinary honors courses.”
Willerton said no dramatic changes for the program will occur until an endowment is received for the program, changes he said he does not expect for a couple of years.
He added the main change the program is dealing with is accommodating the large number of honors applicants for the fall.
“They are coming in at twice the rate they did a year ago,” Willerton said, “with a lot of credit going toward the recruiting done by the admissions department.”
