Vol 3 No 4
On Friday, I spent the day in Syracuse meeting with other
SUNY Honors Directors and Administrators.
Our conversation covered many issues that Honors and Honors students are
facing across SUNY. Attendees came from
all over the state - New Paltz, Brockport. Binghamton, Oswego, Albany, Delhi,
Ulster, and MCC. We shared struggles and
concerns relating to enrollment, persistence, budgets, faculty and staff support,
transfer, and completion. I learned, or
rather had reinforced, that many Honors students at numerous schools of
differing degrees and demographics face many of the same issues.
One thing that came out of the meeting that may be of
specific interest to some of you is that I have a meeting coming up in a few
weeks with MCC and Brockport so we can talk about how us two-years and that
specific four year can work together to help our students. Not just with transfer, but also with developing
intellectual scholarship and networking opportunities for Honors students
regardless of what college they are attending or will attend.
Also in the realm of tangible items accomplished, I also developed
a survey that will be going out to all current Honors-declared students as well
as all students enrolled in an Honors course this semester. You’ll see a variety of questions about your
perceptions of Honors and the time you spend in the classes and your plans for
the future. I will use this information
to help ensure that Honors at FLCC is serving its specific group of students. And that leads me to the things I gathered
that are less tangible, per se.
Similarities. Shared
experiences.
One thing that comes home to roost every time I talk with
other Honors directors is that Honors must always work to serve the population
of the college in which it is housed.
Every institution is so different from every other one that part of what
I love about gatherings like this is that it forces me to rethink what we are
doing and why. We are so different from other Honors “programs”
(first and foremost – we are not a program), and while that once made me feel
self-conscious or that we were “doing it wrong”, that has since changed. Now, I feel more and more strongly that
Honors here is the way it is because of who are students are.
I also wrote an email to learn how I might hold workshops
for our faculty so that we can have more Honors offerings taught by new Honors
faculty. New seminars and new discipline
courses is an important part of the future of Honors at FLCC. I think there’s at least a handful of faculty
out there who want to teach Honors, but aren’t really sure how or even if they
can within their disciplines. (Yes, they
can – we just need to work out HOW).
I don’t want to suggest that all the SUNY colleges have
Honors that have nothing in common with one another, they absolutely do. Especially in philosophy. All Honors are built on developing
interdisciplinary, reflective, lifelong learners. It’s just the paths to get there can
change. Some welcome transfer students,
some don’t. Some require community
service, and some do not. Some are
Honors Colleges within a larger university, some are programs that you need to
apply for. Some classes have Honors
students sharing seats with non-Honors students. Some require Honors theses, some have
capstone projects. They require
anywhere from 9 to 26 credits of Honors and all have GPA requirements – though they
range, too.
All struggle with funding and having the money they need to
do things. All feel understaffed and
overworked. All have some level of
flexibility to work with students in different situations, particularly the
community colleges. All want to have
stronger ties with their alumni and want to find more and more ways to fund
initiatives that will help their students do more and achieve more.
But one thing was abundantly clear.
Every single one of the people there wants to find better
ways to help their Honors students become everything they are capable of
becoming and I am no different.
Like horses of different colors, we are the same in so many
different ways. Or different in so many
of the same ways.
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