Honors Happenings

Vol 1. No. 8

It’s been a crazy week with advising and the spring semester on everyone’s mind along with the ending of the semester looming and Hallowe’en getting everyone excited.  I’ve been working hard on getting ready for next semester – soon you will see posters appearing around campus for ALL the Honors courses in the Spring as well as ones for my own Alice in Wonderland course.  I’ve been talking to various faculty about coming to guest lecture in that class and so far Tim Biehler, Linda Ross, Robert Brown, April Steenburgh, Mary Murphy, Derrick Gentry, and Liz Brownell have all shown interest in doing a repeat performance of their work last time I taught this class.  I have a couple of other folks to come chat as well.

I know that Dr. Brown in the Social Science department is creating a pamphlet to advertise courses in his area, and you should see Brian Bell’s presidential class there.  We should see other posters and things popping up as well.  If you haven’t already guessed, Honors faculty are extremely excited about their own classes as well.  It’s a strange time to get excited about next semester when we are in the throes of this one, but that curiosity and enthusiasm we always talk about is infectious. 

Remember – to find ALL Honors courses for the spring, just select HON from the WebAdvisor pull down menu and that will give you everything from the seminars to Honors in the Disciplines.

Speaking of energy, it was amazingly high and contagious at the Honors dinner as well.  For a first time event, I think it was wonderfully successful and I can’t wait to begin planning for a repeat performance in the spring.  We had 40 or so students there, plus a number of Honors faculty and supporters.  We heard from President Nye, Provost Fragnoli, and the interim AVP of Instruction, Cassy Kent.  We also heard from the faculty teaching some of the more specialized classes and Vera Whisman even got us to think about gender influences things as ‘innocent’ as how we sit.  One of the best parts of the evening was when current Honors students stood up and shared their thoughts with those in attendance.  I had no idea what they would say, and I must say that I was thrilled to hear them talking about all the same things I think of when I think about Honors myself.  Special thanks to Nick Lathrop, Erin Oakley, Megan Scicchitano, and Luke Martin for talking about their experiences from a student perspective.  Speaking of student perspectives, within a blog or two, we will hear from Noel Scouten, who is going to guest blog about her experience with working on an Honors contract this semester in ENG 102 – Introduction to Literature.

We have some big announcements coming soon, but I have to get a couple of meetings taken care of first.  But, keep in mind that big things are coming for Honors and I hope you will be excited as we are about what is to come.

We might even be able to sell T-shirts!  Those were a huge hit!  :D

Stay curious!

“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision” – Dalai Lama

SUNY Gathering

Vol 1. No. 3

Hello!

I'm a little bit late with episode three of Honors Matters, but I am here!

I have an Honors event this week about which I'm quite excited and I wanted to share it with you and invite you to pass along any thoughts you might have.

On Friday, I will be travelling to Syracuse to join a group of SUNY Honors Directors and Deans to network and share ideas.  We will get together for a social dinner on Friday evening and will continue our conversations at an all day meeting on Saturday.  Agenda items so far include:

Best practices - I'm really looking forward to this part.  This where I will get to share some of what we've been doing at FLCC as well as hear what other campuses are doing.  I hope to bring home lots of ideas that we can implement.

Honors contracts - I'm curious about what other campuses do.  We don't have a lot of contracts here, but I imagine that this number might increase as more and more students hear about Honors as a whole.  This is especially important for students in tight programs or for students who arrived late to Honors and are hoping to complete a certificate or diploma in an abridged amount of time.

Enhance connections - this is an important one.  I get asked a lot of questions about what Honors can do for a student in terms of transfer and I think these are really important conversations to have.  I am curious as to what four-year institutions are looking for and how we can work together to make Honors part of a transfer student's experiences in a positive way.

Honors visibility - Honors Deans and Directors across SUNY are interested in great links to the chancellor's office - especially in light of the change in leadership at that level.  These are important conversations to have as a whole and may even result in some kind of liaison between Honors at the campus level and SUNY central.

Assessment rubrics - this might not sound very interesting for students, but it should!  We are working very hard behind the scenes to align Honors with the learning framework of the whole college and shaping our learning outcomes to match work being done at the college on a larger level.  With that, comes the need to assess and create evidence that shows we are doing all the things we want to do.  The timing of this agenda item is perfect for us - as several classes are piloting the new learning outcomes and other documents this very semester!

The fun of all of this is that it really shows that we are trying to practice some of the core tenants of Honors in our very own practice.  It's all about making connections, reflecting on what we are doing, and expanding learning outside the classroom.  I look forward to sharing what I learn with you in a future blog.

STAY CURIOUS!
-T

"Honors administrators and faculty consider students to be the leaders of the future in their disciplines of choice and strive to give them the tools to be responsible, ethical citizens”

AnnMarie Guzy in “Honors Composition:  Humanity Beyond the Humanities”