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!
