Day 1 in the new Honors College – whatever it is
by AnonTerp on Aug.29, 2009, under Leadership
College Park’s new Honors College is launched!
With a majority of the fall Honors Program admits present (only a few students figured out that “mandatory attendance” would not necessarily mean checking attendance) a nicely-run convocation in the Chapel heralded its arrival.
But what is the Honors College?
Apparently it is another advertising and recruiting operation. Contrary to speculation that the day would include announcements of new content (recalling the fire drill in July when units were given a couple weeks to propose new ideas) we learned the new Honors College will only house existing operations that had already been responsible for content delivery: the original Honors Program (now called University Honors), Gemstone and Honors Humanities.
Included in the mix is “Departmental Honors”, which will be exciting to figure out, since not all departments have such a thing, all are different from one another, and in some cases a student won’t know he or she wins “departmental honors” until specific requirements are satisfied (e.g. at graduation.) In those cases, what will it mean to be in a departmental honors program? Nobody knows. All this comes as a surprise to most of the listed honors directors.
The real clue that this is all about spin comes from Admissions. Well before the campus deadline for units to propose content, expensive color glossies to advertise the Honors College were already printed and mailed to prospective students who we hope will apply for Fall 2010. We started with an advertising campaign and are working back to define content that will make it true.
Privately, some observers are waiting for the other shoe to drop. Usually new programs and departments are things that require bureaucracy. Can you just declare out of the blue something that is even bigger? Is there an MHEC obligation? Wouldn’t the campus Senate want to have input? One thing is sure: the way to implement a plan without having to answer a lot of pesky questions from faculty is to ram it through in the middle of summer before everyone gets back.
