Honors Program seeks to expand and improve

UNC’s Honors Program could soon see more students, more courses and more options for graduating with honors.

The University has proposed a major overhaul of the program in response to low retention rates. Administrators also hope to use the program to better recruit top students.

The program will look to increase the number of honors students from 5 to 10 percent of the student body, bringing the total number to about 400 per class.

“I think we’ll come out on the other side with an honors program not quite like anything else out there at a public research university,” said Jim Leloudis, associate dean of the Honors Program.

Any changes put forth will not be confirmed until spring 2010.

Under the proposed changes, the program would hire 15 new professors for the College of Arts and Sciences to expand course offerings. They will be hired across several departments and over the course of several years, Leloudis said.

The new jobs are expected to cost UNC about $22.5 million. Gifts made during the Carolina First Campaign — private donations and matched state money — are being used to hire the faculty members.

Leloudis said each professor hired will translate into four additional honors courses.

Research consultants were hired in December to address concerns about the program. Students and faculty members expressed discontent with the courses offered through the program, many of which are focused in the humanities.

The program currently selects about 5 percent of the incoming freshman class to enter the program. While honors classes are open to all students, honors students get first priority for enrolling in these classes.

Students are required to take two honors courses per year to stay in the program, but many students majoring in natural sciences have had difficulty finding honors courses that also fulfill their major requirements.

“I think too often science students have to make a choice,” said junior Chris Carter, co-chairman of the academic affairs committee of the Honors Program Executive Board. “We don’t want them to have to choose between the honors program and their major.”

Junior Ben Hawks, a math and computer science double major, said he dropped out of the program after his first year.

“Taking the honors classes had become a chore,” he said, adding that he would rather take more interesting classes in his major.

Any student who wants to graduate with honors, regardless of whether they are a part of the Honors Program, can do so by writing an honors thesis in their senior year.

Leloudis said he hopes the new program will allow for new pathways to earning an honors degree. He said the new idea might include a research method, but the proposal is still in the planning stages.

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.