With tentative plans and an enthusiastic vision, the University Advisory Honors Board hopes to revamp the Honors Program over the next few years.
The most noticeable changes so far have been the modifications to the courses themselves, which will begin next semester.
In the past, all honors students were required to take 16 classes, which closely resembled a more challenging Common Curriculum. Now students are required to take only eight classes, and the UHP is offering topical seminars instead.
The seminars, all under the theme “Reality and Interpretation” this semester, have very focused interests, and professors are able to teach specific topics that appeal to them. English professor and UAHB deputy director John Sebastian said that he hopes the Honors Program will continue to offer mainly seminars from now on.
Other adjustments the board has in mind for the future include changing the thesis-writing process. Honors students seeking to complete the full program and receive special recognition on their diplomas must write a thesis their senior year.
Currently, juniors must take a one-credit orientation and complete their two-credit thesis the next year. Sebastian said the board is looking into making the orientation more informal, putting the focus on the three-credit senior thesis.
Sebastian expressed a desire to emphasize the “living-learning community” aspect of the UHP. He listed ideas such as more group trips and finding new housing besides the 11th floor of Buddig Hall for Honors students.
However, Sebastian said the main focus of the board right now is drafting detailed guidelines for advisers so that requirements aren’t confused while honors students work toward graduation.
A full program review has begun and the board hopes to have results by February. Sebastian said the board was hesitant to make too many changes before the results of the review were determined.
UAHP co-director and philosophy professor Constance Mui pointed out the “the lack of any ‘foundational course’ for the eight seminars offered in eight different disciplines.” She hopes to address this by instituting an honors freshman seminar.
Sebastian and Mui have been the third change in Honors leadership in as many years. They took over as directors in the summer of 2007, following interim director Skelly McCay and his predecessor, Lynn Koplitz.
Koplitz herself served only a year as director.
Honors philosophy senior Andy Morgan called it a “Defense Against the Dark Arts situation,” a “Harry Potter” reference that honors seniors can no doubt relate to. A different person has run the program for each of their four years at Loyola.
Frequent changes to the director’s office are uncommon. When professor William Cotton stepped down as director in 2004, he had been running the program for seven years.
When Koplitz entered as the new director, plans for change were supposed to be set in motion, but Hurricane Katrina and the Pathways Plan disrupted them.
McCay replaced Koplitz as interim director, and now Sebastian and Mui have a two-year contract as UHAB directors.
“To shape something as a young faculty member is exciting … this is clearly a positive direction,” Sebastian said.
A national search for a new director may begin during the 2008-2009 school year.
“We certainly plan on getting more focused feedback from students,” Sebastian said.
He said that he informally took notes during the advising period to see what students’ overall impression was.
“The sense is that students are excited,” he said.
Mui said she and Sebastian will listen to feedback from students about the seminars once they begin classes next semester.
Morgan, the residential advisor of the Honors floor, said there has been an upsurge in music and business majors in the Honors Program this semester, adding that the majority of freshmen on his floor are in music. He said that in past years, it would have been impossible for music or business majors to be in the Honors Program.
Morgan feels that the UHP has become a “more community-oriented program” now that the new seminars are completely different classes, instead harder versions of the Common Curriculum classes.
Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at
