Honors program needs a second look

As an incoming freshman, FASET leaders tell you, " Every Tech student was the smartest at their high school. " Ask your average - or even above-average - student what he or she thinks about his peers, and the answer will likely include something about respect and matching intellect. So why do we need an honors program?

As covered in Technique recently, a committee has proposed a plan for such a program to the Provost ' s Office. The aspect of the proposed honors program that I ' m most concerned about is consistency across majors. According to the committee, honors classes would be implemented mainly in the Institute core. However, for a student ' s third and fourth year, providing an honors curriculum would be up to that student ' s major school. As a result, as Vice Provost Bob McMath admitted, there would be " different development between schools. "

Different - and likely inferior: there would be a disparity among schools whose chairs place different emphasis on the program, among larger schools and smaller schools. How is it fair, or desirable even, if the quality of your honors degree is dependent on your major?

As an Electrical Engineering major, I have a hard time seeing how a workable honors program could be implemented in a school the size of the School of ECE. Much of our major core includes lab classes that are run primarily by TAs, not professors. Our third- and fourth-year curriculum also includes the bulk of our 20-plus hours of major electives. The school offers a multitude of electives in each of its 10 concentration areas, but often no more than one or two sections of each elective are offered each semester. How should you choose between an elective you ' re interested in and an honors elective that you might not be interested in? More importantly, how do you find enough professors and class space to provide a satisfactory number and diversity of honors classes?

The committee also defines an honors class as having better student-faculty interaction and more " intellectual vitality. " But just designating a class as " honors " does not ensure this. I took honors math courses for Calc 2 through DiffEQ, and my experiences ranged from terrible to excellent. I ' ve also taken regular elective classes where I felt I received honors-quality interaction because the professor got to know his students and engaged them through enthusiastic lecture, questions and well-crafted assignments.

An honors program might be beneficial in liberal arts classes, where small class size and attentive students may foster better discussion and participation, but in the case of most engineering classes, quality comes primarily from the professor. Honors classes can only take these exceptional professors away from students who may not be honors material but are still interested in what the professor wants to teach.

The committee also says honors classes will be more " interdisciplinary. " But in core classes, the basics must be learned - there is only so much interdisciplinary material that can be incorporated.

In addition, most students who would be eligible for an honors program will likely have received AP or high school credit for much of their core. Instead, why not encourage interdisciplinary study by strengthening our under-funded Schools of LCC and Modern Languages?

Or how about undergraduate research? Though it ' s part of the new Quality Enhancement Plan, Tech ' s undergrad research is nowhere near the status of, for example, MIT ' s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, which is a core component of its students ' undergrad education. At Tech, though there is plenty of undergrad research going on, the responsibility to find a professor and research interest lies primarily with the student. A stronger, more centralized undergrad research program would offer an equally powerful incentive to attract students to Tech, and would have additional benefits as well.

But if the Provost ' s Office is set on an honors program, then aspects of the current plan needs to be seriously reexamined.

They must not simply look to peer universities ' honors programs for guidance; they must consider the unique dynamic of Tech ' s student population.

It seems like the real reason for all this is simply to get back the students we might lose to universities with honors programs (namely UGA). But with no scholarship component, the proposed program may be less effective. Let ' s not turn the honors program into a second-rate President ' s Scholarship. It would only create even more of a divide among students at a university that prides itself on the quality of its student body as a whole.