Honors Program prepares for fall start

The administration has begun to make preparations for Tech's new Honors Program, which will launch this fall with a freshman class of approximately 110 students. Likely candidates for the program are currently being chosen from this year's applicant pool.

A committee comprised of Honors Program Advisory Board members and staff from the Office of Admissions will select students from this smaller group beginning in mid-March. Letters inviting selected students to join the program will be sent out April 1 with regular admissions packets.

The Honors Program strives to recruit exemplary students without drawing away resources from current students, said Bobby Beaulieu, the chair of Academic Affairs for the Student Government Association (SGA). "It does not aim to degrade the Tech education everyone else is earning. The Honors Program has its own budget, and it will only attract better students and more funding. Ultimately, it will enhance the entire educational level at Tech," Beaulieu said.

The program is targeted to academically excellent students who seek a broader, more interdisciplinary and inquiry-based educational experience. "Admission will depend on a holistic assessment of a student's GPA, test scores, leadership record, personal essay and teacher recommendations. We're looking for students with demonstrated excellence in academic achievement, community involvement and character," said Deborah Smith, associate vice president of Enrollment Services.

Although current literature on the program is limited to online documentation available at www.honors.gatech.edu, future honors students will be aggressively recruited, according to the administration. "Everything is in place for the program to start now except for some minor details, like honors course descriptions, which will be worked out in the next few months. Next year, there will be a separate honors application and we'll advertise more, but the Provost decided the program should open this year and we feel that it's ready," said Anderson Smith, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies.

The Honors Program will offer new classes including small sections of introductory courses that will require students "to think, inquire, discuss, debate and even challenge the received wisdom of the discipline," said Gregory Nobles, a professor of History, Technology and Society and Interim Director of the program. According to Nobles, these classes will stress a more innovative and exploratory approach to learning rather than more difficult course material. "It's not about how 'hard' the work is -and let's face it, nothing in the Tech curriculum has ever been 'easy'-but about how different people approach the work of getting an education in different ways," Nobles said.

Other parts of the program include topical seminars, cultural colloquia and honors advising. At present, the Honors Program, focuses on students' freshman and sophomore years. Students will be included in campus-wide extracurricular social and intellectual activities of the Honors Program, but different schools and departments will be responsible for developing major-specific honors curricula after their first two years. "Faculty oversight will ensure that honors classes in different majors are qualitatively comparable," Vice Provost Smith said. "New honors courses will have to be approved by both the Honors Program advisory and curriculum committees."

Honors students will live together in a separate residence, Howell Hall, with an honors advisor. Despite all of the program's perks, however, honors students will not receive priority registration or scholarship funds. The issue of whether or not there will be a degree designation for the Honors Program is still being decided.

There has been a significant student voice in and response to the program. The Honors Program Ad hoc Committee contains many students, with SGA representatives accounting for a quarter of its members. "We served in an advisory capacity in that we could influence policy and make recommendations, although the administration had the final word," said David Andersen, undergraduate student body president and committee member.

"The fact that the honors students are living together will only separate people more," said Jena Chang, a third-year Applied Mathematics major.

Such tensions raise considerable questions about the ease with which incoming honors students can expect to transition to Tech. "I think a lot of [the tension] stems from ignorance about the program. The Honors Program isn't about taking resources away from students or conferring special treatment on a select few. We're trying to get more information out there so people can understand the program better, via open house forums, meetings with other student organizations, etcetera," Beaulieu said.