(The following is an interview with Mary Wack, the first official dean of the Honors College, focusing on changes that have occurred in the past 18 months, since it moved into its new facility.)
Q: When the Honors College is mentioned, there seems to be a variety of reactions that surface. What is the biggest misconception about the Honors College?
Wack: There’s a term that’s thrown around in a somewhat pejorative manner. The term is “elitism.” It’s never quite defined, but it always has a negative connotation.
The challenge is helping people — students, faculty, staff and the community — to better understand what we do. We view the Honors College as an environment designed to develop special academic talent.
When you think about it, we’re much like the School of Music, which offers programs specifically designed to develop students gifted with music talents. It’s also similar to Athletics, which provides programs especially designed to develop the skills of students who are athletically gifted.
The Honors College is for students with exemplary academic talents, students who seek to push themselves and develop those abilities. And, their majors span a wide variety of disciplines.
Q: What kind of students does the Honors College look to recruit?
Wack: Our students come from majors throughout the university, everything from pharmacy to music to chemistry to athletics. We’re looking for students who not only have excellent academic records, but who can “think outside the box” and be creative.
We’re also looking for students who are interested in being challenged. The curriculum is a very rigorous and demanding. In addition to the classes, students must complete a research and thesis project, which requires discipline and commitment. So, we’re looking for students willing to tackle that extra challenge and complete the process.
Q: What do the students get in return, what are the benefits for them?
Wack: This is another area of misinterpretation, in terms of what Honors offers.
Some people kid about the perks that our students get and, to be honest, we’re a little mystified by it. I got a call from a reporter a couple years ago, wanting to hear about the perks. He happened to be on the sports beat for a Spokane paper. When he heard my list of perks (mainly library checkout privileges), he dropped the story.
To be honest, we don’t have much in the way of material rewards. We give out one $250 Dean’s Award, and a few $50 certificates to the bookstore. Altogether, we only have about $30,000 per year to award in scholarships. This year, we’ve had to cut our enrollment back because of budget cuts.
Most of the benefits we offer are intangible, such as mentoring, opportunities to travel abroad, and a personal connection with faculty who care. The biggest benefit is really more of an esprit de corps between students and faculty.
But if someone out there would like to throw some money at us, we wouldn’t turn it down.
Q: Give an example of what the real perks might look like?
Wack: Last year, we started a “Take a Prof to Coffee” program. We bought a few $50 Cougar Dining Cards that students could use to buy coffee for their professors. So, students can come into our office, check out the card and go.
It’s not a brainy, academic thing to do; it just created a simple structure for faculty and students to get together informally. And it has been wildly successful, with both students and faculty. Plus, it’s not that costly.
It’s certainly not elitist, but it is quintessential Honors. It represents the program well and it encourages that relationship building between our students and the faculty.
Our most costly endeavor, this year and last year, is a program called The Model United Nations, in which we send a delegation to the United Nations in the spring. That delegation is assigned a country to represent.
Each student does six months of research in preparation for the event, in which they pose as an actual delegate for that country and argue a position on its behalf. The arguments are made before similar delegations from universities all over the world, and they are judged and voted on for their effectiveness and content. About 200 student groups are sent from 25 countries, including Germany, Greece, France, China, Russia, Belgium, Canada and others.
The cost to send our student delegation to New York for one week is about $20,000, which is only possible because of donors. It’s always held the week before Easter, while the U.N. is on break. So, students get in and use the building. It’s very realistic and tremendously educational.
This year, we are going in character as the delegation from Singapore.
Q: Your new facility is magnificent. Where was the Honors College located before fall 2002?
Wack: Prior to 2002, home for us was Bryan Hall. Our offices were located in the area that now houses International Programs. We had three staff members crammed in a tiny space, almost sitting on top of each other, and two other people were in a room that was a broom closet and storage area.
We were coming apart at the seams.
Q: What kind of impact has the new facility had on the Honors College?
Wack: For the first time, we have space that allows for program opportunities. Our library provides reading and study space for our students and the lounge provides space for classes and a wide assortment of activities. Prior to this, any time we wanted to hold an event of any size, we had to rent space in the CUB. This lounge has ushered in a huge change for us.
One of our top goals is to build community ties with the university, our alumni and the community, and to increase our visibility. The lounge has been a fantastic addition, allowing us to begin that process. We have used that space to begin an international lecture series, inviting visitors from abroad to campus. In addition, we now host our own senior thesis presentations and winter graduation ceremony. One of our most recent visitors was former U.S. Representative and Speaker of the House Tom Foley, who came and chatted with students.
It’s a very nice space — intimate, comfortable, elegant and versatile.
Even our faculty meet here to build community among themselves. They started with a once-per-month meeting that kept increasing in size and frequency. Now, about 15 faculty are meeting weekly to discuss a book or topic. Currently, they are discussing a book by Parker Palmer titled “The Courage to Teach.”
One faculty member said, “I hate the book and I disagree with all the ideas in it, but I love coming here to talk with my colleagues about these issues.”
They say they like the conviviality, liveliness and collegial bonding that seems to occur in the lounge.
It’s the perfect space. It has allowed us to host so many events that draw together the community and we are truly overjoyed. I can’t say enough good things about it. The campus needs several more of those kinds of spaces.
For the remainder of this article go to http://www.wsutoday.wsu.edu/pdfs.asp
and see the March 28 issue of WSU Today, page 5.
