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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 1972)
Honors College opens doors to all students By KATHY O’GRADY Of the Emerald “The Honors College at the University is a unique educational venture, open to students majoring both in the liberal arts and in the professional schools,” states an Honors College (HC) brochure. “It was established in 1960 by then Dean Robert Clark for high ability students interested in intellectual development for its own sake rather than simply as a preparation for a career.” “Small classes and seminars encourage close relationships between students and professors, and provide opportunities for able students to associate with each other,” the brochure says. “The Honors College is a small community of talented and highly motivated students within the framework of a major state university.” The HC was quite successful in the early 60’s, according to Edward Diller, director of the HC. “Then four or five years ago there seemed to be an evident dissipation df interest among students in the whole concept of honors,” Diller said. “This can possibly be traced back to the social interest of students at the time and the desire to be less ex clusive in their activities on campus. People wanted to get involved with real things of a larger order.” Last spring the Hearing Panel on University Priorities (HPUP) made suggestions to President Robert Clark on what departments in the University they thought could be cut down to meet University budget cuts. They suggested that the HC be either suspended or possibly eliminated. Clark decided to suspend the HC until University officials “attempt to remake it into a vital educational unit, flexible enough to meet the needs of the time, impelling enough to win the support of students.’’ "The situation now is we’re really dealing with a new perception of reality,” Diller said, “that demands more openness and less exclusivity. There’s kind of a paradox involved," he said, “this egalitarianism on one hand—an enviable ideal, and yet individual differences are a kind of reality.” “In sports and politics and at the University also, everyone tries to search out and find those challenges that stimulate his own skills and potential growth," he said. “The Honors College provides a place for students who are still interested in learning and exploring, but perhaps, have not yet identified themselves or their interests with a traditional discipline," said Diller. “We want to open up the Honors College to more people, it’s been too exclusive in the past,” he said. “We are leaving open the enrollment of seminars and colloquia we offer.” “The HC is a school where scholarship has and will continue to be emphasized, while at the same time we are broadening our scope of activities and participating more through classes with the University at large,” Diller said. There is a fairly high drop-out rate among HC students. Diller outlined the reasons for this as more stringent requirements for HC students; the senior thesis; and other departments have now set up their own honors programs. Students in the HC must take regular University courses to satisfy program requirements, as well as classes offered by the HC. They must also write a major thesis in their senior year in order to graduate. Many students have found that other department honors programs have much less stringent requirements and do not require a senior thesis, so they will switch to the department program and graduate on a basis of hours, ac cording to Diller. There are other activities that take place in the HC. One is the independent scholars program where 20 students of "superior ability and maturity design a special curriculum for themselves not offered anywhere in the University in a traditional department." Oilier said. The students applying for independent scholars write up a proposal of what they plan to do in their course of study. This is reviewed by a faculty committee and if it is accepted the student is an independent scholar and is completely on his own. He reports his progress at the end of a term and must have this progress okayed by his faculty governing committee. The HC would like to start a program of topical workshops this year, according to Diller. Subjects that are brought up by students would be in vestigated with the aid of faculty from outside the HC. This year the HC budget is 85 per cent less than originally asked for, Diller said, so there will be only two colloquia offered. One will be a humanities colloquia dealing with Martin Buber fall term, “Man and Science,” winter term, and “education and Community” spring term. The second HC colloquia is New Concepts in a Changing Society. Students who wish to enter the HC this fall must first: 1. Apply and gain admission to the University. 2. Submit an application which may be obtained from the HC in the basement of Friendly Hall. 3 Submit with the application a clear, well organized 600-word essay that critically evaluates your education to date. 4. Ask two of your current teachers to recommend you to the HC. 5 If you apply as a freshman, forward your SAT scores to the Office of Admissions. If you apply as a transfer student forward a copy of your college transcript to the HC. The HC has some special activities planned for this week for HC students. Today and Friday: 3 to 4 p.m. and informal coffee hour in the HC lounge during registration to meet new freshmen and their parents, old timers and transfer students. Sunday: 5:30 p.m a potluek dinner. The sign-up sheet is on the bulletin board in the HC lounge and some enticing delectables have already been promised. The last day to sign up is Friday. ESCAPE: tutors 0get credit for work in schools, community projects ESCAPE is an ASUO sponsored program that is student initiated, student run and student super vised The program's lifeblood comes from ESCAPE tutors There were 600 ESCAPE tutors last year. ESCAPE assigns tutors to elementary, Junior High and Senior High Schools as well as about 20 community services, Camille Hukari, assistant Director in charge of Secondary Schools said. Whitebird. Lookingglass, Pearl Buck Center, ASUO Day Care Center, the Drug Information Center and SEARCH are a few examples of the community services that ESCAPE tutors participate in The role of a tutor in a school varies according to the class he chooses to teach, and the teacher of that class The tutor might choose to work with just one student or any number of students up to a full class Hukari claims the strength of the program is that it “personalizes education for the students.” She went on to explain that the program involved students teaching students, and there were few if any guidelines imposed on the tutors in regard to how they choose to educate their students To become an ESCAPE tutor simply sign up for the program at registration. The ESCAPE table will be set up in the west gym of Mac Court right beside the Education Department table. The program gets full University accreditation. To fulfill one credit hour you must spend three hours in the field. The three hours can be spent a variety of ways. An example would be two hours teaching a class and one hour preparation time. There is a maximum of 15 hours you can take but 5 hours is the recom mended limit, Hukari said. After registering for the ESCAPE program the tutors take a workshop for one week. The workshop is just a basic overview of the program, Hukari said People who are first time tutors take a seminar held Wednesday nights. After the workshop everyone will be assigned to a coor dinator. The coordinator a tutor is assigned to depends on what school they wish to teach at. The coordinator then arranges a time for tutor and teacher to meet and the teacher in turn introduces the tutor to the student. Virtually anyone can be an ESCAPE tutor. The program has grown from 65 tutors in the spring of 1969 to over 600 last year Included in that 600 were people majoring in 69 different areas. Hukari discounted what she called a false assumption that you must be an education major to be an ESCAPE tutor. She pointed out that only 15 per cent of the tutors last year were education majors. Hukari stressed that if an ESCAPE tutor is unhappy with their assignment they should not hesitate to tell their coordinator about it. She said that the coordinator will quickly change the tutor’s assignment, and that they “try to get everybody in a place where they're happy.” She explained that they are just as concerned with the tutor’s well being as they are with the student’s. This fall ESCAPE is expanding Portland, Southern Oregon College, Salem and Fossil, Oregon will now also be beneficiants of the services of ESCAPE tutors Hukari said that the funds will be supplied by OMSI and accreditation will be available through the Division of Continuing Education She went on to say that they hope to get federal funding in the near future so that they can go statewide Hukari stressed that all subjects need ESCAPE tutors, but she added that reading and foreign language courses will perhaps need the most this year Experience a j neW {horizon Student Trawler Information Services International Work and Study Programs INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION CENTER 5/o E.MU University of Oregon _A Kiti - Fri io - 5
