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
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{horizon
Student Trawler Information Services
International Work and Study Programs
INTERNATIONAL
EDUCATION
CENTER
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