Honors College: Ivy League
at a state university price
By Diane Wlnocur
Of tti* Emerald
The University Honors College offers what
students and faculty claim to be an Ivy League
education at a "state university price.” But
''Harvard of Oregon" has its share of problems as
well as advantages.
Like Ivy League colleges, the Honors College
emphasizes a broad, synchronized Liberal Arts
education, stiff grading, a heavy workload,
classes with less than 25 students and personal
interaction with professors.
But the same sources admit that the “Ivy
League image" continues one step further. The
college has a highly structured and what some
call limiting set of requirements, almost no min
ority students, and scholars who occasionally live
up to the "nasty, snotty intellectual" image their
elite schooling suggests
Promotional material for the Robert D. Clark
nonors uunege cans n a
"small liberal arts college in a
large state university.”
Students benefit from this
interaction by gaining access
to a large university's library,
calendar of events, professors,
and atmosphere, yet a small
college’s intense scholarship
"We re serving a definite
benefit to the taxpayers,” says
Dr Frances Cogan, one of two
full-time college literature
professors Many students
choose the University and the
Honors College over more
expensive and distant Ivy
League schools, she says, yet receive a
comparable education.
Students take lower division college classes in
literature, history, science, and the like, in place
of University general requirements, usually dur
ing their first two years Upper-division time is
spent working toward a University major, and
culminates in a senior honors thesis and an
Honors degree This carries roughly the "resu
me weight” of a Harvard diploma. Cogan says.
The classes are very different from others on
campus Discussion, rather than lecture, is the
predominant classroom activity, as the 12 to 25
students analyze over 200 pages of reading
materials assigned each week No matter the
subject, professors base grades on attendance,
class participation, and completion of lengthy
written compositions Midterms and finals are
de-emphasized or non-existant
According to Cogan, the freshman attrition rate
is incredibly high Students entering the Honors
College most often have been receiving easy high
school A's for the last four years and react
strongly when their first B‘s appear. Cogan says
that after this initial shock, ‘‘Only the most
academic of the academic stay. Of the 300
students currently enrolled in the College, only 14
are senior thesis candidates. ”
Senior Carrie Davis, a double major in journa
lism and art, says the increased difficulty in
receiving A’s ‘‘made me want to work that much
harder.” Receiving college A’s, she says, makes
her feel that "Wow, I’ve really done something.”
Like any Ivy League school, not all students at
the college are content with its vigorous, struc
tured approach. Malcolm Wallop, a liberal arts
sophomore, says he would prefer to learn from a
professor’s application of the facts as much as
from the readings themselves, but that the work
load prevents this. “I can’t finish reading it all," he
says, “I canvt even keep the stories straight any
more."
Davis says she felt the same way during her first
years tn me college, out now i
look at it and see what it's done
for me," strengthening her
personality and writing skills,
and says she is thankful for the
program.
Wallop also voices a com
mon complaint in desiring
more applicability from his
required classes. He often
questions the usefulness of his
classwork in the "real world,”
he says. "I’m skeptical about
any type of molds,” he says.
The college's final similarity
to Harvard is its image. The
public's impression that
college students are "nasty, snotty, intellectual
hothouse flowers,” is unfair as Cogan describes
it. The image derives from a role played by
students who see their own intelligence as an
aberration, she says "I personally detest that,
and the rest of the students won’t put up with it.”
On the other hand, political science soph
omore Scott Hercher allows that a few of his
peers are "what you called nerds in high school,"
students “more interested in their reading than in
having friends or being like others.” But he
asserts that most of his classmates are "intel
ligent, interesting, moral and liberal people ”
"Honors College makes you think in a philo
sophical context,” explains Davis of its “intellec
tual aura” and non-materialistic politics "I'm
♦airly on the prep side, so I really do stick out'' she
says But the wide variety of students enrolled in
the college, representing 40 of a possible 45
majors at the University make overall characte
rizations unfair "We are a group of normal, social
human beings," says Davis.
tmaraU graphic
State schools
up standards
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - A
commission says Oregon's public
colleges and universities are fol
lowing a regional trend in raising
their academic admission
standards
The Western Interstate Com
mission for Higher Education
reported on its survey of admis
sion requirements in eight
Western states.
The required high school
grade-point average for Oregon
residents is being raised by .25
over last year so freshman
entering this fall will need a 2.75
average at University of Oregon
and Oregon State, 2.50 at
Portland State and Western Ore
gon and a 2.25 at Oregon Tech
Eastern Oregon is raising its
grade-point requirement from
2.00 to 2.50 for Oregon residents
except those in its service area,
who still can be admitted at 2.00.
Southern Oregon is adding a
writing test requirement.
Some students without high
enough grade-point averages can
substitute test scores and sum
mer courses The highest average
under the grade-point system is
4.00
Oregon Daily Emerald
The Committee on the Arts and Humanities Presents
PROF. ROBERT ALTER
Distinguished literary critic, writer on contemporary fewish affairs. Biblical
scholar. Speaking on
“HOW CONVENTION HELPS US READ:
THE EXAMPLE OF
THE ANNUNCIATION TYPE-SCENE
IN THE BIBLE”
Tuesday May 4, 2:30 pm EMU Forum Room
Admission Free. Open to the Public
Sponsored by English. Comparative Literature. Religious Studies, and the
Oregon Committee for the Humanities.
L.
TIN OS
SPAGHETTI
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• Full dinner menu
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New Hours:
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Fri. 11:00-1:00 a.m.
Sat. 5:00-1.00 a m
Sun. 5:00-11:00 p.m.
KWAX 91.1 FM Presents
a special six week series on
National and Local
Educational Issues
each Tuesday, May 4 through June 8, at 6:30 p.m. on
An Oregon Evening.
Produced by Nancie Fadetey, KWAX public affairs
director, and Marilyn von Seeger, Eugene Education
Association.
This program made possible ir> part by a grant from the
Eugene Education Association.
^emu
Cultural Forum Presents
William McLinn as Mark Twain
turns social critic for the ‘80s
MARK TWAIN
°"WAR
* PEACE
Sunday, May 9th
8 pm
Beall Hall, U of O
School of Music
Cn\h
7 Includes
an open
Question and
Answer
session.
“It takes a very original
person to imitate
a master as the master
would imitate himself,
and (he does) it well.”
BILL MOYERS
Tickets: $2.50 Students
$3.50 General Public
At EMU Main Desk and at the door |
Endorsed bv Clerqy and Laity concerned
Spend a magical evening with the one you love...
Sat.-May 8 til
--JUy
SWEETHE/WT
—cJJhe YeaPWnce~
Valley River Inn/Willamette Room
SiO/Couotc
Includes complimentary
flower .cocktails and '
smorgasbord
seml-formal
Tickets available at EMU-Main Desk