Digital Commons Network^™

Cultivating Delight, Crossing Divides, And Solving Impossible Problems: Lessons Learned From A Year Of Virtual Conferences, Jon Blandford, Kathy J. Cooke, Erik Liddell, Kathryn M. Macdonald, Tara M. Tuttle

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This chapter highlights some of the lessons learned from a year of virtual conferences held by three different honors organizations, the Southern Regional Honors Council (SRHC), the Northeast Regional Honors Council (NRHC), and the Kentucky Honors Roundtable (KHR) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Building Virtual Community: The Power Of Peer-Led Engagement, Emily Clossin, Shane Collins, Lisa Ruch, Kristina Horn Sheeler, Kara M. Woodlee

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

The Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Honors College developed a multi-layered strategy to foster interpersonal connection and a sense of belonging among incoming students as well as continued opportunities for engagement among the entire community of scholars. Via social media posts and takeovers, peer mentor commitment, and virtual activities organized and led by students, along with more traditional face-to-face events, our new students developed connections, relationships, and a sense of identity as honors scholars. Our continuing students took on new leadership roles in the honors college, displaying their talents and contributing in ways they had not before in face-to-face formats. …

Before They Set Foot On Campus: Building A Virtual Summer Community For Incoming Honors Students, Laura G. Eldred, Gillian Wenhold, Jacquelyn Mcbride

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Discusses the launching of a brand-new program rooted in community creation during a pandemic, which meant that traditional modes of cohort building were not going to fly. That said, although the impetus was pandemic-specific, the lessons learned about the creation and value of virtual communities are not limited to one historical moment.

Lasting Lessons From Covid-19: A Story Of Successful Community Building, Christian Rubio

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

To state that the landscape of higher education has changed is an understatement. Strategies and approaches have been altered radically since the spring of 2020. After all, college and universities understood that they needed, as Glen Llopsis observes, a “process of reinvention, whether we like it or not. [Because] post-COVID-19 will not look like pre-COVID-19.” Many of these new strategies will undoubtedly become permanent fixtures because their aim was to foster a sense of community in our honors program. It is precisely some of these activities that this article will detail.

Peer Mentoring In A Pandemic: An Honors Experiment In Community Building, Jennifer Schlegel, Alexis Duhadaway

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

During fall 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic created a situation that necessitated initiative and required agency across all domains of society and every aspect of higher education, we prioritized the physical and mental health and well-being of our students at Kutztown University, and we recognized the increased significance of establishing social connections when so many had been disrupted. For a generation that has grown up with smart technology, flipping peer mentoring makes sense because it provides a context for the students’ immediate development and assertion of agency in familiar modalities for social and academic connections.

Connecting Honors Students In A Virtual Environment: Activities For Engagement, Sarah Sudar, Colin Sisk

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

With a mix of students returning online and staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Community College of Beaver County (CCBC) Honors Program in Monaca, Pennsylvania, had to adapt our model of extracurricular activities to accommodate students who felt comfortable coming on campus as well as balancing virtual events for those who did not.

The Tightrope Walk Of Academic Creativity: Eliciting Growth In Online Honors Courses, Jacob Arnold

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

This essay reflects upon and explicates the inception, implementation, and publication of the experimental assignment, “A Quibbler,” from a course entitled “Forms of Literature: Influences of and on Harry Potter” (ENGL 2341) at North Central Texas College in Gainesville, Texas.

Honors Online: Teaching, Learning, And Building Community Virtually In Honors Education: Front And Back Matter, Victoria M. Bryan, Cat Stanfield

National Collegiate Honors Council Monographs: Chapters

Front and back matter from Honors Online: Teaching, Learning, and Building Community Virtually in Honors Education (NCHC, 2024), edited by Victoria M. Bryan and Cat Stanfield.

Classification Of Sow Postures Using Convolutional Neural Network And Depth Images, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Tami M. Brown-Brandl, Gary A. Rohrer, Sudhendu R. Sharma, Yeyin Shi

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

The United States swine industry reports an average preweaning mortality of approximately 16% where approximately 6% of them are attributed to piglets overlayed by sows. Detecting postural transitions and estimating sows’ time budgets for different postures are valuable information for breeders and engineering design of farrowing facilities to eventually reduce piglet death. Computer vision tools can help monitor changes in animal posture accurately and efficiently. To create a more robust system and eliminate varying lighting issues within a day including daytime/ nighttime differences, there is an advantage to using depth cameras over digital cameras. In this study, a computer vision …

Behaviour And Attitudes Of Non-Resident Waterfowl Hunters In Saskatchewan, Matthew P. Gruntorad, Mark P. Vrtiska, Christopher J. Chizinski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The North American Trumpeter Swan Survey: Retain Or Find Something New?, Mark P. Vrtiska, J. A. Dubovsky, M. G. Anderson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“We Advocate A Semi-Revolution”: An Honors Conference Undergoes Transformation, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison, Bruce Thompson

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Since the 1980s, the Maryland Collegiate Honors Council has offered an annual conference on a host campus in late February. In 2020, MCHC slipped in the conference just before the apocalyptic arrival of COVID-19 in March. Because this conference is hugely popular statewide, we decided to organize it virtually in 2021. Our topic—In Honors…Black Lives Matter—was too important for us to wait out the pandemic. We charged nothing, partly to encourage students and member institutions to participate and partly because it cost us nothing. Attendance tripled. Students who could not miss class or work were able to attend. Programs were …

Remembering Ada Long, May 20, 1945–February 4, 2024, Jeffrey A. Portnoy, Larry Andrews, Bernice Braid, James J. Clauss, Lisa L. Coleman, Kevin W. Dean, Joan Digby, Linda Frost, Galit Gertsenzon, Devon Graham, Raymond Green, Annmarie Guzy, Jerry Herron, Mimi Killinger, John A. Knox, George Mariz, Mitch Pruitt, La Tanya L. Reese Rogers, Rae Rosenthal, Rusty Rushton, Chris Simon, Michael E. Sloane, Michaela Ruppert Smith, Christopher J. Syrnyk, Maria V. Tarasova, Norm Weiner

Honors in Practice Online Archive

As part of the National Collegiate Honors Council’s collection of essays honoring the life and work of Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024), the authors reflect on the personal and professional impact she has made in the honors experience. See https://youtube.com/live/EwdleBW1Rf8?feature=share to view the entire Celebration of Life that was held June 8, 2024.

Mindfulness In Honors: An Experiment In Collaborative Learning And Team Teaching, Pascale F. Engelmajer, Massimo A. Rondolino

Honors in Practice Online Archive

What do students hear when we talk of mindfulness? To reframe unexamined assumptions among students who conceptualize both mindfulness and honors education as “doing more” (more exercises to gain psychological benefits and more work to gain higher GPAs), the authors of this paper piloted a new course in philosophy and religious studies. In this essay, they discuss their collaborative experience designing, co-teaching, and assessing an honors course on mindfulness: its roots in Buddhist thought and practices, its contemporary secular developments, and its potential impact on students’ learning and lived experience. Integral to this experiment is also an approach to teaching …

If They Build It, They Will Come: The Power Of Student-Designed Honors Offerings In Small-Budget Programs, Claire H. Procopio

Honors in Practice Online Archive

This essay describes a student-designed framework implemented by an honors program because of budget constraints. The framework’s implementation, involving structured student leadership, feedback integration, and curricular adaptations, is detailed along with an exploration of the positive consequences of implementing a student-designed approach to co-curricular offerings. Benefits of the approach include better fulfillment of the honors mission, meaningful student leadership development, program growth, and eventually increased resources.

Addressing The Climate Crisis Through Science And Art: The Value Of Interdisciplinary And Intergenerational Team Teaching, Megan Jacobs, Kineo Memmer

Honors in Practice Online Archive

The climate crisis is a growing concern for many people, especially those who are of college age, making it an important and pressing issue to explore in honors courses. Eco-Art: Using Art to Reconcile with the Climate Crisis, a University of New Mexico (UNM) Honors College course, integrates the disciplines of art and environmental justice to examine climate change and address the social and emotional toll of climate grief. The class was co-created and team taught by Associate Professor Megan Jacobs and UNM undergraduate honors and environmental science student Kineo Memmer. This article unpacks the methodologies and lessons learned from …

Third-Year Medical College Rotations For Premedical Honors Program Undergraduates, Harvey G. Stenger Jr., William L. Ziegler

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Honors programs typically enroll many students interested in the healthcare field, and honors administrators and faculty do their best to ensure that those students’ dreams are fulfilled. With Medical Doctor (MD) program acceptance rates averaging just 6.1%, students need a standout application. Experience has shown that getting accepted into a medical school is more than earning a great GPA and excelling on the MCAT exam; it also requires convincing a committee of professionals that an applicant has the right personal qualities and work ethic to succeed in the field of medicine, and applicants need to highlight their clinical experience as …

Sheep & Goat Research Journal, Volume 39, 2024

Sheep and Goat Research Journal

Sheep & Goat Research Journal, Volume 39, 2024

Honors As A Changing Neighborhood, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Honors programs were conceived for traditional-age suburban middle-class majority-culture students who live on campus or nearby and do not hold full-time jobs or have family responsibilities. While the college population of this century is much more diverse and just as academically capable, first-generation students from traditionally marginalized populations see honors communities as unfamiliar, scary, and unwelcoming neighborhoods. Honors programs seek diversity but practice assimilation with exclusionary admissions policies, curricular inflexibility, and an emphasis on place-dependent community building that invites students to come into honors space rather than taking their offerings out to meet them where they are. Lack of funds …

Honors, Equity, And The Difference Principle, K. Patrick Fazioli

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While honors programs have made notable advancements in diversity and inclusion, the issue of educational equity remains unresolved. Tensions between providing special opportunities for high-achieving students and adhering to principles of social justice continue to shape the “neighborhood of honors.” This essay seeks to address educational unfairness through Rawls’s “difference principle,” which asserts that inequalities are morally permissible only if they benefit the least advantaged in society. The author suggests that honors programs can adhere to this principle by focusing on service and support for marginalized groups within and beyond the campus community, providing opportunities for talented students from underserved …

Expanding Our Honors Neighborhood: Teaching In And About Jails And Prisons, Victoria M. Bryan, Owen Cantrell

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Dr. Ada Long (1945–2024) advocated for equal access to quality education. Authors suggest that her reflections on neighborhoods, community, and intentional inclusion were not one-off musings but rather indicative of how she saw her responsibility as an educator. Drawing on Long’s establishment of a lecture series that brought faculty into a local Alabama prison to share research with incarerated students, this essay presents firsthand experiences teaching honors courses in prison, particularly those offered at Walker State Prison as part of Georgia State University’s Prison Education Project (2016–2023). While honors colleges often build programs to be as community-centric as possible, authors …

Marginalized First-Time Honors Students Explain The Impact Of Tracking Labels, Trina Sotirakopulos

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Many of the variables that determine college admission are beyond a student’s control, including the academic track they were assigned as early as primary school, a practice often referred to as “ability grouping” or constructing “skills-homogeneous” classes. Even in higher education, students feel the effects of unequal sorting and sifting from tracking. The purpose of this study was to learn from marginalized community college students placed in low- and middle-track courses in high school how taking honors courses for the first time shaped their perceptions of their identities. Data were gathered from a single cohort at a midwestern community college …

About The Authors [Jnchc (2024) 25(1)]

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

About the authors from the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (2024) volume 25, number 1, pages 185-189.

Gwayak Ateg Onaakonigewi Dibenjigewin: Decolonizing Jurisdiction In Anishinaabe Tribal Courts, Kekek Jason Stark

Nebraska Law Review

It is generally understood as a matter of federal Indian law that determinations of tribal law should properly be interpreted by tribal courts. This is because tribal courts do not always adhere to the same legal philosophy as their settler colonial counterparts. Many tribal courts subscribe to traditional law, which is an “essential source” of tribal jurisprudence. Anishinaabe communities have maintained a rich body of traditional tribal law since time immemorial. However, these customary law principles are only recently being included in modern-day Anishinaabe tribal court determinations. This Article builds upon the Anishinaabe law principles articulated in recent opinions and …

Anthrenus (Nathrenus) Peacockae (Coleoptera: Dermestidae: Megatominae), A New Species From Pakistan, Graham J. Holloway

Insecta Mundi

A new species, Anthrenus (Nathrenus) peacockae Holloway (Coleoptera: Dermestidae: Megatominae) from Pakistan is described and compared with A. narani Háva and Ahmed, 2014, the most similar species. Images of the habitus, ventrites, antenna, aedeagus, sternites VIII and IX are presented. Anthrenus peacockae is only the third species in the subgenus Nathrenus Casey, 1900 to be recorded from Pakistan.

Anthrenus (Anthrenus) Querneri (Coleoptera: Dermestidae: Megatominae), A New Species From Austria, Graham J. Holloway

Insecta Mundi

A new species, Anthrenus (Anthrenus) querneri Holloway (Coleoptera: Dermestidae: Megatominae) from Austria is described and compared with A. pimpinellae (Fabricius, 1775), the most similar species. Images of the habitus, ventrites, antenna, aedeagus, and sternite IX are presented. Anthrenus querneri represents the 26^th species belonging to the Palaearctic Anthrenus pimpinellae complex.

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council (Spring/Summer 2024) 25(1): Whole Issue

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (spring/summer 2024), volume 25, issue1.

Forum on Honors as Neighborhood

Contents

Dedication to Suketu P. Bhazar

Guest Editor’s Introduction, Linda Frost

Honors as Neighborhood, Ada Long

Honors as a Changing Neighborhood, Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

Honors, Equity, and the Difference Principle, Patrick Fazioli

Institutional Neighborhoods and the Stories They Tell, Joyce Olewski Inman

From Individuals to Neighbors: Growth through Embracing Positionality, Joy L. Hart, Andrea Radasanu, Timothy Nichols, Rebecca C. Bott-Knutson, and Jonathan Kotinek

International Honors Neighbors, Mimi Killinger, Abigail Arnold, Abby Bouchard, Katharine Poulin, Gabriella Shetreet, and Kailee Soucia

Neighbors Outside, Inside, and …

Guest Editor's Introduction, Linda Frost

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Guest Editor Linda Frost's introduction to the spring/summer 2024 issue of the Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, volume 25, issue 1.

Court Review: Journal Of The American Judges Association, Vol. 60, No. 2, Eve M. Brank, David Dreyer, David Prince

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Anniversary Year Brings a Look at Our Past, Court Review Editors

Judicial Independence, John Owens

Remarks on Judicial Independence by Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Anniversary Reprint), John Owens

So You’re Going to Be a Judge, Cynthia Gray

Religion’s Role in Judicial Decision-Making: an Update (Anniversary Reprint), Tiffany M. Williams, Alaina L. Warrior, Logan A. Yelderman, Monica K. Miller, and Brian H. Bornstein

Does A Judge’s Religion Influence Decision Making? Brian H. Bornstein and Monica K. Miller

How to Make Better Decisions, John F. Edwards

Editor’s Note, David Prince

President’s Column, Catherine Carlson

The Law of Sniffer-Dog Searches in Canada [Thoughts from …

Court Review: Journal Of The American Judges Association, Vol. 60, No. 4, Eve M. Brank, David J. Dreyer, David Prince

Court Review: Journal of the American Judges Association

Wrapping Up Our Anniversary Series and Seeking the Courage to Learn, David Prince

What Do the Findings from NCSC’s Six Public Opinion Surveys Mean for Judges? David B. Rottman

Observations from NCSC’s State of the State Courts Public Opinion Surveys, Jesse Rutledge

Fiction with Potential Repercussions: An Update on the CSI Effect, Melissa Corbett and Veronica Stinson

Fact or Fiction? The Myth and Reality of the CSI Effect, Stephen M. Smith, Veronica Stinson, and Marc W. Patry

A Fractured Supreme Court: Select Criminal Law and Procedure Cases from the Supreme Court’s 2023-24 Term, Eve Brensike Primus and Jordan Schuler

Editor’s …