Liberal Studies Commons^™

A Part Of . . . Or Apart From: A Reflection From South Africa, Ken Mulliken

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

“All of humankind originated in Africa,” our tour guide, Richard Randall, announced as he greeted us in Johannesburg, “so I want to welcome you home.” This reminder of our shared ancestry, as distant as it may be, set the theme for this year’s Democracy Project field experience in South Africa. In the summer of 2017, fourteen students from Southern Oregon University (SOU) traveled to South Africa as part of SOU’s Democracy Project. Involving students, faculty members, and community partners, the Democracy Project (DP) is a comprehensive international examination of democracy organized by the SOU Honors College. To solve shared challenges …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2017): Editorial Matter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Cover

Masthead

Contents

Call for papers

Editorial policy / Submission guidelines

Dedication: Richard I. Scott

Editor's Introduction - Ada Long

About the Authors

About the NCHC Monograph Series

NCHC Monographs & Journals

NCHC Publications Order Form

Back cover: In this Issue

How The Implementation Of Honors Sections Affects The Academic Performance Of Non-Honors Students, Art L. Spisak, Sam Van Horne, Keri C. Hornbuckle

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Research in honors education generally credits honors students with elevating the academic experience for all students at an institution (see Andrews; Clauss; Brimeyer et al.). Honors students are seen as having a positive peer effect: setting a standard for other students to follow as well as stimulating and challenging faculty, thereby raising the level of the classroom for all ( Joseph W. Cohen, cited by Andrews 38). Thus, many assume that moving honors students into separate sections adversely affects the academic performance of non-honors students, an assumption we faced at our institution. In the context of a study done in …

Aided By Adderall: Illicit Use Of Adhd Medications By College Students, Amber D. Rolland, Patricia J. Smith

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

“I don’t know that many kids that have done coke, none that have tried crack, and only a few that have dropped acid. I can’t even count all of the ones who’ve taken Adderall” (Stice). This statement made in an interview by a freshman art history major at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2007 effectively highlights a still growing problem among undergraduate students in the United States: the nonmedical use of stimulant medications prescribed to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as “study aids.” Even as early as 2004, up to twenty percent of college students had used …

School, Melissa F. Carter

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project asked the question: What is the role of the undergraduate liberal arts institution in American society, now? I initially searched for answers through secondary research. This did not provide me with a single, concrete answer, but contextualized the topic and showed me that there is a multitude of roles that the university plays in society. I then formed and trained an ensemble and together we explored these roles through group discussion and exhaustive improvisation. Out of the many answers that presented themselves, we focused on the concept that the primary purpose of the university is to create the …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council. Vol. 18, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2017. Forum On National Scholarships And Honors

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Contents

Call for Papers . v

Editorial Policy, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines . vi

Dedication to Peter C. Sederberg. . vii

Editor’s Introduction ix by Ada Long

Forum on “National Scholarships And Honors”

First, Do No Harm 3 by Lia Rushton

The Strange Game of Prestige Scholarships . 11 by John A. Knox

Open Letter to Lia Rushton . 19 by Linda Frost

Of Groomers and Tour Guides: The Role of Writing in the Fellowships Office . 23 by Leslie Bickford

Becoming Legible: Helping Students Navigate Promotional Genres of Self-Narration 29 by Anton Vander Zee

Lessons from Honors: …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Spring/Summer 2017, Volume 18, Number 1 -- Frontmatter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Cover

Masthead

Editorial Board

Indexing Statement

Production Editors

Contents

Call For Papers

Editorial Policy

Deadlines

Submission Guidelines

Dedication: Peter C. Sederberg

Slaves, Coloni, And Status Confusion In The Late Roman Empire, Hannah Basta

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

From the dawn of the Roman Empire, slavery played a major and essential role in Roman society. While slavery never completely disappeared from ancient Roman society, its position in the Roman economy shifted at the beginning of the period called Late Antiquity (14 CE–500 CE). At this time, the slave system of the Roman world adjusted to a new category of labor. Overall, the numbers of slaves declined, an event that historian Ramsey MacMullen, drawing from legal debates and legislation of the period, attributes to the accumulation of debt and poverty among Roman citizens in the third century CE. One …

Of Groomers And Tour Guides: The Role Of Writing In The Fellowships Office, Leslie Bickford

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

When Lia Rushton asserts that “it takes a village to raise a fellowship recipient,” she accurately describes the culture of mentoring and undergraduate research at Winthrop University, where often faculty not only refer students to my office but also email or call me to make sure I plan to seek them out. In one such recent referral, a colleague used a term I’ve heard and winced at many times, suggesting I “groom” a certain student for a particular award. Coming as it did on the heels of my first reading of Rushton’s “First, Do No Harm,” this call made me …

Lessons From Honors: National Scholarships, High-Impact Practices, And Student Success, Craig T. Cobane, Audra Jennings

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

High-impact educational practices (HIPs) have long been central to honors pedagogy. From undergraduate research to service learning, study abroad, internships, and writing-intensive courses, these practices shape the honors educational experience and influence retention successes in honors. These practices also inform the synergy between honors and national scholarships by helping students to develop the skills and experiences necessary to compete for prestigious scholarships.

Across the United States, university and college administrators expend tremendous time and energy worrying about student retention, persistence, and graduation rates. Recently, university communities have focused considerable attention on the potential of HIPs to address these issues and …

Open Letter To Lia Rushton, Linda Frost

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

I want to write this response as a letter to you, Lia, in part because I worked with you in helping national scholarship applicants at the University of Alabama at Birmingham but also because I know you are the kind of person who fully commits herself to the conversation at hand. What you emphasized in your essay and in all your years as a national fellowships advisor was the key importance of listening. I observed firsthand that your skill as a listener made you the successful, trailblazing, and legendary scholarships advisor that you were at UAB, focusing first and last …

Developing Citizenship Through Honors, Jacob Andrew Hester, Kari Lynn Besing

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

For decades, research has shown that higher levels of education correspond to increased interest in politics and civic engagement. Despite the vast amount of scholarly attention, why this link exists is still disputed. One theory about the connection is the civic education hypothesis, which claims that the causal link between education and civic engagement depends not only on the amount of education a person receives but also on the type of curriculum studied. For example, Hillygus argues that “some courses are more likely than others to develop the skills fundamental to political participation” (31). Similarly, Condon argues that the development …

The Strange Game Of Prestige Scholarships, John A. Knox

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As the “haunted” Rhodes finalist whom Lia Rushton accurately cited in her essay, I would like to provide some context for that reaction. I also wish to discuss some disquieting conclusions I have reached about prestige scholarships through my own experiences as a candidate, as an advisor to multiple nominees, via personal and family knowledge of nearly twenty Rhodes Scholars ranging from the Class of 1910 to the Class of 2000, and during twenty years as a faculty member at two universities.

What stood out most about my final Rhodes interview was its tone of bigotry and belligerence. I am …

Moving Beyond Gpa: Alternative Measures Of Success And Predictive Factors In Honors Programs, Tom Mould, Stephen B. Deloach

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While studies of predictive factors for success in honors have been increasingly creative and expansive on what these factors might include, they have rarely challenged the dominant, virtually monolithic definitions of success. The majority of studies measure success either by collegiate grade point averages (GPAs) or retention rates in honors, which are often contingent on collegiate GPA. For years scholars have been calling for a more nuanced and robust definition of success, yet few have taken up the charge, presumably because such data are not readily available. GPAs and retention rates are easy to access and quantify. Tracking and quantifying …

Resilience, Reconciliation, And Redemption: An Initial Historical Sketch Of Pioneering Black Students In The Plan Ii Honors Program, Richard J. Reddick, Emily A. Johnson, Ashley Jones, Tracie A.J. Lowe, Ashley N. Stone, James Thomas

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

From the inception of the integration of predominantly White institutions in higher education marked by Sweatt v. Painter in 1950, The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has been a battleground for educational equity. The university continues to find itself at ground zero in the battle for race and equity in higher education and embroiled in the debate over affirmative action, first in Hopwood v. Texas (1996) and then in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2013; 2016). For these reasons, UT Austin serves as a bellwether institution for public, predominantly White institutions (PWIs) when it comes to …

A Regression Model Approach To First-Year Honors Program Admissions Serving A High-Minority Population, David M. Rhea

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Many honors programs make admissions decisions based on student high school GPA and a standardized test score. However, McKay argued that standardized test scores can be a barrier to honors program participation, particularly for minority students. Minority students, particularly Hispanic and African American students, are apt to have lower standardized test scores than other ethnic groups according to the 2013 national ACT Profile Reports on “Black/African American Students” and “Hispanic/Latino Students.” Thus, honors programs that serve high-minority populations need to find new honors program solutions that will help their university community as well as encourage a high standard of academic …

First, Do No Harm, Lia Rushton

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

When I was appointed fellowships advisor at UAB back in the late 1990s and before the formation of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors, as a first order of business I spoke with the university’s few former winners and finalists about their experiences applying for nationally competitive scholarships. One such former applicant, now an accomplished professor who had graduated from our honors program a number of years prior, was evidently still haunted by his Rhodes interview as he told me about the questions he had been asked by and the answers he had given to his interviewers, answers that did …

Demography Of Honors: The Census Of U.S. Honors Programs And Colleges, Richard I. Scott, Patricia J. Smith, Andrew J. Cognard-Black

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Beginning in 2013 and spanning four research articles, we have implemented an empirical analysis protocol for honors education that is rooted in demography (Scott; Scott and Smith; Smith and Scott “Growth”; Smith and Scott, “Demography”). The goal of this protocol is to describe the structure and distribution of the honors population, but instead of a focus on aggregates of students or faculty and staff, the educational institution is the unit of analysis. This organizational demography has answered many questions about the growth of honors throughout collegiate education over time (Smith and Scott, “Growth”); documenting infrastructural and programmatic differences between honors …

Becoming Legible: Helping Students Navigate Promotional Genres Of Self-Narration, Anton Vander Zee

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The five-paragraph essay is a hard genre to love. Its inverted-triangle intro has enlightened us with too many “dawns” of some monolithic “man.” It reduces arguments, which tend to be rather subtle creatures, to the confines of a single-sentence thesis. It confects arguments in bland triplicate structure, as if any claim could be made more palatable by a perfectly bland Neapolitan blend. And it encourages seeing conclusions as a venue for gratuitous repetitions that insult the reader’s intelligence and memory alike. Beyond sponsoring these infelicities, the five-paragraph model, as Kimberly Hill Campbell notes in a recent issue of Educational Leadership …

Editor’S Introduction, Ada Long

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The past two decades have seen a rapid professionalization of national scholarship advising at colleges and universities. Concurrently, the number of national scholarships has increased from the few that everybody recognized— the Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Fulbright—to hundreds that target different kinds of potential applicants. While scholarship advising used to be a volunteer activity performed by a few faculty members working with a small number of students, it is now usually a distinct administrative and structural unit with its own staff, often positioned within an honors college or program and in any case working in close collaboration with honors …

Forum On “National Scholarships And Honors”

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

1. About the Authors
2. About the NCHC Monograph Series
3. NCHC Monographs & Journals
4. NCHC Publications Order Form

Hbcus: Accreditation, Governance And Survival Challenges In An Ever-Increasing Competition For Funding And Students, Jerry Crawford Ii

Journal of Research Initiatives

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are facing challenges to their continued existence on several fronts. One is fiscally, as federal funding for education has been cut and the responsibility for paying for higher education has been levied on students and parents. Another challenge is the amount of endowment dollars available to them and lastly, there are questions today as to if HBCUs are still needed in a society that has allowed African-Americans to enroll in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Both of these challenges are contingent on the most critical issue – accreditation. The loss of accreditation of units and …

Authors & Endmatter (Jnchc 18-1)

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

About the Authors

About the NCHC Monograph Series

NCHC Monographs & Journals

NCHC Publications Order Form

In This Issue (Back cover)

Black Excellence: Fostering Intellectual Curiosity In Minority Honors Students At A Predominantly White Research Institution, Stephen C. Scott

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

As a recent alumnus of the West Virginia University Honors College, I recognize my honors experience as a multi-faceted, intellectual journey that pushed me academically, professionally, and personally to become the lifelong learner that I am today. As the only Black honors student in my graduating class, I was aware of my tokenism, especially in my honors courses, in the honors college office, in the honors learning center (testWELL Learning Center), and in university and honors college committee meetings, but I never let it bother me much. My peers misperceived me as an “Oreo”; my physical appearance was Black, yet …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2016) [Complete Issue]

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In This Issue

Forum Articles

AP, Dual Enrollment, and the Survival of Honors Education •Annmarie Guzy

Rethinking Honors Curriculum in Light of the AP/IB/Dual Enrollment Challenge: Innovation and Curricular Flexibility •David Coleman and Katie Patton

Using Hybrid Courses to Enhance Honors Offerings in the Disciplines •Karen D. Youmans

A Dual Perspective on AP, Dual Enrollment, and Honors •Heather C. Camp and Giovanna E. Walters

Got AP? •Joan Digby

AP: Not a Replacement for Challenging College Coursework •Margaret Walsh

Research Essays

The ICSS and the Development of Black Collegiate Honors Education …

Front Matter, Vol. 17, No. 2

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Cover

Mast Head

Contents

Call for Papers

Editorial Policy

Submission Guidelines

Dedication - Dail W. Mullins Jr.

Front Matter, Vol. 17, No. 1

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Cover

Mast Head

Contents

Call for Papers

Editorial Policy

Submission Guidelines

Dedication - Richard Badenhausen

Beyond Behavior, Craig C. Laupheimer

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Teaching to engage students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can inspire the whole classroom and make teaching and learning engaging and exciting. Although teachers and students alike face a challenging educational landscape, much can be done to empower students with special needs. Teaching with the whole classroom in mind with an emphasis on hands on, explorative and inspirational learning experiences to accommodate for these students strengthens and causes student engagement and agency. This article highlights the challenges and potential breakthroughs possible for classroom instruction specifically where the ADHD student is concerned and looks towards teaching mindfulness and empowerment as …

A Tradition Unlike Any Other: Research On The Value Of An Honors Senior Thesis, H. Kay Banks

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

If you are a fan of golf and, more specifically, the Masters Golf Tournament, then the title of this article should sound familiar. As an avid sports fan and an occasional golf player, when I hear those words I immediately think of green grass, Tiger Woods’s first green jacket, and the soft-spoken Dr. Condeleeza Rice as the newest member of the Augusta National Golf Club (home of the Masters for non-golf fans). The Masters is the first of four major U.S. golf tournaments played each year, a tradition going back to 1934. What makes this tournament quintessential to the sport …

Honors And Non-Honors Student Engagement: A Model Of Student, Curricular, And Institutional Characteristics, Ellen Buckner, Melanie Shores, Michael Sloane, John Dantzler, Catherine Shields, Karen Shader, Bradley Newcomer

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Honors administrators may ask whether honors experiences facilitate student growth and whether honors students are inherently smarter than non-honors students and hence more able to seize these opportunities for growth. Although these questions will never fully be answered, we designed the current study to address the underlying topics of student characteristics and engagement in honors within the larger university.

Students’ motivation, their willingness to extend beyond the minimal level, significantly influences engagement. Honors students are engaged in experiences, curricular and extracurricular, that promote development, and the types of additional opportunities available to honors students and the feedback they receive affect …