A Proposal for a Creating a Signature Honors Program at NKU D. Kent Johnson, Director of General Education

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1 A Proposal for a Creating a Signature Honors Program at NKU D. Kent Johnson, Director of General Education Honors Education is a tradition in public higher education providing exceptional students the opportunity to distinguish their educational accomplishment through increased breadth and rigor at the baccalaureate level. The rationale for such experiences is based on a number of factors including: the opportunity to develop unique skills and talents of students inclined to enroll in honors programs more effectively, incidental benefits that accrue from honors to non-honors students, and institutional prestige garnered through accomplishments of honors students while in school and after graduation. Honors Programs can further enhance the mission of an institution when carefully constructed to align with and highlight key institutional signatures. At NKU, two strong signature initiatives are service learning and undergraduate engagement in research. Leveraging these two distinctive areas of institutional excellence to formally define honors education at NKU provides an opportunity to enhance institutional prestige, attract talented students and engage faculty in creating exemplar courses that can provide models for the continued evolution of courses within Foundation of Knowledge. This proposal highlights a model for the honors program at NKU and describes how intentionally designed honors core can provide a model for increasing quality, coherence and meaning in our Foundation of Knowledge General Education Program. This proposal is developed in three parts. Part One provides an overview of an honors structure that would build on our current institutional strengths and the qualities of our existing honors program. Part Two describes a Honors Foundation of Knowledge program that would enhance the experiences of students traditionally recruited into Honors and provide a structured pathway for motivated students interested in honors but not meeting our traditional metrics for acceptance in the program. Finally, the third part describes a strategy to leverage a new distinctive honors program to recruit underrepresented minorities as a leadership group for NKU. Part One: Toward a distinctive honors experience for exceptional students Presently, the honors program operates primarily as a collection of credits distinguished as honors courses leading to an Honors Minor. The Honors Program minor provides an intimate experience for highly qualified students through small-enrollment seminars that emphasize discussion, the discovery of ideas and project-oriented learning. It also provides opportunities for students to leverage study abroad into their honors program. These attributes are highlighted in the description of our honors program. We are known for our courses that are anything but ordinary, our travels all over the world and our

2 great faculty. ( While these are admirable program qualities, they do not necessarily distinguish the program from other similar honors programs and colleges at competing institutions. As a result, students select NKU first and our Honors Program as an option for their educational experience. Creating a distinctive honors program experience focused on distinctive student attributes provides an opportunity to recruit students to the NKU Honors Program and create a more vibrant program. NKU could create a signature honors experience through bringing coherence to the Honors Program. Tying this program initially to our current areas of distinction, service learning and inquiry based learning through undergraduate research experiences and creative activities could provide a framework for an Honors Program that could be expanded. Reconfiguring and focusing the honors program to begin with an inquiry-based general education honors core curriculum would help students develop the critical thinking and communication skills to draw on the current strengths of NKU in creating inquiry, creative and service oriented learning experiences. Organizing the current Honors Minor in two tracks in service learning or creative/inquiry/research provides a foundation for creating an honors signature that can attract and retain exceptional students, provide opportunities for honors students to improve the experience of non-honors students through intentional interactions and provide faculty the opportunity to engage students in activities that contribute to the community and their academic disciplines. Figure One illustrates the basic curricular structure of the proposed honors program. Figure 1: Proposed Structure for an NKU Signature Honors Program Honors Foundation of Knowledge Interdiciplinary Core Honors Tracks Inquiry Service Undergraduate Thesis SL Capstone Project

3 Increasing Honors Coherence Through a Thematic Approach: To add to the distinctiveness and encourage student involvement in learning, a thematic design could be layered in the Honors Program. Presently some Honors Courses are using a thematic approach based on a project, 7 Revolutions. ( This present work could be used as the initial theme for the honors experience, while faculty members develop subsequent themes. Through this portion of the curriculum students would hone critical thinking, communication, global, scientific, cultural and creative outcomes stated for our general education program through carefully sequenced courses organized initially through the 7 Revolutions Framework. The Honors General Education Core is described in Part Two below. As students advance in the program, they would select either a service learning honors track leading to a major service project or an inquiry/research/creative project focused on addressing one of the revolutions. These service and inquiry tracks could also be integrated tightly with the students major area of study providing a coherent experience across four years of study that increases the likelihood of completing a high quality college degree that demonstrates the students potential to contribute to the success of future employers or their potential to succeed in advanced study at the graduate level. Part Two: Honors General Education Courses as a laboratory for the refinement of courses in Foundation of Knowledge Honors courses are distinctive from non-honors courses in both rigor and expected workload. However, they also provide an opportunity to examine how specific course designs and types of learning experience contribute to gains in student achievement of learning outcomes. As a laboratory, honors courses present the opportunity to experiment with learning designs, assess learning in ways that examine the contribution specific learning activities make to academic growth (defined as achievement of stated outcomes) and develop models for course design that can be scaled to the design of non-honors courses. Integrating the design and assessment of honors courses provides an opportunity to discover instructional designs that best meet the stated outcomes of Foundation of Knowledge and can be transferred to existing general education courses. It also provides a cost effective strategy for developing formative assessment strategies that lead to continuing improvement of learning. Finally, through carefully constructing the assessment, honors portfolios can be developed to highlight student achievement within honors and raise our institution s academic profile. The proposed design of the honors general education core leading to academic experiences organized around either service experiences or research/inquiry focused learning environments changes the character of the existing program.

4 Specifically, it shifts Honors to an engaged and coherent educational experience rather than an experience focused on small class size and a singular teaching and learning strategy. It increases the marketability of our Honors Program as it allows us to describe in detail what students will achieve as a result of their successful matriculation. Finally, it enhances the image of the institution as we can demonstrate through our engagement in the community how our students are uniquely qualified to enhance success of employers while making significant contributions the communities they join. To enhance the distinctiveness, the honors general education program could be organized thematically with the themes rotating about every 4 years to maintain their relevance. As a beginning point, we could leverage the experimentation presently occurring in the Honors First Year Seminar based on the Seven Revolutions Framework. We could launch this rapidly giving faculty the opportunity to begin discussing the theme for Part Three: Excellence in Honors Through Diversity: A Strategy to Provide a Leadership Core for Underrepresented Minorities at NKU In The Talented Tenth, WEB Dubois proposed an idea to leverage the most academically gifted minority students as leaders for their community. This vision was largely lost to the alternate vision proposed by Booker T. Washington of educating African Americans in trades as a stepping stone to equality. Unfortunately, from a policy perspective, the two visions were viewed as competing rather than cooperative and the Washington vision prevailed. In subsequent generations, progress in achieving equality has focused on the legislative front focusing on the structural aspects of discrimination. Specifically, the idea of affirmative action, civil rights legislation and desegregation were seen as pathways to a more equitable United States. Entering the second decade of a new millennium, progress has been made as evidenced by the election of our first African American President. However, both African American and Hispanic populations continue to experience higher than average poverty rates and lower than average participation rates in higher education. When they do arrive on campus, they are less likely to complete a degree. While the affordability of college limits participation in higher education, higher education attainment is critical to escaping the cycle of poverty. That the Dubois vision of the talented tenth and Washington s vision of pragmatic progress were not envisioned as a dual strategy of developing a leadership class and a social climbing class continues to stunt the growth of opportunity for both African American and Hispanic groups today. Colleges and Universities generally and Northern Kentucky University specifically are in a unique position to advance opportunity. This proposal discusses how Northern Kentucky University can contribute to a national imperative to expand opportunity for underrepresented minorities.

5 Developing the Norse Talented Tenth While NKU has made strides in increasing the diversity on campus, we have not maximized our potential. The following proposal provides an idea for building a foundation for a diversity initiative focused on building a leadership group that can engage locally and nationally to increase the success of African American and Hispanic Students through an intentional recruitment and enrollment strategy. The framework of the strategy is founded on an initiative to recruit minority leaders that will be among the best and brightest on our campus. Presently, two National Merit Programs The National Achievement Scholarship Program and The National Hispanic Recognition Program recognize and provide limited support for outstanding Black American and Hispanic American students. The basis of this proposal is a strategy to fund education and housing for these students through a targeted campaign to develop Sponsorships and Endowed Scholarships for students achieving recognition through these two programs. Carefully coordinated through our development, minority student support units and enrollment management operations, this targeted campaign would solicit funds from corporations and individuals committed to advancing equity. Specifically, NKU would seek full funding for tuition, fees and housing from Private Donors and Endowed Scholarships from Local Corporations to be awarded to students recruited from the two National Merit Scholarship Corporation Programs. These students would be recruited into a revised honors program focused on community service and community based research examining the challenges faced by underrepresented minorities in the United States. As part of the program, students would be trained for and encouraged to participate in mentoring programs for their peers. This would provide an avenue for leveraging the talents of the most academically prepared students to increase the probability of success for less academically prepared students. In addition, it builds on core strengths we presently have in service learning and undergraduate research and has the potential to leverage these strengths in service to a larger social good. Conclusion: From Honors on the Hill to Honors at the Hub The Honors Program, symbolically through the placement of the Honors House and structurally through the curricular structure of the program is best described as Honors on the Hill. Its primary benefit is to individual elite students. While this is an appropriate representation for an Honors Program, the question becomes can we create a better conceptualization more closely aligned with our mission as a State Assisted Public Higher Education Institution? At its core, this proposal conceptualizes an Honors Program intimately tied to the institution with goals to benefit all NKU students through emphasizing a leadership and service

6 role for our Honors Students. In other words, the proposal symbolically moves NKU Honors from the Hill to the Hub of Campus.