| Email: | rjb@westminstercollege.edu |
| Institution: | Westminster College |
| Address: | Honors Program 1840 South, 1300 East Salt Lake City, UT 84105 |
| Phone: | (801) 832-2460 |
| Fax: | (802) 832-3102 |
| Institution Type: | 4-year, independent, private college |
| Program Type: | Institution-wide, General Education Honors program |
| Program Enrollment: | 130 per semester |
| Present Position: | Director, Honors program |
| Previous Honors Positions: | Chair/Honors (Marshall University) (1995-2000) |
| NCHC Member Since: | 1995 |
- Elected Member, NCHC Board of Directors (2004-2007)
- Service on multiple NCHC Committees over the years (Strategic Planning, Research, Small College, Pub Board, Portz Fellowship, Convention Planning, etc.)
- Chair, Pub Board Subcommittee on “NCHC Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program/College”
- Attendance at 15 NCHC annual conventions with presentations/workshops given on a wide range of topics, including Honors handbooks, Honors assessment, Honors admissions models, student research in Honors, “City as Text” in the Honors curriculum, recruitment and retention, distinctiveness in Honors, AP credits and Honors, Honors faculty retreats, best practices in Honors website design, Honors community, among others.
- Numerous essays in JNCHC on technology and Honors, helping Honors students in trouble, and the Economy of Honors.
Activities in other areas or organizations related to assessment or site visits, workshops, etc.
I have run Honors programs at two very different institutions—one a large, public, state university (Marshall University) and the other a small, private college (Westminster College). Because I have engaged in extensive program building at each, I have insight into the needs of a wide range of programs. I have over a decade of experience teaching in Honors and have team-taught with over two dozen different faculty members from a wide variety of disciplines. In twenty years in higher education, I have sat on just about every imaginable college committee, including those devoted to strategic planning, course evaluations, faculty review, learning communities, budgeting, and development, which are perhaps particularly relevant to Honors assessment.
Self-Identified Areas of Special Interest and Experience
- Honors Administration
- Honors Admissions / Recruitment
- Honors Orientation
- Honors Curriculum
- Honors Student Retention
- Extracurricular & Co-curricular Programs
- Honors Peer Mentoring
- Interdisciplinary Team Teaching
- NCHC Involvement
- Honors Handbooks
- Honors Newsletters
- Honors Budgeting
- Buildings and Honors Space
The Role of an NCHC-Qualified Site Visitor
Perhaps the two most valuable skills a site visitor can bring to the table are the ability to listen well and the capacity to draw on one’s experience in the local and national Honors communities in offering feedback that will help strengthen the institution’s Honors program or college.
Because I have directed programs at both a large, public university and a small, private college (and served a three-year elected term on the NCHC Board of Directors), I have experience with a range of challenges and opportunities that are likely to face most directors. While the NCHC’s two “Basic Characteristics” documents are excellent starting points for a conversation about program assessment, each institution has its own particular needs that grow out of its unique institutional culture. Those needs should establish the context for any evaluation.
Ultimately, a site visitor can help lend an outside voice to validate what a program is doing particularly well (and help communicate that message to faculty and administration), as well as assist a program in locating possible solutions to any challenges it faces, while remembering that it is up to the home institution to decide whether or not to act on that advice.
Because I have directed programs at both a large, public university and a small, private college (and served a three-year elected term on the NCHC Board of Directors), I have experience with a range of challenges and opportunities that are likely to face most directors. While the NCHC’s two “Basic Characteristics” documents are excellent starting points for a conversation about program assessment, each institution has its own particular needs that grow out of its unique institutional culture. Those needs should establish the context for any evaluation.
Ultimately, a site visitor can help lend an outside voice to validate what a program is doing particularly well (and help communicate that message to faculty and administration), as well as assist a program in locating possible solutions to any challenges it faces, while remembering that it is up to the home institution to decide whether or not to act on that advice.
