Nominate now!

The Nominating Committee is accepting nominations for the following positions:

Vice President (1 year term*)

The Vice President serves as chair of the planning committee for the 2015 national conference, serves as a member of the Executive Committee, and performs other duties as provided in the Bylaws or as assigned by the Board of Directors consistent with the Constitution and Bylaws.  *The candidate elected as Vice President is committed to serving four years on the Board of Directors, as Vice President, President Elect, President, and Past President.

Treasurer (3 year term)
The Treasurer supervises the collection of all fees and dues owing to NCHC, supervises NCHC funds and their deposit in a manner consistent with the Constitution, Bylaws, and Standing Orders of NCHC, makes an annual report to NCHC and submits annually, or at any time requested by the Board of Directors, a complete and verified statement of the financial condition of NCHC, and serves as a member of the Executive Committee.

Four At-Large Professional Board Members (3 year term)

Four professionals are elected to serve as members of the Board of Directors.

Four At-Large Student Members (1 or 2 year terms)

Two students are elected to serve as 1-year members and two students are elected to serve as 2-year members of the Board of Directors.

Nominators should contact the nominee to verify his or her willingness to serve prior to making the nomination.

Nomination forms as well as candidate information forms are available on the NCHC website and must be submitted electronically.

Nomination and candidate materials must be submitted online no later than Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 5:00 pm (Central Daylight Time). If you have any questions about the requirements of these positions or the functioning of the Board, please contact Greg Lanier, chair of the nominating committee, at glanier@uwf.edu. Questions about the nominations process should be directed to Betty Talley at the National Collegiate Honors Council office at btalley2@unl.edu or by telephone at 402-472-9151.

Nominees should understand the requirements of the position as noted below:

·All candidates for positions as Officers or Professional At-Large Members of the Board of Directors must at the time ballots are distributed be institutional member representatives, professional members of NCHC, or affiliate members of NCHC, and must continue to be members of NCHC during their terms of office.  Student At-Large members of the Board of Directors must at the time of assumption of office be student members of NCHC and must continue to be members of NCHC during their terms of office.

·It is expected that officers and members of the Board of Directors will attend the winter and fall Board of Directors’ meetings.  If a summer meeting is called, officers and members will be expected to attend a summer meeting.

·Please note that NCHC will cover hotel costs for Board members’ attendance at the winter meeting and a summer meeting, if one is called.

·Officers who have completed their terms of office may not be elected immediately thereafter to the same office or as an At-Large Member of the Board of Directors, with the exception of the Secretary and the Treasurer who may be re-elected to their respective offices for a second term in succession.  An At-Large Member of the Board of Directors who has completed a full term may not succeed himself or herself as an At-Large Member of the Board of Directors.

·Student nominees for the Board of Directors must provide a statement of institutional support for their travel to two or three meetings each year.

Nominations are also being accepted for NCHC Standing Committees.  Individuals may serve on a maximum of two standing committees.  Please note that if you are already serving on a committee, you must still submit a nomination form indicating your interest in continuing to serve.

In This Issue

2013 Conference

Proposal Submissions Deadline Monday, March 4, 2013

Colleagues, the call for proposal submissions has gone out: your deadline for submission is March 4. I encourage you to submit honors-based presentations, including student and faculty research, pedagogy, or praxis of honors, and especially those that can be tied to the conference theme in one of the categories suggested on the Conference Proposal Guidelines page.

Meanwhile, as you prepare to register for the conference later this spring, keep in mind the conference staple, City as Text™. The Honors Semesters Committee has been hard at work planning ways to spread participants out from the hotel into the city; some of these opportunities are still in the making, but the Committee writes: “New Orleans, a city like no other, is in every way a creature of mixed languages and peoples. The waterways that shaped its geography have defined its history. City as Text™ will provide exploration options to identify some of the many strands that nature and nurture have woven into the complex tapestry of NCHC’s host city. Destinations will include institutions of local culture, cemeteries and levees, parks and grand avenues, and neighborhoods – all in and around the French Quarter and accessible on foot or via public transportation. This session starts by 11:00AM on Thursday” with explorations on Thursday afternoon. So be sure to arrive on Wednesday evening and be ready to “read” the city on Thursday!

If you need assistance with the proposal submission process, please contact Trish Souliere by e-mail or (402)472-9172 about conference proposals, please contact me by e-mail or (765)285-1024.

We look forward to receiving your proposals!

Jim Ruebel
2013 Conference Chair
NCHC President Elect

President’s Column

I ran for a position on the NCHC Board of Directors in 2008 with a keen interest in seeing the organization take control of data describing the national landscape of collegiate honors.  There had for too many years been too few questions we could answer with confidence about variation in characteristics of honors programs and colleges.  When I joined the Board of Directors in the spring of 2009 I encountered immediate and widespread support for the idea to construct a database of our members’ institutional characteristics so that we understand the commonalities and differences in our arrangements and practices.  It became a top priority in strategic planning.

After being elected Vice President, I devised a much too cumbersome and overlong questionnaire, in the mistaken hope that we could roll out that monster and quickly get back desired results.  Working with Carolee Martin Brink in the National Headquarters Office, the questionnaire was pared back to a much shorter survey.  Carolee has led a concerted effort to gather information from our member institutions with this shorter survey, and I want to commend her for her dedication and hard work on the project of constructing the member database.  To date, just over 40% of our 890 institutional members have replied to the short survey.

In March we expect to publish a table of results behind the members’ login; I expect this will be a wonderful member benefit.  Our goal before publishing the table is two-fold: (1) raise the total response rate to at least 50%, and (2) build a representative sample, based upon known parameters.  The current set of respondents slightly over-represents private schools, four-year schools and honors colleges.  Consequently, Carolee and NCHC staffers will work to get responses from 70 of our 140 honors college members (8 more than we have as of this writing) and 375 honors programs of our 750 honors program members (79 more than we have as of this writing). By carefully over-sampling honors colleges from public schools and honors programs from public, two-year colleges, we should hit the 50% response-rate-threshold while balancing representativeness.

In the meantime, let me share some results that depict the profile of honors programs and colleges.  First, let’s take a look at characteristics that we have in common.

Features common to honors (approximately half or more):

• Gender
  • Percentages mirror those of the larger institution (approximately 55% female)
  • Chief honors administrator (director or dean)
    • Has a 12-month appointment (60%)
    • Has served for three years or less (49%)
    • Support Staff
      • Assigned to honors (75%)
      • Advisors assigned to honors (49%)
      • Faculty
        • Assigned to teach in honors even though they do not report to honors (72%)
        • Has a faculty advisory committee (86%)
        • Residential Arrangements
          • Has honors housing (51%)
          • Curriculum
            • Has contract courses (59%)
            • Has departmental honors (61%)
            • Has separate (stand-alone) honors courses (88%)
            • Has interdisciplinary honors courses (74%)
            • Has honors courses that fulfill general education requirements (92%)
            • Has an honors thesis requirement (50%)
            • Has research-intensive honors courses (73%)
            • Administrative Planning and Review
              • Does strategic planning (56%)
              • Produces an annual report (66%)
              • Implements an assessment plan (67%)
              • Has periodic financial audits by the university (56%)
              • Academic Facilities
                • Has academic space for honors on campus (73%)

These commonalities show typical characteristics for delivering an honors curriculum, namely a dedicated staff, relying on faculty not reporting to the honors director or dean but nonetheless assigned to teach honors courses and be part of an advisory committee.  That curriculum uses courses based on contracts, courses housed in departments, and stand-alone honors courses.  These courses are interdisciplinary, research-intensive, and fulfill general education requirements.  Half have a thesis requirement.  Most honors settings have academic space and half have residential space.  Most have a director or dean with a twelve-month appointment, although half of them have served for three or fewer years.  The director or dean, along with the staff, typically engages in strategic planning, produces an annual report, carries out assessment, and prepares reports for financial audit by the university.

Next, let’s compare honors colleges to honors programs.  It turns out that features common to honors education generally are likely to show up as similarities between programs and college, such as having faculty who do not report to honors being assigned to teach honors regularly and be on an advisory committee; and having an interdisciplinary curriculum, with stand-alone honors courses, courses that count for general education requirement; having a thesis requirement; and having a capstone course.

Comparing honors colleges to honors programs, they are similar in:

• Enrollment
  • Size (814 on average to 741 on average)
  • Proportion of women students (57% to 53%)
  • Faculty
    • Having members that do not report to honors but are assigned to teach honors (73% to 72%)
    • Having a faculty advisory committee (85% to 85%)
    • Curriculum
      • Having separate (stand-alone) honors courses (94% to 87%)
      • Having an interdisciplinary curriculum (79% to 73%)
      • Having courses that fulfill general education requirements (92% to 93%)
      • Having an honors thesis requirement (52% to 50%)
      • Having a capstone course (48% to 48%)
      • Having distance education courses, online only (9% to 11%)
      • Advancement and Alumni Affairs
        • Having an honors alumni association or chapter (40% to 40%)

When we examine the differences between honors colleges and program, however, the contrasts are striking and numerous.

Comparing honors colleges to honors programs, they are different in:

• Chief honors administrator’s appointment
  • Honors colleges are more likely to
    • Be headed by a dean (56% to 4%) rather than a director (42% to 96%)
    • With a full-time (69% to 18%), 12-month annual term (87% to 54%), and
    • Having a longer tenure in the position
      • 16+ years (13% to 5%)
      • 7+ years (42% to 27%)
      • Support Staff
        • Honors colleges are more likely to have
          • Staff assigned to honors (97% to 70%), who are full-time (6.2 FTE to .9 FTE)
          • Advising staff assigned to honors (77% to 43%)
          • Development staff assigned to honors (29% to 5%)
          • IT staff assigned to honors (18% to 2%)
          • Major scholarships staff assigned to honors (48% to 16%)
          • Recruiting staff assigned to honors (29% to 12%)
          • Faculty
            • Honors colleges are more likely to have
              • Faculty members that report to honors (32% to 11%, with 3.1 FTE to 1.9 FTE)
              • More faculty members that do not report to honors but teach honors (7.8 FTE to 4.3 FTE)
              • Faculty with tenure lines in honors (8% to 2%)
              • Residential Arrangements
                • Honors colleges are more likely to have
                  • Honors student housing (77% to 45%)
                  • Living/learning programming (71% to 33%)
                  • Honors housing scholarships (34% to 13%)
                  • Curriculum
                    • Honors colleges are more likely to have
                      • A higher percentage of credits earned in honors courses (21.4% to 17.6%)
                      • Departmental honors courses (77% to 57%)
                      • A service requirement (47% to 38%)
                      • Experiential honors courses (50% to 38%)
                      • Internships for honors students (44% to 22%)
                      • Courses with an online component (44% to 30%)
• Honors colleges are less likely to have
  • Contract courses (39% to 58%)
  • Service learning courses (45% to 56%)
  • Study abroad honors courses (40% to 63%)
  • Research-intensive honors courses (71% to 82%)
  • Administrative Planning and Review
    • Honors colleges are more likely to have
      • A strategic plan in honors (79% to 51%)
      • An annual report produced in honors (74% to 65%)
      • An assessment plan being implemented in honors (79% to 65%)
      • A periodic site visit by external reviewers (47% to 35%)
      • A periodic financial audit by the university (90% to 48%)
      • Advancement and Alumni Affairs
        • Honors colleges are less likely to have
          • Periodic honors alumni programming (23% to 53%)
          • Expectations from the university to raise funds (21% to 65%)
          • An honors advisory council for advancement (8% to 29%)
          • Academic Facilities
            • Honors colleges are more likely to have
              • Academic space for honors on campus (95% to 69%)

The contrasts indicate a consistent pattern: universities with honors colleges provide more resources than universities with honors programs.  Patently, that generalization may not hold when comparing any specific program to any specific college, and it says nothing specific about the quality of programs and colleges, per se, but across the landscape the difference in resource-outlay appears in many forms.

Honors colleges compared to honors programs are more likely to have a full-time administrator with a twelve-month appointment who has served longer in the position; dedicated staff carrying out a variety of functions; dedicated faculty and more of them; honors housing, living/learning programming and scholarships; a strategic plan, annual report, assessment, external reviews, and university-based financial audits; and academic space for honors on campus.  It is interesting to note that universities are more likely to expect programs to conduct alumni affairs, raise funds, and form advisory councils for advancement.  Equally interesting is the comparative information on curriculum delivery.  Honors colleges are more likely to have students earn a greater number of credits in honors courses; departmental honors courses; a service requirement; internships for honors students; and honors courses with an online component.  Honors programs are more likely to use contract courses; have service learning courses; study abroad honors courses and research intensive honors courses.  These differences exist, even though the average enrollment between programs and colleges is similar.

As time goes on, we expect to delve into specific areas more deeply with short surveys.  We might begin with questions about budget to help us better understand the contrast between colleges and programs.            I welcome your replies, comments and questions, and I hope you will join me in thanking Carolee for her hard work.

Rick Scott
2013 NCHC President

City Squares and Coastal Ports of Greater Boston: (Re)Configuring Public Spaces

NCHC’s Honors Semester Committee is sponsoring the City Squares and Coastal Ports of Greater Boston Institute, June 26-30, 2013.  Home to some of the oldest public spaces in the country, Boston offers participants the opportunity to explore urban and coastal sites that have been re-purposed for contemporary use.

Designed for honors and non-honors faculty and administrators who wish to incorporate interdisciplinary and field-based elements into their courses and programs, this institute will explore how public space is used, and reused, through exploration of the city squares and coastal ports of historic greater Boston.

For complete details, see the Boston Institute brochure. To register, complete the online form. Questions should be directed to Bernice Braid.

Registration deadline is May 1, 2013

Preserving Place and Conserving Culture: The Challenges of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
May 20-25, 2013

The NCHC Honors Semesters Committee and Longwood University would like to invite you to embark on a new adventure in learning, the Place as Text faculty institute “Preserving Place and Conserving Culture: The Challenges of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem”.

This Institute will provide participants with an opportunity to see Yellowstone National Park through new eyes. Using Place as Text pedagogy, participants will “read” our first national park and its surrounding area, paying particular attention to complex and contrasting cultures and landscapes. The Institute will address contemporary questions about the stewardship of public lands such as how tensions between the tourism industry and environmental preservation are negotiated, what complexities are generated when differing cultures and stakeholders lay claim to a particular location, and how notions of wilderness are constructed. After gaining some experience with experiential learning strategies, participants will explore how the Place as Text methodologies can be adapted to different campuses and a variety of disciplines.

For complete details, see the Yellowstone Institute Brochure. To register, complete the online form.

Questions? Contact any of the facilitation team, Bernice Braid at bernice.braid@liu.edu, Alix Fink at finkad@longwood.edu, Joy Ochs at jochs@mtmercy.edu or Jesse Peters at peters@uncp.edu. The registration deadline is April 5, 2013. Space is limited so register online now.

New Directors Summer Camp
June 27-30, 2013

Are you a new honors dean, director or administrator? If so, the New Directors Institute is designed specifically for you!

NCHC’s Professional Development Committee will host a summer camp for new honors directors and deans on June 27-30, 2013 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the site of NCHC Headquarters. Participants will travel in on June 26 and depart early on June 30. Attendees will be immersed in an honors experience which will prepare them to be successful in their new position. Three full days of nuts-and-bolts sessions include opportunities to engage in one-on-one sessions with experienced honors administrators and to work in small groups to develop short- and long-term strategies and goals. Fees for the institute will be $550.

For more details, see the institute brochure.  To register, please complete the online form.

Student Affairs

Greetings from the Student Affairs Committee!

I hope that this month’s e-letter finds you having a great semester!

Please feel free to contact any of the student board members with suggestions and/or feedback regarding the current status of your honors program or college.

In addition, it is never too early to start thinking about the 2013 conference November 6-10 in New Orleans! Conference proposal submission is now open so why not submit a proposal to present at the 2013 conference. Start talking about this conference to your fellow honors students now and encourage them to become student members of NCHC. Deadline for submissions is March 4, 2013 at 11:59 PM CST. I hope to see you all as well as new faces in November!

As always, please do not hesitate to let us know if you need assistance of any kind. Working together is what NCHC is all about.

Best of luck as we begin a new semester!

Zach Samples
Co-Chair, Student Affairs Committee
Eastern Illinois University | Honors College
zdsamples@eiu.edu
217-581-2017

JNCHC Call for Submissions

The next issue of JNCHC (deadline: March 1, 2013) invites research essays on any topic of interest to the honors community.

The issue will also include a Forum focused on the theme “Nontraditional Honors Students.” We invite essays of roughly a thousand words that consider this theme in the context of your campus and/or a national/international context.

The lead essay for the Forum, which is available on the NCHC website, is by Janice Rye Kinghorn and Whitney Womack Smith of Miami University Ohio; each of them has directed an honors program at a commuter campus of the university. Their essay—titled “Nontraditional Honors”—describes the benefits that honors programs and nontraditional students can and should provide to each other. Contributions to the Forum may—but need not—respond to their essay or the issues they address.

Questions that Forum contributors might consider include: What is the definition of “nontraditional students,” and why do they need their own category? Is there any such thing as a traditional student? Do honors programs have a social, moral, or economic incentive or responsibility to accommodate nontraditional students? What are good ideas for recruiting them? Are some kinds of honors programs, e.g., those focusing on the liberal arts, more easily able to accommodate nontraditional students than others are? What specific advantages do nontraditional students bring to honors? Are there down sides to increasing the numbers of nontraditional students in an honors program, and, if so, what are they? Do nontraditional students participate as fully, less fully, or more fully in extracurricular honors activities than nontraditional students do? Do the curricular and co-curricular requirements of honors programs work for nontraditional, non-residential students? Is a cadre of alumni and alumnae who were nontraditional honors students a benefit to, for instance, fundraising? Does the current state of the national and global economy have an impact on the role nontraditional students can and do play in honors?

Forum essays should focus on ideas, concepts, and/or opinions related to “Nontraditional Honors Students.” Examples from one’s own campus can be and usually are relevant, but essays should not simply be descriptions of “what we do at our institution.”

Information about JNCHC, including the editorial policy and submission guidelines, is attached and is also available on the NCHC website.

Please send all submissions to Ada Long at adalong@uab.edu.

In 2013, Partners in the Parks will host several different week-long academic adventures at national parks across the country. These projects include seminars led by university faculty and park rangers as well as recreational opportunities to broaden participants’ understanding of the overall value of national parks to our country and its citizens. Proposed projects for 2013

The NCHC Student Stipend award provides $300 to help financially challenged students participate in the academic adventures hosted through Partners in the Parks.  We encourage honors administrators to promote the stipend awards and encourage qualified candidates to apply. Two stipends will be provided for each of the eight projects in the 2013 schedule.  The online application and more information are available at the PITP website: http://www.partnersintheparks.org

Partners in the Parks is an NCHC outdoor experiential learning program co-sponsored by Southern Utah University and Cedar Breaks National Monument.  All PITP programs are open to honors faculty and students from all majors and disciplines.  If you are interested, send inquiries to honors@suu.edu.

Matt Nickerson, Co-Chair
Partners in the Parks Committee

Professor of the Year Nominations

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education is seeking help in garnering nominations for their U.S. Professors of the Year Awards Program, which they manage each year with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.  Please visit the award website for more information.  The Council honors an undergraduate professor in each state and four undergraduate professors for national recognition—one from each type of Carnegie classification from community college to baccalaureate to master’s and doctoral institutions. Nominations are currently open, and the deadline for submission is April 15.

Our own John Zubizarreta, Past President of NCHC and current member of the Board of Directors, is a former winner. Other NCHC members are past regional winners. Questions about the program should be directed to Pam Russell, Director of Communications, Russell@case.org

or David Moltz, moltz@case.org or 202-478-5571, Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

NCHC Winter Board Meeting Cancelled

Due to expected blizzard conditions on the travel day for the Board of Directors, Executive Director Cindy Hill consulted with President Rick Scott and made the decision to cancel the Winter Board meeting scheduled for Friday, February 22 and Saturday, February 23.  With safety and travel issues uppermost in their thinking, they believed this to be the best solution.  Business of the Board will be conducted via online Board discussion forum, and at the Summer Board meeting in Denver, June 27-28.

NCHC Officers, Board, & Staff

Officers

President
Rick Scott, University of Central Arkansas

President Elect
Jim Ruebel, Ball State University

Vice President
Barry Falk, James Madison University

Immediate Past President
Greg Lanier, University of West Florida

Secretary
Kyoko Amano, University of Indianapolis

Treasurer
Gary Bell, Texas Tech University

Board of Directors
Suketa Bhavsar, Cal Poly Pomona
Lisa Coleman, Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Emily Jones*, Oklahoma State University
Joe King, Radford University
Jonathan Kotinek, Texas A & M University
Cheryl Lauersdorf*, Lee College
Franklin McGuire*, The Citadel
Soncerey Montgomery, Winston-Salem State University
Mary Kay Mulvaney, Elmhurst College
Barbra Nightingale, Broward College
Marjean Purinton, Texas Tech University
Jeremiah Sammons*, Gallaudet University
Zachary Samples*, Eastern Illinois University
Laurie Smith-Law, Iowa State University
Art Spisak, University of Iowa
Elaine Torda, Orange County Community College
John Zubizarreta, Columbia College, South Carolina

*Student Board Member

Staff

Cindy Hill, Executive Director
chill2@unl.edu

Carolee Martin Brink, Membership Director
nchc@unl.edu

Teri King, Finance Manager
tking5@unl.edu

Kristi Smith, Project Coordinator
nchcassist@unl.edu

Trish Souliere, Technology Manager
psouliere2@unl.edu

Betty Talley, Director of Operations
btalley2@unl.edu

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Conflict  Transformation  Creolization

Proposal submissions for the 2013 NCHC Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 6-10, 2013 are now being accepted. Complete details about each of the sessions are available on theproposal guidelines page.

The deadline for proposal submissions is March 4, 2013. To submit a proposal, begin here.

May 20-25, 2013

The NCHC Honors Semesters Committee and Longwood University would like to invite you to embark on a new adventure in learning, the Place as Text faculty institute “Preserving Place and Conserving Culture: The Challenges of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem”.

This Institute will provide participants with an opportunity to see Yellowstone National Park through new eyes. Using Place as Text pedagogy, participants will “read” our first national park and its surrounding area, paying particular attention to complex and contrasting cultures and landscapes. The Institute will address contemporary questions about the stewardship of public lands such as how tensions between the tourism industry and environmental preservation are negotiated, what complexities are generated when differing cultures and stakeholders lay claim to a particular location, and how notions of wilderness are constructed.  After gaining some experience with experiential learning strategies, participants will explore how the Place as Text methodologies can be adapted to different campuses and a variety of disciplines.

For complete details, see the Yellowstone Institute Brochure. To register, complete the form here and email your statement of interest to Bernice Braid at bernice.braid@liu.edu.

Questions?  Contact any of the facilitation team, Bernice Braid at bernice.braid@liu.edu, Alix Fink at finkad@longwood.edu, Joy Ochs at jochs@mtmercy.edu or Jesse Peters at peters@uncp.edu.  The registration deadline is April 5, 2013.   Space is limited so register now.

In This Issue

2013 Conference

Proposal Submissions Deadline Monday, March 4, 2013

Proposal submissions for the 2013 NCHC Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 6-10, 2013, are now being accepted. NCHC is seeking proposals in the following categories:

Forum on Diversity
Forum on Teaching and Learning
General Sessions
Faculty Poster Session
Idea Exchange
Master Classes
Roundtable Discussions
Student Poster Sessions
Student Interdisciplinary Research Panels
Student Moderators

Complete details and further information about each of the sessions are available on the proposal guidelines page.

Note: You will need to sign in using your Members Only user id and password. Begin here.

Several NCHC Committees including Research, Science & Mathematics, and International Education among others are interested in organizing sessions at the conference. Those interested in participating in a committee-sponsored session should contact the appropriate committee chair for more information and then submit their presentation proposal in the General Session category.

All proposals must be submitted on-line no later than Monday, March 4, 2013 at 11:59 PM, CST. Proposals received after 11:59 PM, CST March 4, 2013, will not be accepted.

• In order to submit a proposal, your institution must be a current member of NCHC.
• Proposals may be submitted in only one category.
• The same proposal may not be submitted in multiple categories.
• The same proposal may not be submitted by different main presenters.
• Duplicate submissions will be disallowed.
• Participants are limited to two presentations, excluding pre-conference BIH and DIH sessions.
• Presenters of accepted proposals must have paid conference registration fees no later than September 16, 2013.

If you need assistance with the proposal submission process, please contact Trish Souliere at psouliere2@unl.edu  or 402-472-9172. If you have questions about conference proposals, please contact conference chair Jim Ruebel at jruebel@bsu.edu.
We look forward to receiving your proposals!

Jim Ruebel
2013 Conference Chair

2013 Membership Renewal
Membership Renewal Deadline is January 31, 2013

NCHC membership renewal continues through January 31, 2013.  All memberships for which we have not received payment will lapse on January 31.  Our new database will automatically change your membership to a non-member status so you will need to call the NCHC office in order to renew.  Please renew your membership now online or call the office if you need assistance.

Our final membership total for 2012 was 1432 members in the following categories:

Institutional members	890
Lifetime Professionals	1
Professional members	405
Non-institutional Professionals	22
Affiliates	10
Students	86
Honorary/Lifetime	17

Thank you for maintaining your membership and your continuing support of NCHC.  If you have not watched the Todd Rose workshop presented at conference, please login with your NCHC login and password here. There are many conference highlights and Committee Reviews on our website if you attended conference or if you were not able to attend, they will be of special interest.

Membership certificates are available upon request.  Please send your order with your name and institution to nchc@unl.edu.

Partners in the Parks

Partners in the Parks is an NCHC outdoor experiential learning program co-sponsored by Southern Utah University and Cedar Breaks National Monument.  In 2013 we will be hosting a variety of academic adventures at national parks across the country. These week-long projects include seminars led by university faculty and park rangers as well as exciting recreational opportunities to broaden participants’ understanding of the overall value of national parks to our country and its citizens. PITP programs are open to honors faculty and students from all majors and disciplines.  If you are interested, send inquiries to honors@suu.edu.

Proposed projects for 2013

More information and online registration can be found on our web site:  http://www.partnersintheparks.org

What students have said…

• “I loved being in the backcountry and seeing snow in the desert.” Zion National Park 2010

• “I loved meeting new people and sharing our thoughts and ideas. “ Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument 2009

• “The seminars by rangers and faculty were all well done.  The parks are a wonderful and difficult responsibility.“ Black Canyon of the Gunnison National park, 2009

Financial Assistance is available for Partners in the Parks.  The NCHC Student Stipend award provides $300 towards participation in a 2013 Partners in the Parks project. This funding is provided to help financially challenged students participate in the academic adventures hosted through Partners in the Parks. We encourage honors administrators to promote the stipend awards and encourage qualified candidates to apply. Two stipends will be provided for each of the eight projects in the 2013 schedule.  The online application and more information are available at the PITP website: http://www.partnersintheparks.org

Matt Nickerson, Co-Chair
Partners in the Parks Committee

President’s Column

The issue of online course delivery in higher education has been heating up over the past decade.  Online education represents both an opportunity and a challenge to our teaching practices.  Mass online open courses (MOOCs) have been proliferating, and it remains an interesting question about whether university administrations can find ways to charge tuition for them.  It goes without saying that distance-education online courses are being designed all the time to deliver, for a fee, degree-based courses (often related to graduate education).  Perhaps your school has these.  We do at UCA.  These courses appeal to students of non-traditional age, full-time workers, and those residing in remote areas.  They also appeal to university administrators charged with keeping an eye on the bottom line—online courses are “profit centers.”

For honors educators, distance-education online courses appear far from ideal, even if we can and have become comfortable with hybrid courses (combining face-to-face meetings with an online component).  I addressed this issue in an editorial posted in the NCHC Newsletter of May, 2012.  Permit me to quote extensively from it:

“…facets of honors education (that we value) are experiential, in which honors students develop skill sets (e.g., writing, speaking, research, critical thinking, integrated scholarship, interdisciplinary learning, leadership, team work, intercultural competence, community engagement, etc.).  Skills develop by practicing them, collaborating on projects, engaging in service learning, and having an intense give-and-take in face-to-face class sessions and out-of-the-classroom co-curricular events…How important is face-to-face community for the practice of these skills?  My inclination is to accord it (high)… value, but when I imagine working with students one-on-one through mediated technology I quickly see that proficiency in writing, speaking, research, critical thinking, integrated scholarship, interdisciplinary learning, leadership, team work, intercultural competence, community engagement, and so on, can indeed be developed through virtual classrooms and online communities.  Many of us have hybrid courses already (combining an online presence with face-to-face meetings) and praise them for being effective.  Can we imagine honors-education-as-distance-education, with no face-to-face component?”

To answer my own question, I can imagine it, but I don’t care for the image.  Perhaps it could work if we were talking about synchronous virtual classroom meetings in which, Skype-like but including all students enrolled in the course, we convene on screen at regular intervals for discussion and student presentations, shared readings and viewing and commenting on writing assignments in a paperless fashion.  It strikes me as a little bloodless, but that would be far better than an asynchronous, MOOC-like course.

Let me bring this closer to where we live as honors educators.  What produces a sinking feeling is the fear of being out of the loop in thinking through and implementing changes as pronounced as these.  Not only can university administrations push us toward incorporating cost-saving measures via educational technology, but so can state legislators, not to mention services offered university administrations by for-profit educational organizations.   If educational technology has arrived, and it clearly has, then the question becomes this: how best can we direct what transpires with it?  The NCHC Board of Directors has begun a discussion in an attempt to offer an answer.

In Greg Lanier’s “From the President” column in the June 2012 NCHC Newsletter, he listed items that would be discussed by the Board of Directors just prior to its summer meeting.  Consider this group of topics for the agenda, taken from his column:

“Reach Out to Other honors Groups/Entities

• Engage with American Honors, Inc. to explore curriculum & assessment standards
• Explore methods of offering Honors courses in a distance education format”

American Honors, Inc. (AHI) is a for-profit educational organization.  Visit their website (http://ccs.americanhonors.com/) and you will learn the following:

“American Honors is a selective, two-year program for students seeking a high-quality education at an excellent value. In collaboration with the Community Colleges of Spokane (CCS), American Honors provides an honors education that includes CCS faculty, like-minded honors peers, small class sizes, an innovative online learning platform, and personalized student advising. Our program helps students transition successfully to a four-year university of their choice, and works with students to help ensure that their credits transfer. We’re building a national network of community colleges and four-year transfer universities to offer students broader opportunities and create a high quality learning experience.”

Notice that course delivery will take place through AHI’s proprietary online platform.  Are there red flags here?  Or instead, is there an opportunity to provide useful tools to honors faculty at two-year schools and help honors directors accomplish what I was told is among the most important goals for honors directors at two-year colleges, namely, to find a good four-year program for their graduates.  I suspect the answer, from our vantage point, is based upon whether honors educators will be involved in directing what transpires.

AHI reached out to NCHC in the spring of 2012 to make us aware of their start-up company and to inquire about honors-level curriculum and program assessment and evaluation.  They sent a slide show to NCHC officers that contained the kinds of information now available on their website.  In addition Greg Lanier had discussions with AHI to learn what sort of relationship AHI sought with NCHC and then presented information to the Board of Directors last summer, as articulated in the agenda items above.  Board members had what I recall as a halting discussion.  We were not entirely certain what specifics they sought, but we were certain they would move forward with their business plan regardless of NCHC’s involvement.  We resolved to explore the relationship further.  One cannot direct what transpires without engagement.

We were hopeful that at the 2012 NCHC Conference in Boston AHI representatives would be able to meet with NCHC officers and even some committees (e.g., Two-Year College), but we were not able to have that come to pass.  Greg Lanier attended the Two-Year College Committee meeting to answer questions about AHI.  Since then I have been presented with concerns by honors directors at two-year schools that NCHC has a formal relationship with AHI and that NCHC officers are members of the AHI Board.  They are worried the former is inappropriate and that the latter is a conflict of interest.  They are worried that they will not be able to direct what transpires and that NCHC is paving the way for their irrelevance.

Here is what I know. First, NCHC has made no agreements to work with AHI (there is, in fact, no agreement to do anything at all). Second, there are no NCHC officers on an AHI Board.  I believe that would be a conflict of interest were that the case.  The AHI website does not list a Board of Directors, but they do list four advisors, none of whom are from NCHC (and none, in fact, list any honors education experience in the bio on the website).  Third, I don’t yet know whether or to what extent honors educators at two-year colleges will be able to direct what transpires.  If plans are made at two-year feeder schools or four-year receiver schools without consulting honors educators, as President I will urge NCHC to protest that practice and instead reach out to AHI to involve honors educators at all levels of planning and implementation.  In a phone call after the Boston meeting with AHI President, Chris Romer, I expressed that concern.  I believe that he heard me and understood.  As long as honors educators are allowed to participate in processes that shape our future practices and arrangements, our fears will subside.

Here is where we are headed.  We are still in the learning-what-they-want phase.  In my first column as NCHC President in the December 2012 NCHC Newsletter, I listed initiatives to be pursued in 2013 based on strategic plans devised in 2012 by the Board of Directors.  I quote one section:

• Learn what for-profit organizations seek from NCHC
• Action: Determine what kind of assistance for-profit schools and for-profit honors organizations want
• Action: Discuss what is learned with the Board of Directors
• Action: Report this discussion to the membership

NCHC will be in contact with AHI in an effort to better understand what, if any assistance, it wants from us.  After we learn that, the Board of Directors can map a plan of action, share it with the NCHC membership and get feedback.  After listening to the membership and consolidating the feedback, the Board can devise a way forward.

In the meantime I have formed an Ad Hoc Task Force with the following members:  Jon Kotinek, Texas A&M University; Greg Lanier, University of West Florida; Jim Ruebel, Ball State University; Art Spisak, University of Iowa; and Elaine Torda, State University of New York-Orange.  I charged them with the task of defining honors education.  I quote from the charge:

The need for this task arose in discussions among the NCHC Board of Directors in 2012 in order to have a stronger, more reliable basis upon which to respond to challenges and opportunities represented by for-profit education, online courses, international honors education, and voluntary certification.

I am asking them to produce a document by mid-May that has two parts: “(1) a delineation of the process by which you explore and ultimately frame the issue of defining honors education; (2) a statement that answers the question, ‘what is honors education?’”  This is the best next step we can take as NCHC pursues answers to questions raised by educational technologies; for-profit organizations; program assessment and evaluation and certification; and the spread of honors education around the globe.  Honors has become an emerging profession, and we are experiencing the growing pains of defining the boundaries of the honors profession, naming what is inside those boundaries, and advocating how best it can be practiced.  The clearer we can be about who we are and what we do, the better we can respond to the pressures around us.  What we want is to transform a challenge into an opportunity, do we not?

Rick Scott
2013 NCHC President

Preserving Place and Conserving Culture: The Challenges of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
May 20-25, 2013

The NCHC Honors Semesters Committee and Longwood University would like to invite you to embark on a new adventure in learning, the Place as Text faculty institute “Preserving Place and Conserving Culture: The Challenges of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem”.

This Institute will provide participants with an opportunity to see Yellowstone National Park through new eyes. Using Place as Text pedagogy, participants will “read” our first national park and its surrounding area, paying particular attention to complex and contrasting cultures and landscapes. The Institute will address contemporary questions about the stewardship of public lands such as how tensions between the tourism industry and environmental preservation are negotiated, what complexities are generated when differing cultures and stakeholders lay claim to a particular location, and how notions of wilderness are constructed. After gaining some experience with experiential learning strategies, participants will explore how the Place as Text methodologies can be adapted to different campuses and a variety of disciplines.

For complete details, see the Yellowstone Institute Brochure. To register, complete the online form.

Questions? Contact any of the facilitation team, Bernice Braid at bernice.braid@liu.edu, Alix Fink at finkad@longwood.edu, Joy Ochs at jochs@mtmercy.edu or Jesse Peters at peters@uncp.edu. The registration deadline is April 5, 2013. Space is limited so register online now.

City Squares and Coastal Ports of Greater Boston: (Re)Configuring Public Spaces

Join your NCHC colleagues June 26-30, 2013, in exploring how public space is used, and re‐used, through exploration of the city squares and coastal ports of historic greater Boston. Home to some of the oldest public spaces in the country, Boston offers participants the opportunity to explore urban and coastal sites that have been re-purposed for contemporary use.

The City Squares and Coastal Ports of Greater Boston institute is designed for honors and non-honors faculty and administrators who wish to incorporate interdisciplinary and field-based elements into their courses and programs.

For complete details, see the Boston Institute brochure. To register, complete the online form. Questions should be directed to Bernice Braid.

Registration deadline is May 1, 2013

New Directors Summer Camp
June 27-30, 2013

The Professional Development Committee will host an institute for new honors directors and deans at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, June 27-30, 2013. Participants in the Professional Development faculty institute will take part in two full days of nuts-and-bolts sessions where they will be immersed in an honors experience that will prepare them to be successful in their new position as honors administrators. The schedule will include opportunities to engage in one-on-one sessions with experienced honors administrators and to work in small groups to develop short- and long-term strategies and goals. Fees for the institute will be $550.

For more details, see the institute brochure. To register, please complete the online form.

Registration deadline is June 12, 2013

Call for DIH Topics

Dear NCHC Colleagues,

Thanks, one more time, to all of the NCHC members who shared their expertise during the 2012 Developing in Honors (DIH) Workshop–and to Rick Scott and everyone involved with putting together an outstanding conference in Boston.

Believe it or not, the time has come to solicit topic ideas for the next edition of DIH that will be part of our 2013 national conference in New Orleans.

On behalf of Jessica Roark and myself, 2013 DIH co-chairs, I would like to invite NCHC members to send your DIH topic ideas to me at rshine@clemson.edu. This is your workshop, and we look forward to receiving your topic suggestions.

Also, if you have participated in DIH and have any general thoughts or suggestions about the workshop, please feel free to pass them along as well.

Please reply by February 1, 2013, and include all of the following information in your e-mail reply:

Your Name:

Your Institution:

Your e-mail address:

DIH Topic Idea #1:

DIH Topic Idea #2:

DIH Topic Idea #3:

Thanks in advance for your help in structuring Developing in Honors for 2013 in New Orleans.

We hope to hear from you soon!
Ricki Shine

Student Affairs

Greetings from the Student Affairs Committee!

I would first like to take the opportunity to thank NCHC for the honor to serve as a member of the Board of Directors.  In the months since conference, I have been busy reading through all of the NCHC governing documents. I am very much looking forward to the next two years with NCHC.

As we begin a new semester, it will be easy to get bogged down by new classes, homework, projects, internships, etc.  Do not forget to take some time for service to your honors program.  Whether or not your honors program has an active social community of honors students, a quality event can be a great way to bring people together.  Plan a social event or service opportunity, and invite all of the students from your honors program.  Even if only a few people participate, I can guarantee that all involved will enjoy the experience.  After planning your event, let us know how it went by sending an email to zdsamples@eiu.edu.

In addition, it is never too early to start thinking about the 2013 conference November 6-10 in New Orleans! Conference proposal submission is now open so why not submit a proposal to present at the 2013 conference. Start talking about this conference to your fellow honors students now and encourage them to become student members of NCHC. Deadline for submissions is March 4, 2013 at 11:59 PM CST. I hope to see you all as well as new faces in November!

As always, please do not hesitate to let us know if you need assistance of any kind.  Working together is what NCHC is all about.

Best of luck as we begin a new semester!

Many thanks,

Zach Samples
Co-Chair, Student Affairs Committee
Eastern Illinois University | Honors College

Call for Portz Fellowship Grant Applications

The National Collegiate Honors Council Portz Fellowship Committee will be accepting applications from January 1 – February 10, 2013 from undergraduate honors students for Portz Fellowship Grants. This award is named for Dr. John and Mrs. Edythe Portz, pioneers in honors education whose support of imaginative ventures in undergraduate education has benefited college students in Maryland and throughout our nation since the late 1960s.  The highly competitive award is open to students at NCHC’s 825+ member institutions around the world.

The Portz Fellowships support original and extended interdisciplinary projects for up to eighteen months.  Applications for the fourth round of grants will be accepted January 1 – February 10, 2013.

If you would like more information about the Portz Fellowship, please contact Dr. Patrice Berger at pberger1@unl.edu, or 402-472-5425.

Applications and information about the Portz Fellowship are available online.

Call for Fellows of NCHC Nominations

The NCHC Awards and Grants Committee is pleased to invite nominations for Fellows of the National Collegiate Honors Council.  This award will be given annually to distinguished members exemplifying a commitment to honors education. Fellows will be selected based on:

• NCHC, Regional, and/or State Honors organization leadership
• Scholarly activities relating to honors education
• NCHC regional and/or state honors special events, institutes, etc.
• Recognition for outstanding honors teaching on the home campus
• Assistance provided to honors programs/colleges (site visits, consulting, etc.)
• Content of the nomination letter
• Demonstrated record of sustained commitment to honors education

An individual must be nominated by three (3) current NCHC members in order to be considered for selection as an NCHC Fellow.

Please consider nominating as many NCHC members as you believe to be deserving of this recognition.  The deadline for nominations is 11:59 PM (CT) February 11.  Nomination materials are available http://nchchonors.org/fellows-of-the-nchc-nomination/. For more information contact Kate Bruce or Ann Eisenberg, co-chairs of the Awards and Grants Committee.

JNCHC Call for Submissions

The next issue of JNCHC (deadline: March 1, 2013) invites research essays on any topic of interest to the honors community.

The issue will also include a Forum focused on the theme “Nontraditional Honors Students.” We invite essays of roughly a thousand words that consider this theme in the context of your campus and/or a national/international context.

The lead essay for the Forum, which is available on the NCHC website, is by Janice Rye Kinghorn and Whitney Womack Smith of Miami University Ohio; each of them has directed an honors program at a commuter campus of the university. Their essay—titled “Nontraditional Honors”—describes the benefits that honors programs and nontraditional students can and should provide to each other. Contributions to the Forum may—but need not—respond to their essay or the issues they address.

Questions that Forum contributors might consider include: What is the definition of “nontraditional students,” and why do they need their own category? Is there any such thing as a traditional student? Do honors programs have a social, moral, or economic incentive or responsibility to accommodate nontraditional students? What are good ideas for recruiting them? Are some kinds of honors programs, e.g., those focusing on the liberal arts, more easily able to accommodate nontraditional students than others are? What specific advantages do nontraditional students bring to honors? Are there down sides to increasing the numbers of nontraditional students in an honors program, and, if so, what are they? Do nontraditional students participate as fully, less fully, or more fully in extracurricular honors activities than nontraditional students do? Do the curricular and co-curricular requirements of honors programs work for nontraditional, non-residential students? Is a cadre of alumni and alumnae who were nontraditional honors students a benefit to, for instance, fundraising? Does the current state of the national and global economy have an impact on the role nontraditional students can and do play in honors?

Forum essays should focus on ideas, concepts, and/or opinions related to “Nontraditional Honors Students.” Examples from one’s own campus can be and usually are relevant, but essays should not simply be descriptions of “what we do at our institution.”

Information about JNCHC, including the editorial policy and submission guidelines, is attached and is also available on the NCHC website.

Please send all submissions to Ada Long at adalong@uab.edu.

NCHC Portz Grants

The NCHC Portz Committee solicits applications from NCHC institutional and professional members for small grants (up to $500.00) and for large grants (normally up to $1,000.00) with twice-yearly deadlines of March 15 and September 15. NCHC Portz Grants are intended to support Honors program/college innovation. NCHC Portz Grant Application Form and supporting narrative are required for a grant application.  NCHC Portz Grants are made to Honors programs/colleges (not to individuals) to help them engage in program innovation rather than to fund ongoing operations or meet ordinary expenses. Applications that demonstrate clearly the way in which the innovation will be of benefit beyond the confines of the institution’s own Honors program/college normally are favored as are applications that demonstrate commitment of the institution’s own funds (not fractions of released time for faculty or administrators, computer usage, and the like). The narrative statement should address the way in which an NCHC Portz Grant will help your Honors program/college in terms of one or more of the Basic Characteristics of a Fully-Developed Honors Program or Basic Characteristics of a Fully-Developed Honors College. NCHC Portz Grant may not be used for food, drinks, on-campus space rental, or student travel to conferences.

For additional information about the NCHC Portz Grants, please contact Dr. Kate Bruce at bruce@uncw.edu or 910-962-3374

NCHC Officers, Board, & Staff

Officers

President
Rick Scott, University of Central Arkansas

President Elect
Jim Ruebel, Ball State University

Vice President
Barry Falk, James Madison University

Immediate Past President
Greg Lanier, University of West Florida

Secretary
Kyoko Amano, University of Indianapolis

Treasurer
Gary Bell, Texas Tech University

Board of Directors
Suketa Bhavsar, Cal Poly Pomona
Lisa Coleman, Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Riley Cook*, University of Iowa
Emily Jones*, Oklahoma State University
Joe King, Radford University
Jonathan Kotinek, Texas A & M University
Cheryl Dabney Lauersdorf*, Lee College
Franklin McGuire*, The Citadel
Soncerey Montgomery, Winston-Salem State University
Mary Kay Mulvaney, Elmhurst College
Barbra Nightingale, Broward College
Marjean Purinton, Texas Tech University
Jeremiah Sammons*, Gallaudet University
Zachary Samples*, Eastern Illinois University
Laurie Smith-Law, Iowa State University
Art Spisak, University of Iowa
Elaine Torda, Orange County Community College
John Zubizarreta, Columbia College, South Carolina

*Student Board Member

Staff

Cindy Hill, Executive Director
chill2@unl.edu

Carolee Martin Brink, Membership Director
nchc@unl.edu

Teri King, Finance Manager
tking5@unl.edu

Kristi Smith, Project Coordinator
nchcassist@unl.edu

Trish Souliere, Technology Manager
psouliere2@unl.edu

Betty Talley, Director of Operations
btalley2@unl.edu

This Institute will use City-as-Text ™ methodology to explore the city squares and coastal ports of greater Boston with particular emphasis on how those spaces are constructed, and have been reconstructed, throughout the city’s history.  Beginning with field explorations that probe the urban centers of Boston and Cambridge, Institute participants will also spend a full day examining the seaside towns north of Boston, such as Salem, Gloucester, Rockport and Newburyport.  Participants will engage with these spaces through direct observations, discussions, interviews, writing assignments and mapping exercises.  A culminating workshop will focus on ways participants can adapt City-as-Text ™ methodology to work on their own campuses.  This pedagogical approach can be applied in many disciplines and nearly any setting.

This faculty institute will be held in Boston, MA from June 26-30, 2013  (staying through July 4^th for Boston’s popular Esplande celebration possible if arrangements are made early)

For complete details, see the Boston Institute brochure. To register, complete the form here and email your statement of interest to Bernice Braid at bernice.braid@liu.edu.  Questions?  Contact Sara Quay at squay@endicott.edu.