According to RWC English Professor Marlene Miner, the UC Honors Scholars Program has changed quite a bit due to the impact of UC/21 goals, budget cuts, and an attempt by the Uptown Campus to make the program a more elite and smaller group. This will change the times when students can get into the program, Miner explained. Students now have to be enrolled in a baccalaureate program to become a member of the honor society.
Because of these changes, RWC has formed a committee to establish its own honors program. This sub-committee consists of representatives from most departments, who began meeting last spring, Miner said, to discuss the honors program issue. As a result, they have submitted a Strategic Planning Initiative for establishing an RWC Honors Program. But Miner said they will still need this coming academic year to work on it, so they will not be recruiting any RWC students for an honors program this year.
RWC and Clermont are represented on the UC Honors Council and work with the UC Honors Scholars Program. The RWC sub-committee wants to explore different options for developing a program for RWC that goes with the other UC colleges.
They will try to put it on the agenda for the October faculty meeting. In the meantime, faculty have been asked not to advertise the honors information in their syllabi.