Honors Program | Honors Program Interview | Honors House Home | Honors House Uses | Honors House Dedication

 

How will the Saint Francis University

 Honors House Be Used?

The chief way in which the Honors House will be used is to foster community.  Community-building was one of the objectives for Honors Program renewal recommended by our outside reviewers, specifically by providing a physical identity for the program.  Every retention study of note points to building connections as a key to retaining students. In their 2001 retention evaluation of SFU, Dr. Betsy Barefoot and Mr. Adrian Schiess mention having an Honors House as the “perfect situation” in which honors students can interact with one another and develop community (Barefoot and Schiess 14).

Our more specific uses of the Honors House are many.  They include use as:

   -a conference room—with SMART classroom capability—for colloquia,

        seminars, Honors core courses;

   -a residence--for eight Honors students per year;

   -a 24-hour study space for all Honors students;

   -a meeting space--for the Honors Program Committee and other

        Honors-related groups;

   -a space for extracurricular events sponsored by the program

       (lectures, movies, demonstrations, etc.);

   -a space for recruiting activities (e.g;, Honors interviews on

       Scholarship Day).

Providing honors students with a “room” of their own is not a new trend in honors education.  As honors programs have gained in stature at institutions nationwide, their on-campus visibility has increased proportionately.  What better way for a college to indicate clearly a program’s importance than to grant it its own space.  Space, in the words of former NCHC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Earl Brown, is a symbol and “gives the program a sense of belonging.”

An honors house is the nerve center of an honors program.  This space is important to honors students because the university is asking more of them.  They are, almost without exception, scholarship students, and are under pressure to achieve the grade point average necessary to maintain their scholarships.  They are likely to be pursuing difficult programs of study in addition to their honors coursework, and also are likely to be involved in numbers of extracurricular activities.  Providing them the space to interact with like-minded students tells these students that their extra efforts are valued, that the university recognizes that they are part of a special population with certain needs.