Dear Colleagues:
I want to report to you in more detail our progress in redesigning the programs of the Honors College. While this unit has existed at Towson for several years, the level of its support during its current version suggested to me on my joining the university last spring that it is a ?college? in little more than name only. As a former director of an honors program and dean of a college supporting a vibrant university honors program, I have personally witnessed the many benefits of a central honors unit for an entire institution; the ripple effects can be profound. I think whatever success Towson?s Honors College has enjoyed may be attributed to the dedication and commitment of faculty leaders working on a shoestring budget.
As you know, Provost Leather constituted a faculty committee to review the Honors College, and upon my arrival I readily endorsed continuation of their work. Based upon recommendations from the faculty Honors Task Force, chaired by CLA Dean Rita Marinho, we are moving forward with planning an honors curriculum that will challenge academically talented students to pursue individualized educational goals through a curriculum that is simultaneously rigorous and flexible. We aim toward a curriculum that is comprehensive across the full undergraduate experience and is accessible to all undergraduates regardless of their individual disciplinary or interdisciplinary interests.
The Honors College curriculum will serve as a model for the dynamic growth toward excellence of the entire undergraduate experience. In this light, the Honors College will accommodate innovation in curriculum design and purpose, which can serve as a direction for identifying Towson University as a premier metropolitan university. Consistent with recommendations from the Honors Task Force, the Honors College will support the undergraduate curriculum by serving as an incubator for new educational approaches particularly focusing on out-of-class experiences, whether delivered through community-based projects at off-campus sites, ranging from businesses to social agencies, through immersion experiences abroad and in the United States, or by electronic means.
To recruit students who will best fit into this model of educational excellence at Towson, again consistent with the recommendations of the Honors Task Force, I am now exploring with staff in Enrollment Services a plan to identify enhanced scholarship resources directly associated with the Honors College. A pilot plan for the 2004-05 recruitment cycle is directed toward increasing the diversity of the honors student cohort by linking financial resources to targeted students in Baltimore County and Baltimore City who come from high schools not typically represented in entering students at Towson. I plan to outline more about this pilot plan at the October 6th Convocation.
To provide the kind of stability in faculty support, which was recommended by the Honors Task Force, I am seeking resources to fund a program of Faculty Honors Fellows. This program will support release of individual faculty members who will devote all of their teaching and scholarship to honors students for a finite 3-year term. As “resident” faculty, these colleagues will represent a resource of available, accessible, and committed faculty who will provide the consistency in curricular support and form the “anchor” for advising and teaching in the Honors College.
In order for the Honors Program to reach its full potential for students, we need the right leadership. Since the summer, I have engaged in conversations with various faculty, the leadership of governance, as well as my staff. Over these next few weeks, I ask that you share with me any nominations of individuals who are interested in making creative contributions to the re-emergence of the Honors College as a major force in undergraduate education at Towson University. I would appreciate any nominations by October 15, 2004.
I shall keep you informed as we progress in our planning this semester. My hope is to identify new leadership by the end of this semester, so that the spring semester will witness the transition to a new configuration ready to serve students by the summer orientation as we prepare for the 2005-06 academic year.
Thank you in anticipation of your feedback and advice.
Sincerely yours,
James F. Brennan
Provost and Vice President
for Academic Affairs
