Advanced Honors Program set to start this fall

University Honors Program administrators say the expanded program will help UB recruit quality students, as well as retain them once they come to the university.

The program will be open to all students who have completed 60 hours of university credits with a grade-point average of at least 3.25. Students who are not enrolled in the University Honors Program, as well as those currently in the program, are eligible.

Josephine Capuana, administrative director of the honors program, said plans are to accept all students who apply and are qualified.

Capuana and Kip Herreid, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and academic director of the honors program, announced plans to establish the Advanced Honors Program at the April 16 meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.

Capuana also announced that 50 slots for freshmen will be added this fall to the traditional honors program, bringing the total number of freshmen in the program to 150.

Herreid said that the traditional honors program has been "front-loaded," focusing mainly on students' first two years of study. It "has not addressed the interests and concerns of juniors and seniors," he said. Although students remain in the program as juniors and seniors, "we've largely abandoned them, in a sense, to the departments," he added.

Most universities have advanced honors programs to provide juniors and seniors opportunities to do advanced work in their disciplines, he said.

Capuana called the advanced program a "second stage to the honors program." Students moving from the traditional honors program to the advanced program will move from a program that is broad-based to one that is more focused, she said, noting that students will determine that focus.

To complete the program, students must maintain a GPA of at least 3.25, complete a senior thesis or project, complete three honors courses at the 300 level and fulfill a "breadth requirement," which entails participation in such things as a second major or a minor, study abroad, co-op programs, internships, community service, involvement in campus organizations and research in areas outside of the student's major.

Herreid said that the minimum GPA for the program was set at 3.25, rather than 3.5, because many departments and faculty members have said that the undergraduate students who make the best graduate students are those who do well, but not extraordinarily well. "They are 'B-ish' students, not the people who are '4.0s'," he said.

Establishing an honors program geared toward upper-division students also will allow UB to serve many excellent students who cannot be served by the traditional honors program, Herreid said. He pointed out that at any one time, there are more than 1,000 undergraduates at UB who have achieved a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher. Many of these high-achievers are "late bloomers" who did not qualify for the honors program as freshmen, he added.

Herreid said the advanced program should help attract quality students to UB.

"We feel that, in our discussions with students looking at Buffalo seriously, any time they get to have their talents appreciated in some tangible way, they are much more likely to find this an attractive school.

"We do think that since we have an extraordinarily high retention (rate) in our honors program, the more people that can be enclosed under that umbrella, to feel special, for us in any way to help themŠwe feel that has a real impact upon people staying here."

He said that when comparing students admitted to the honors program with students entering UB with similar high-school grades and SAT scores, but who did not get into the honors program, the retention rate is 95 percent for the honors program students, compared to only 67 percent for the other students. "The honors programŠgives them that little touch that makes that difference," Herreid said.

Students will be selected for the Advanced Honors Program based on two letters of reference from faculty members and personal letters from students addressing the reasons for their application to the program and outlining their plans for the future, their area of specialty and other interests and activities.

Once admitted to the program, they will receive all the "perks" of the traditional honors program, including priority registration, library registration, transcript notation, graduate-school advising, summer research information, an on-line newsletter and evening programs with faculty.