UB Founds Honors College for Exceptional Students

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo announced today the founding of The University Honors College, marking a major milestone in UB's long tradition of providing honors programming for exceptional undergraduate students.

UB Provost Satish K. Tripathi hosted a founding ceremony for The University Honors College with UB President John B. Simpson on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

Establishment of The University Honors College is a significant step forward in the evolution of UB's honors program, which was launched in 1981 as the first formal honors program in the State University of New York system. UB traces the beginnings of its honors program back to 1923 when it offered one of the first honors tutorials in the U.S.

"Today's founding of a full-fledged honors college with a four-year curriculum will enable our honors students to take fuller advantage of UB's tremendous intellectual resources," Tripathi said. "The University Honors College encourages students to pursue their talents and curiosity across UB's many academic disciplines. They will develop new skills and new ways of seeing the world as they participate in research projects guided by our noted faculty, study abroad or tackle social problems through UB's civic engagement initiatives."

Creation of The University Honors College underscores UB's success in attracting some of the brightest students in the nation, Tripathi said. Moreover, it reflects a broader university-wide effort to provide all UB undergraduates with enriching learning experiences inside and outside of the classroom.

Honor-student enrollment at UB has grown significantly since 1981, when 20 students were awarded honors status. This fall, 316 new honors students from 12 states and four foreign countries were admitted to The University Honors College. A total of 1,040 students are enrolled in the college and receive merit scholarships. They include sophomores, juniors and seniors who were participating in the former UB Honors Program.

This year's group of first-year honors students is part of the brightest incoming class in UB's history. Among first-year honors students, 34 were either a high school valedictorian or salutatorian and the mean SAT score is 1370.

Simpson said, "The founding of The University Honors College, and the presence of so many bright, talented students at UB, is an important milestone in our plan to make UB into one of the top public research universities in the country."

The four-year curriculum at the heart of The University Honors College will give students a broader academic experience and worldview, according to Clyde (Kipp) Herreid, its academic director.

"Our new honors curriculum encourages in-depth scholarly research and greater global awareness," explained Herreid, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. "The goal is for students to develop breadth in their understanding of the world's problems."

Under the new curriculum, students are required to pursue six of 11 "honors experiences," ranging from research projects, to studying abroad, to internships, to completing a thesis project. A first-year colloquium requires they volunteer in the community. Participation in honors seminars provides background on such timely and classical topics as literature and war, conflicts in science, the legal system and ancient African civilizations. Students fulfill their honors requirements in addition to completing academic requirements in their chosen major.

"Honors students typically are very intellectually curious and ambitious," said Josephine Capuana, administrative director of The University Honors College, who helped establish the first UB honors program in 1981. "Our goal is to provide students with life-changing experiences that will define their time at UB and, perhaps, will set them on a course they'll follow for the rest of their lives.

"The presence of The University Honors College also gives UB honors a heightened prestige that will help us recruit many more very talented students to UB," she added.

Current UB honors students Kelly Miller, a senior, and Aaron Krolikowski, a junior, said they chose UB over several highly competitive colleges and universities because of UB honors.

During her academic career at UB, Miller has worked closely with a non-governmental organization in Nigeria to develop a drinking-water filter for the West African country, where thousands of people are without clean water. An environmental engineering major, she also has been awarded honors grants for travel to Mexico City for the World Water Forum and to Honduras and Calgary for work with Pure Water for the World and the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology.

She is a recipient of a prestigious Morris K. Udall Scholarship, awarded each year to a select group of outstanding undergraduates nationwide who intend to pursue careers related to the environment, Native American health care or tribal public policy.

"I came to UB with an interest in water-treatment solutions for developing countries," said Miller, who grew up in Pittsford, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. "The opportunities presented to me to explore my interest, in and out of the classroom, really have been amazing. The experience has helped me focus on what I want from life and not be limited by ordinary expectations."

Krolikowski is pursuing environmental issues, too, but closer to home. The native of Glenwood, south of Buffalo, is majoring in political science and environmental studies. He is pursuing a passion for environmental justice, a relatively new social movement seeking to reduce the disproportionate amount of environmental burdens -- pollution, industrial contamination, crime -- found in poor communities.

As an honors intern in UB's Regional Institute, Krolikowski developed Western New York's first environmental justice guidebook. He also traveled this summer to Tanzania to work on a water irrigation system for the country.

"Through the honors college, I feel like I'm getting an Ivy League education at a public institution," he said. "My goal is to one day create a legal center for environmental justice in Buffalo and then work to make the region a better place for everyone."

Administrative offices for The University Honors College are in Talbert Hall on the UB North Campus. For more information about the honors college, go to http://honors.buffalo.edu.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.