This past weekend, representatives from UT’s Honors Program hosted delegations from the honors programs of other top SEC schools in a thinktank to advance the effectiveness of honors programs throughout the region.
Representatives from the programs at South Carolina, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Auburn, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia and Vanderbilt met at UT to discuss the evolving role of honors programs within their respective institutions.
“We are pleased to welcome our SEC colleagues for the annual meeting,” Steven Dandaneau, associate provost and director of the Chancellor’s Honors and Haslam Scholars Programs, said. “We share similar experiences and concerns, learn from one another and pursue forms of mutually advantageous collaboration. It’s a terrific group.”
This group of SEC honors program officials first met in 2008 in South Carolina, as Dean Davis Baird of the University of South Carolina organized their first gathering. The group met in 2009 at Ole Miss and continued the tradition this year at UT.
“Our focus this year is on ‘doing more with less’ and also new trends in nationally competitive scholarship advising,” Dandaneau said.
The delegations convened in the Haslam Business Building over the weekend.
Provost Susan Martin welcomed the participants to UT. Participants in this conference included Sarah Gardial, vice provost for faculty affairs, Sally McMillan, vice provost for academic affairs, and Anne Mayhew, director of the Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships and dean of graduate studies.
Lori Johnson and Rebekah Page, the Chancellor’s Honors Program’s assistant directors, both attended and participated in the discussions.
With the economic climate of the country called into question and the deadline for the close of aid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 looming closer, these SEC schools are searching for new and innovative ways to serve gifted students within their universities.
Stemming from these concerns, the discussion included various ways in which limited funding can be used to its fullest capacity as many schools struggle to keep up the advantages they offer to hard-working students in trying times.
The environment provided a necessary venue for these universities to share their different strategies for the upcoming academic year.
“We are looking forward to sharing our ideas and strategies and also learning from and with our colleagues from other SEC institutions,” Johnson said last week.
This meeting of honors program representatives has experienced high levels of participation, and while representatives from Florida, Mississippi State and LSU were unable to attend this year, they have participated previously and plan to in the future.
