UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 15, Page 1
December 19, 1991
Honors Program magnet for high-calibre students

     Your excellence, which we honor today, provides a model and a
lesson for all of the University community.... you are the
embodiment of what is best about the University...I firmly believe
that yours is the vitality at the center of the University of
Delaware and that your best is still to come.

     This excerpt is from a letter from President David Roselle to
the 150 students recognized for their accomplishments at the
General Honors Certificate Award Ceremony, Oct. 23.
     The Honors Program and the Undergraduate Research Program have
been identified as two magnets that attract high-calibre students
to the University, according to Robert Brown, Honors Program
director.
     The two build upon each other. The Honors Program offers
students challenging coursework, stimulating extracurricular
cultural activities and interaction with their peers. The
Undergraduate Research Program, coordinated by Joan Bennett,
provides students with opportunities for meaningful research that
may lead to honors degrees or degrees with distinction.
     The Honors Program is rigorous, according to Kathleen Duke,
acting associate director, and is being broadened and modified so
that a greater number of qualified students, including those who
enter the program after their freshman year, can participate.
     Previously, to fully participate in the Honors Program,
students had to enter as freshmen and reside in the Dickinson
Residence Hall complex the freshman year, although individual
honors courses could be taken by other undergraduates, she said.
     General Honors Certificates were given at the beginning of the
junior year, after students had successfully completed 60 hours of
coursework, including 24 hours of honors courses, and maintained a
3.0 grade point average.
     However, last April, the Faculty Senate approved modifications
of the program to enable other qualified students to undertake
honors work.
     Beginning with the class entering in the 1992-93 academic
year, a First Year Honors Certificate will be awarded to qualified
students. Students must have 30 college credits, 15 of them must be
in honors courses, including an honors colloquium, on such topics
as "Culture and Life of Women" or "Designing the City."
     In addition, they must take an honors forum, a one-credit
course that may be a lecture series or a combination literary and
visual media course such as "Alice Greets Monty Python: The British
Nonsense Tradition," or a performing arts series.
     For qualified upperclass students, an Advanced Honors
Certificate will be awarded to those who taken 21 honors credits
after the freshman year, have a 3.0 grade point average and have
demonstrated in other ways that they are pursuing an enriched
educational experience.
     According to Duke, this will open up the Honors Program to
include transfer students and other students who did not
participate in the program during their freshman year.
     An important component of the program is intensive advising so
that students become more actively involved in what they want from
their education.
     Brown would like to see further opportunities for students to
graduate with honors degrees. Although many majors offer an honors
degree, there are many fields that do not.
     A degree with distinction is available in all majors and
requires a thesis or project and an oral presentation and defense
before a faculty committee.
     "The Honors Program shows the University's commitment to
undergraduate education. Although other universities have honors
programs, Delaware's is broader and more diverse and not for a few
elite students. Combined with the Undergraduate Research Program,
which is unique in undergraduate education, the University of
Delaware offers educational opportunities for students to do
individual projects and to realize their potential during their
undergraduate years," Brown said.
                                        - Sue Swyers Moncure

     UpDate asked four seniors about their experiences in the
Honors Program. Three are candidates for degrees with honors and
are receiving support for their research from the Undergraduate
Research Program. Here are some of their comments.

     Jen Schwartz of Cheltenham, Pa., came to the University
because of the Honors Program. She particularly liked the honors
classes she took and, like many other students in the program, said
the people she met her freshman year at the Dickinson Residence
Hall complex continue to be among her closest friends. A French and
history major, she spent a Winter Session in Burgundy, France, and
is currently doing her senior honors thesis on anti-Semitism in
14th-century Europe, as portrayed in dramas during that period. She
said she hopes to continue her studies in graduate school.

     Matt Robertson, a graduate of St. Mark's High School, is
majoring in political science and economics and plans to attend law
school. The Honors Program gave him the incentive to work hard, to
realize his potential and to become involved, he said. He is
examining the current ethnic problems in Sri Lanka and comparing
that nation with Malaysia for his honors thesis. "The Honors
Program here is a strong one, and I would not trade the experience
I have had," he said.

     Tracey Evans from Joppatown, Md., is majoring in biology and
philosophy and plans to attend medical school. "There is a family
feeling to the Honors Program," she said, "and I love it." She
appreciates the personal attention, the advisement, the friendships
she has made and the activities. Recently inducted into Phi Beta
Kappa, Evans is writing her senior honors thesis on the moral
criteria of personhood, involving such topics as animal rights,
abortion and other issues related to the field of medicine and
research.

     Michael Bower, from Hughesville, Pa., is a chemistry major.
Looking back at his experiences in the Honors Program, he said it
has been "outstanding," and the courses and professors were
"phenomenal." The Honors Program was the primary reason he decided
to attend the University, and he has not regretted the decision.
Bower received a summer internship working on a joint venture for
the Du Pont Co. and Merck Inc. and has continued working there
part- time. Because of the proprietary nature of his work, he
cannot publish his research. He plans to attend graduate school,
studying chemistry in the pharmaceuticals area.