By Jonathan Tercasio
The University of Maryland’s largest Honors College program, University Honors, is undergoing major changes to its curricula, faculty and living spaces which will begin next fall and continue over a multi-year period.
Many of these changes are based on years of feedback from students and external committees and seek to improve the academic and student-life sides of the program, according to University Honors Director Dr. Stephan Blatti.
“The hallmark of an honors education is that students have access to the strongest researchers on campus,” Blatti said. “And right now, the strongest students aren’t getting exposed to the most exciting minds on campus,” he added.
Unlike other programs in this university’s Honors College, University Honors has historically not had any structure: admitted students can complete their Honors Citation by taking any combination of honors seminars or honors versions of classes to get the 16 honors credits required by graduation.
But starting next fall, according to Blatti, seminars will be grouped into “clusters”— thematically organized courses “based on topics of contemporary and enduring significance.”
A full-time salaried faculty will be responsible for teaching these clustered courses, said Blatti. This new policy is a shift from the program’s current structure, in which seminars are taught not only by tenured professors at the university, but also by professionals who have day jobs in their fields of speciality.
University Honors will also be seeing changes to its program spaces. New dorms will replace Hagerstown Hall as the home for University Honors students, and a “purpose-built” space for the program will be located in the new dining hall being built on North Campus, according to Blatti.
“We can expect those spaces to provide a home–to deliver on the commitment of the living-learning model,” Blatti said. He additionally highlighted the importance of these changes in connecting the “living” aspect of the program with the “learning” aspect.
While many of these changes will primarily affect incoming students, a few current University Honors students have voiced their discontent with the program’s restructuring. Sophomore fire protection engineer Shuvam Roys said the cluster system seems to undermine the main appeal of University Honors.
“I like the way it currently is,” Roy said. “It’s the most laid back of all the programs, and it’s that way for a reason.”
Other students, like freshman computer science major Ari Bailey, said one of his biggest concerns is for freshmen like himself. Current freshman will have to complete their honors citation by the fall of 2021, when all honors seminars will be discontinued and replaced by clustered courses.
Although Blatti noted that “no UH student who pursues their Honors Citation in good faith will be denied the opportunity to receive their citation,” Bailey said he worries about being able to take the seminars he wants to take.
“How important is the citation, really?” Bailey asked. “It’s about taking the classes you want to take, getting the gen-ed credits you need.”
To be more responsive to feedback from students, the university created the University Honors Transition Council (UHTC), according to University Honors program manager Susie Underland, to allow administrators to work with students on the new changes.
“This is a big year of transition,” Underland said. “And we needed to communicate more with students—more directly and more often.”
Bailey, who has attended UHTC meetings, said administrators have purposefully left open a lot of room for suggestions.
“If students want certain things to happen, they should talk to Dr. Stephan Blatti,” Bailey said. “None of these changes are going to be malicious, and they’re not going to hamper what’s currently going on in some major way—they’re going to improve on it.”