By The Keystone Newspaper Director Dr. Andrew Vogel looks to create a more interdisciplinary approach to honors
By Kara Armstrong
KUs honors program is in the process of redesigning requirements, including the senior capstone project, to make the program viable for an increased number of students.
Photo Credit: Kara Armstrong
The spring 2024 semester saw three major updates to the program.
Prior to the spring 2024 semester, honors students were required to complete 30 community service hours with no more than 10 hours at a particular organization. Students must still complete 30 service hours, but the limit of 10 hours per organization has been lifted. Students may complete any number of service hours at a particular organization, so long as they complete the required 30 hours of community service.
The limit of 10 service hours per organization was supposed to encourage students to diversify their interests, however, director of the honors program, Dr. Andrew Vogel, realized this requirement went against one of the honors key learning outcomes: self-authorship.
“We want students to identify service projects that are meaningful to them, and then use that time making a contribution to grow and flourish and potentially find themselves in leadership positions in an organization,” said Vogel.
Transfer students in the honors program must now attend four Living and Learning events. Previously, transfer students hadn’t been required to attend any Living and Learning event. Traditional students in the honors program are still required to complete eight Living and Learning events.
“Transfer students don’t have the advantage of having the first semester to get connected,” said Vogel. Through this change, the honors program hopes to give transfer students a better opportunity to connect with the KU community.
The honors program has decreased the required number of credits students must complete before they may join the program as an internal transfer from 30 credits to 15 credits, giving students more time to complete the honors requirements.
“If a student had to wait until they completed 30 credits, they are nearly done with many of their gen eds, leaving them very little time to complete the honors coursework needed to graduate with honors,” said Vogel.
The next changes the honors program expects to implement surround the senior capstone. As it stands, the capstone requires a 50-page thesis-like paper. “The previous model is based solely on a model of advanced learning through a thesis,” said Vogel. “Not all learning fits easily into that form.”
Vogel identified majors such as business, sports management, and animation arts among those that did not recognize themselves within the 50-page thesis model.
Vogel is still drafting the changes for the capstone project but expects these changes to be ready by the end of the spring 2024 semester. He plans to move away from the strict 50-page thesis model, favoring a portfolio-like collection of works featuring smaller samples of writing focused on the research process and reflection upon the capstone.
“It won’t be any less intellectually rigorous,” he said. “It’s just that the number of words will be more intentional.”
Vogel served as the interim director of the honors program from the fall 2022 semester to the spring 2023 semester before taking over the position officially. During his run as interim director, Vogel stated, “My job was not to change anything—don’t rock the boat, just keep a steady course.”
Now that Vogel has taken over officially, he says there is a long list of things the honors program is looking to change. Next up is the coursework.
“Honors students are telling us again and again that the existing setup doesn’t work,” he said. “They don’t have a class where they learn how to set up a capstone.”
Vogel plans to implement courses that will provide space to think innovatively and will model what capstone projects will look like. This will potentially become a required course, or multiple courses, for honors students. He anticipates using the remainder of this academic year, and all of the next, to work on updating the course requirements.
Vogel hopes these changes will allow more students to complete the honors graduation requirements. “Honors represents an individual who is serious and intentional in their studies because they want to do interesting and distinctive things,” he said. “I think that is the greater population of our students.”
Currently, five percent of total KU students graduate with honors. Of the students involved in the honors program, between 24-30% complete the requirements to graduate with honors.
Students are eligible to join the program once they have completed 15 credits at KU and have maintained a 3.25 CGPA. Interested students should complete an application for the Honors Program, submit a letter of recommendation, and a personal essay.
Interested students should contact honorsprogram@kutztown.edu for more information.