On February 19, 2020, Dean Toni Doolen gave her second annual State of the Honors College address, providing updates and insights to honors alumni, current students, family members and supporters of the college. In it, she portrayed a college that is serving more and more students each year by remaining grounded in its core values and innovating to continually improve the student experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\npresentation was hosted via remote meeting, meaning that supporters and friends\nof the college could engage from wherever they were. It was also recorded for\nthose who couldn\u2019t attend to view later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dean Doolen\nbegan by looking at the results of two recent climate surveys completed by\nhonors students, designed to help the Honors College administration better\nunderstand how students feel about their current experience. The results were largely\npositive; however, they also indicated some room for development in\nestablishing a culture that was welcoming for students from some underrepresented\ngroups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She then dove\ninto one of the key current challenges for the Honors College: retaining\nstudents through graduation. When students withdraw from the Honors College,\nthey are asked to give the primary reason for their decision from a list of options.\nFinances remain a major reason for withdrawal, despite the progress the college\nhas made toward providing scholarships and grants. While fewer students cited\ncost as the primary reason why they dropped the Honors College in spring 2019\nthan in spring 2018, building scholarships resources is a continued priority of\nthe Honors College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doolen\nemphasized that overall, though, the college has been in a period of sustained\ngrowth. Last year, the Honors College received over 1,800 applications for\napproximately 450 spots in the class entering in fall 2019. The college has\nconsistently received more applications each year \u2013 even as total applications\nto Oregon State have remained steady or declined \u2013 and the Honors College has\ngrown 57% since 2016. This growth has been reflected in increases in diversity\nand a growing focus on personal and professional development for students\noutside of the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe idea here\nis that as individuals come into the college, we expect them to explore who\nthey are, their identity, and that when they\u2019re here at OSU that they are not\njust pursuing growth toward their academic and professional goals,\u201d Doolen\nexplained, \u201cbut that also part of the higher-ed experience is growth around\npersonal goals that you have, and we see those as really going hand-in-hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fall 2019\nalone, 61 external stakeholders were involved in Honors College events. These events\nconnect honors students with alumni, community supporters and other friends of\nthe college who have valuable professional and personal experiences to share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is really\ncritical, because part of what we\u2019re doing is helping [students] start to think\nabout what happens when they leave OSU,\u201d Doolen said. \u201cIt helps them really set\nup their professional networks and again gain perspective from folks who are a\nfew years further along in life than they are, and we think that\u2019s really\nimportant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The increasing\nrange of programming and coursework in the college has helped address one of\nthe key concerns about growth; that students would become less engaged and less\nactive in the honors community. Ninety percent of the most recent cohort of\nstudents had already completed an honors course by the end of their first term\non campus. By the end of the 2018-2019 academic year, 60% of students that\nentered in fall 2018 had completed more than half of their required honors\ncredits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven as the\ncollege has grown significantly since 2016, we are getting more and more of our\nstudents to engage with an Honors College advisor,\u201d Doolen said, pointing to\nexpanding opportunities to meet informally with advisors as a primary cause for\nthis growth. Some students are currently in a pilot program where advisors\ncheck-in via text message, and early feedback shows that the program is working\nwell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doolen closed\nby thanking everyone for their attendance and reminding the audience that she\nis always open to any feedback or questions about the college. She also\nreminded the audience of the upcoming Day of Giving on April 30, 2020, when the\nHonors College will focus on building experiential learning scholarships for\nstudents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can view a recording of the presentation here<\/a>; slides from the presentation are available here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n By: Christopher McCracken<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On February 19, 2020, Dean Toni Doolen gave her second annual State of the Honors College address, providing updates and insights to honors alumni, current students, family members and supporters of the college. In it, she portrayed a college that is serving more and more students each year by remaining grounded in its core values […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9319,"featured_media":7438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,1163421,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-deans-corner","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4832"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7958,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4832\/revisions\/7958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}