Potential honors program changes and graduate student enrollment were the focus of discussion at Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
Sandra Reineke, the director of the honors program, spoke about her hopes to transition from an honors program to an honors college at the University of Idaho.
Reineke said having a stronger honors presence on campus will make the college more attractive to high achieving students.
She encouraged those in attendance to go to an open forum discussion about these changes on either Sept. 24 or Sept. 25.
Sen. Allan Caplan asked what the differences would be between an honors college and an honors program.
Reineke said an honors program is run by a director who coordinates the class offerings. An honors college would function like any other college on campus with its own administration and a dean that would work in collaboration with other colleges to coordinate a curriculum.
Jerry McMurtry, dean of the College of Graduate Studies, provided an update about the challenges and triumphs regarding recruiting graduate students at the university.
Overall application is up 4.9 percent, she said. McMurtry suggested some of this success has been a result of new online application systems that have made it easier for students to apply.
Some challenges McMurtry and his colleagues have faced include a decrease in international student application. McMurtry attributed these issues to the tense political climate and prospective students having their visas denied.
Additionally on a domestic front, McMurtry said the department needs to work on national visibility. He said many students looking for places to attend college simply do not consider Idaho because “they heard about it (Idaho) in eigth grade geography and that is probably the last time they thought about this state.”
Gavin Green can be reached at [email protected]