Wednesday, November 19, 1997
Honors courses demand deep thinking, enrich education
ACADEMICS:
Intensified interdisciplinary study key element of programBy
Michael LaFemina
Daily Bruin Contributor
Have you ever heard of a course that compares the elements of
physics and art, or imagined a class that examines the Bible as a
possible source of political theory?
These interdisciplinary courses and many more are all part of
the Honors Collegium, a branch of the College Honors program at
UCLA.
"It is extra work, but it makes you think more deeply," said
Melanie Ho, a first-year political science student in the
program.
Located in A-311 Murphy Hall, College Honors is a program based
on significant interdisciplinary work and high GPA achievement. It
is the most academically prestigious program on campus and provides
the highest recognition that the College of Letters & Sciences
can confer upon undergraduates.
It is also an internationally renowned program that allows
students to further their education beyond traditional classes.
College Honors, originally titled the Lower Division Program,
was founded in the late 1970s by Eugen Weber, then the dean of the
College of Letters & Sciences. Today, it is one of the largest
campus-wide honors programs in the nation.
A key element of this program is the Honors Collegium, a
collection of interdisciplinary courses that foster intellectual
exchanges between students and professors  all with less than
20 students.
"Students love these courses," said G. Jennifer Wilson,
assistant dean of honors and undergraduate programs. "They tend to
be offered by professors who want to teach gifted students and try
experimental courses outside of their department."
For the coming winter quarter, these experimental courses
include the "Geometry of Relativity" and "Male Identity and
Sexuality in Rome."
There are certain problems with the Honors Collegium, though.
For example, there are about 3,000 students in the program and not
nearly enough collegium courses to accommodate all of them.
"We are growing, and we need more resources to serve our
students," Wilson said.
Professors who teach Honors Collegium courses are often highly
respected in their fields. To recruit these instructors, College
Honors pays individual departments enough money so that a
replacement professor can be hired for the one teaching the Honors
Collegium course. Without adequate resources, it is difficult to
recruit enough professors to teach all of the Honors Collegium
courses offered.
However, the Honors Collegium is not the only way to participate
in College Honors at UCLA.
To enter the program, students must have a 3.5 GPA on a minimum
of 12 graded units. To graduate from the program, students must
complete up to 44 units of honors course work while maintaining a
3.5 GPA. Honors credit can come from a variety of sources, such as
Honors Collegium courses, independent study research courses, or
honors contracts and discussions.
For many students, the most convenient way to start accumulating
honors credit is to participate in honors discussion sections.
In these sections, honors students in a class create a separate
discussion group in which the professor is the instructor. Students
gain honors credit while receiving individual attention from
professors. However, the benefits of these honors discussion
sections are not confined to students in the program.
Professor Christopher Mott of the English department uses
electronic discussion on the Internet to facilitate students in the
College Honors Program.
"Electronic discussion (in the honors classes) is a real boon to
large general education courses," Mott said. "Students and
professors can coordinate their schedules much more effectively …
and the discussion can act as a model for others taking the
course."
Thus, College Honors is not just a program that benefits
students directly involved in it, but an organization that betters
UCLA as a whole.
Through the propagation of new ideas in interdisciplinary Honors
Collegium courses and the encouragement of higher education, UCLA’s
College Honors program is a force helping to push the university
into the next millennium.
"It is a win-win-win situation," said David Wilson, assistant
dean of humanities.
Students in College Honors also receive such benefits as
priority enrollment and a separate counseling office.
Besides, where else could you ever take a class that uses the
scientific method to examine the question of extraterrestrial
life?
Wednesday, November 19, 1997