Central Michigan University. Honors Program Organizational Records, 1961-2021, and undated

Summary

Creator:

Central Michigan University. Honors Program.

Abstract:

This collection is the official organizational records of the CMU. Honors Program and the related Honors Council

Extent:

10 cubic feet (in 11 boxes, 1 Ov. Folder)

Language:

English
Spanish

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by N. Armstrong, Marian Matyn

Background

Scope and Content:

This collection is the official organizational records of the CMU. Honors Program and the related Honors Council. The collection consists of seven series including: Student Biographies, 2006-2015 (Box 1 - 3), Honors Council Minutes, 1961-1995 (Boxes 3 - 4), Honors Council, Academic Senate, Minutes, 1996-2018 (Boxes 4 - 5), Subject Files, 1961-2021 (Boxes 5 - 8), Audiovisual Media, 1968-2012 (Boxes 9-10), Objects, 2013 (Box 11), and Posters, 1992-2009 (Oversize Folder 1). The Student Biographies series includes biographical sheets completed by competitors for Centralis scholarships and Freshmen Honors students. There is no standard format or medium. Besides the biographies, the sheets may include collages, art, poems, songs, and photographs. Some of the biographies originally included materials with battery-operated materials. Minutes usually include agendas, minutes, and attachments, such as communications, reports, proposals, scholarship information, and other materials. The Subject Files series begins with several histories of Honors describing its beginnings and major changes. Program history is also documented in the course description guides, course outlines, Beaver Island class trips, program reviews, policy and procedure manuals, fundraising, scholarships, and endowment scholarships. Information about Honors related organizations including the Honors Outreach Network, the Honors Philanthropic Society, and the Honors Alumni Board is included, as well as three self-published books. Audiovisual Media includes an advertisement video, an Inside Central segment with Ed Long, and many photographic materials, which are largely both undated and unidentified. However, there are folders of photographs organized by occasion or group, including Beaver Island, Centralis, The Claude S. Larzelere Trivia Contest, Directors, Talent Show, the Stratford Festival, and Volunteer Work, among others. The Objects series includes two plastic CMU Honors Program 2013 Winter Charity Ball wine glasses. The Posters series mostly pertain to Centralis Scholars, but also include a timeline on the program’s history, and a photograph of Maestria en Administration Internacional, Cohort 5, 1998. This last poster is the only item in Spanish in the collection. Overall, the collection is in very good physical condition. The collection is in alphabetical and chronological order by series. Boxes 1 through 9 are cubic foot boxes. Box 10 is a letter sized .25 cubic foot box. Box 11 is a small odd sized box.

Researchers may be interested in knowing information on specific scholarships can be found by searching for both the scholarship’s specific title and the general term “scholarships.” Handbooks may also be found in program reviews or Honors Council minutes for a given year. More information on specific classes might be in the Honors Council minutes. Additional information on Honors may be found in multiple CMU organizational records collections and the papers of Dr. Charles Westie which are in his wife, Ardith Westie’s, papers, in the Clarke Historical Library. Dr. Westie was one of the first people who pushed to create the honors program.

Processing Note: During processing 21.5 cubic feet of miscellaneous financial and other materials, evaluations, search committee materials, duplicates, reading and generic materials, lists of prospective students, social security numbers, and unidentified biographical sheets were withdrawn. Acidic materials were photocopied, and the copies were maintained within the collection. A sampling was retained of the following materials: Centralis Scholarships, Graduation materials and The Claude trivia contest materials. The Claude is otherwise recorded in CMLife. CMU mascot information was interfiled into the Clarke’s CMU Vertical files. Photographs, negatives, and biographical sheets were not rehoused due to the vast quantity in the collection and the Clarke’s current resources. In the biographies, wires and batteries were removed.

Biographical / Historical:

Organizational History:

Honors Program

On March 29, 1961, a committee chaired by Wilbur E. Moore submitted a proposal for the creation of an Honors Program at Central Michigan University (CMU) to the Academic Senate. The CMU Honors Program was approved by the Faculty Senate, and the first nine students selected for the Program began their studies in 1962. Initially, recruits came from the existing student body. Second semester Freshmen applicants had to have a GPA of 3.5. Junior and Senior applicants had to have a GPA of 3.25. To graduate as part of the Honors Program students had to complete 18 hours of Honors coursework, including the 4 designated Honors courses. Any class in any department could be taken for Honors credit. However, throughout the 1960s and early 1970s the Honors Program ran into many difficulties convincing departments and professors that teaching Honors courses for the small number of students that enrolled was worth their time. Applicants in their Junior and Senior years were required to take at least three independent study courses for a total of six hours of credit or more. Additionally, they were required to present at least one paper or project to the Honors Council, although this requirement was waived in the mid-1960s. Honors students had to achieve an A in a course to receive Honors credit for that class. Honors students were referred to as Honors Scholars and each was mentored by a professor. Throughout the 1960s the Program struggled with organization and implementation, as well as low enrollment. In November of 1968 the Honors Council discussed abolishing the Honors Program, believing it was a failure. The Council gave several reasons for their position, which are outlined in the meeting minutes from 1968, as well as in the folder in this collection titled “History of Program.” One reason they outlined is that only twelve students had completed the work necessary to graduate from the Program since its implementation. It was at this time that the Program reorganized and assigned an official Director at the behest of CMU President William Boyd, who named Dennis Thavenet (1968-1970) to the position.

Under Director Douglas West (1970-1972) in 1970, more than 500 students were enrolled in Honors classes and Honors was housed in Park Library, which had been completed one year prior. In 1971 Larzelere Hall became the official Honors residence hall and housed the Honors office, which remained there until 2006 when it was relocated to Powers Hall under the supervision of Director Jim Hill (2003-2010). On August 11, 1972, the first Honors Newsletter “Alternatives” debuted. Within the newsletter Director Richard Archer (1972-1974) established the meaning of the title as it related to Honors stating “Above all, we are an alternatives program. We seek to offer alternatives to the rest of the university.” In 1973 a large sum of money was left to the Honors Program by the Browsing family of Rosebush to purchase books for the Honors library, which was located in “the Tomb” or terrace of Larzelere Hall. In 1975, under Director Hal Crawley (1974-1983), the Honors Program developed an extensive plan laying the groundwork for the Program to become an Honors College with a dean by the 1983-1984 academic year. This was one of at least two unsuccessful attempts to establish a CMU Honors College. In 1976 admission standards for Honors students were raised from 3.25 to 3.5. From 1978 to 1979 enrollment in Honors nearly doubled from 474 students to 787 students.

Under Director Ben Taggie (1983-1986) the Program solidified its protocol, becoming more rigorous. Honors students were required to complete twenty-six hours of designated Honors coursework, including twelve Honors credits, eight foreign language credits, six credits of seminar courses, while maintaining a GPA of 3.5. Additionally, all first-year students were required to take HON101 Written Oral Competency for five credits. In 1987 the Honors Director position became full time. The Honors Program expanded under Director Bruce Roscoe (1986-1995), with the formalization of the Centralis Scholarship Program in 1989.

The first class of Centralis Scholarship recipients enrolled at CMU in the fall of 1990. The scholarship remains the most prestigious academic scholarship at the University. The class was composed of twenty full-ride “Centralis Scholars,” twenty full-tuition “Centralis Gold” recipients, and twenty-two “Centralis Maroon” recipients. The Maroon award was dropped from the Centralis Program after the first few classes. The Honors Newsletter in 1990 was titled Your Honor, then in 1996 the Honor Bound student newsletter was formed in the fall semester. Starting in fall of 1996 every Centralis Scholarship recipient was automatically admitted into the Honors Program. In 1997 Director Kevin Love (1995-1998) expanded the Program further by forming a partnership with the Student Research and Creative Endeavor Exhibition, growing the Centralis competition. Additionally, the Honors Outreach Network (aka. H.O.N.) was formed with the intention of fostering student involvement on campus and within the community. There are several folders in the collection under the heading Honors Outreach Network with information on the organization. In 1999 the Leadership Institute separated from the Honors Program.

Under Director Ed Long (1998-2003) the Program experienced its largest enrollment since its creation with a class of nine hundred and twenty-one students in 2000. The Honors Program Associate Director and second administrative secretary positions were created, with Judy Idema (2000-2021) named as the first Associate Director of the Honors Program. In 2001 the Program made a number of academic and extracurricular changes. The Academic Plan made its first appearance as a requirement for all first year Centralis students, and, later, first year Honors students. Introduction to Honors courses were offered to all Honors students for the first time, one of sixty-six courses offered at the time. The inaugural talent show and Oaxaca (Mexico) Service Learning trip occurred in 2001. The Honors Program Alumni Board was also formed at this time. In 2006, the first Honors Advisor was added to the staff, the Honors Program Philanthropic Society, The Honors Philanthropy Project, the Claude S. Larzelere Trivia Challenge, and annual specialty study abroad and Beaver Island courses were established. After much debate amongst Honors Council members about what constituted sufficient cultural diversity in coursework, the Academic Senate voted in 2008 to approve changes to the Honors Program protocol Section/Requirement 2. These courses also had to be approved by the Honors Council instead of the Honors Program Director. Additional information on these changes can be found in the folder “Changes to foreign language requirement, Section 2, 1990-2002” as well as the related Honors Council meeting minutes. Under Director Jim Hill (2003-2010) a Master Course List was created stretching five years into the future, and course offerings were expanded to over one hundred courses in 2009-2010. The Honors faculty selection process was also edited and improved, resulting in more than two hundred Honors faculty.

In 2010 Director Phame Camarena expanded the mission statement of the Honors Program, including forming the Program’s first listing of official core values, in order to further define the mission of Honors and offer more enrichment opportunities. These opportunities included the completion of Personal Development Plans by Introduction to Honors course students, study abroad scholarships awarded to all incoming Honors students, and the founding of the National Scholarships Program, to position students for prominent scholarships and fellowships. In 2012 the required GPA for admission into the Program was raised from 3.5 to 3.75. Curricular revisions in 2013 related to the Tier II requirements. From 2016 to 2018 further changes were made to encompass diversity credit and Track II requirements.

Nicole Barco was appointed to a three-year term from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2023. She resigned in the summer of 2022 amidst the cancellation of an external investigation into the department concerning its hiring practices and work culture, human resource management, and the removal of the Associate Director position. The removal of the Associate Director position in March 2021, which was then held by Judy Idema, caused outrage amongst students. A group of students who alleged Idema’s removal was “unjust” gathered on April 16, 2021, to protest the decision, which was not reversed. According to CMLife, problems within the Program and pressure from the Faculty Association union resulted in the forced resignations of Provost Mary Schutten and Associate Provost Julia Johnson in the fall of 2021. In fall of 2022 four residence halls on north campus, including Larzelere, were closed and the Honors Program Residential Community moved to Thorpe Hall in south campus. Patricia Williamson served as the Interim Director of the Program from July 2022 to May 2023 when she was announced as the permanent Director. Prior to serving as the Honors Director, she served as a member of the Honors Council and was a faculty member in the School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts. She remains the Director as of August 2024. (This information, except for the final two paragraphs, is from the collection, which only documents up to 2021. The last two paragraphs contain information collected from CMLife.)

Honors Council

In 1961 the Honors Council was created as the governing board for the Honors Program. The Council consisted of eight CMU President-appointed faculty members, in charge of administering the Honors Program. They met bi-weekly to admit students, supervise colloquium, oversee the Program, and evaluate operations. The Council was the sole overseer of the Honors Program until the Director position was created in 1968. In 1969, in line with National Student Representation trends, CMU President William Boyd appointed four Honors students to serve on the Council with the same voting power as the faculty members. In 1971 the primary purpose of the Honors Council was to make alternative educational experiences possible, including study abroad experiences and funding student projects. They had guidelines for funding that are in the “History of Program” folder in this collection. By 1977 the structure of the Council changed to include all teaching faculty members and an equal number of appointed students. Also in 1977, the Honors Council voted to abolish itself in favor of establishing a Council with membership based on elected representation rather than self-appointment with the goal of creating a better connection with other academic departments. They also made the decision to reduce the number of members to make the Council more responsive to the needs of the Program. These changes were eventually approved by the Academic Senate. The revised Council structure reduced the total membership to fifteen by limiting faculty representation to one representative from each of the five academic schools and the library. Faculty members served staggered two-year terms. The number of student representatives was limited to five students selected by the Program Director, a representative from the Council of Deans, and the Honors Residence Hall Director. Student members each served one-year terms. In 1985 the Honors Residence Hall Director representation was removed from the Honors Council due to the decrease in the number of students and classes that resided in the hall. In 2024, the Honors Council continues to function according to these policies and protocols.

Acquisition Information:

Acc# 77273

Arrangement:

The collection is organized alphabetically and chronologically by series.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Posters--20th century.
Posters--21st century.
Universities and Colleges--Honors Courses--United States.
Scholarships--Michigan.
Beaver Island (Mich.)--History.
Mount Pleasant (Mich.)--History.

Names:

United States. Army. Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
Central Michigan University. Honors Program.
Central Michigan University. Honors Council.
Central Michigan University. Honors Outreach Network.
Central Michigan University. Honors Alumni Board.
Central Michigan University. Larzelere Hall.
Central Michigan University. Powers Hall.
Central Michigan University. Public Broadcasting.
Central Michigan University--History.
Central Michigan University--Students.
Central Michigan University--Faculty.
National Collegiate Honors Council.
Phi Kappa Phi.
Stratford Festival (Ont.)