Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Radford University dance instructor Danah Bella (center) falls backward into the arms of honors students. The students taking her Dance 111 class worked through a trust exercise during the first week of class that will prepare them for a group project later in the semester.

Intro to Honors 101

To be part of the Honors Academy at Radford University, students must be invited into the program. Invitations go out to incoming freshmen who meet at least two of the following three criteria:

• 1100 or higher on the SAT or 24 or higher on the ACT
• 3.5 or higher high school grade-point average
• In the top 20 percent of their high school graduating class

Sarah Garrand's 2 p.m. class had just ended. She had two hours of free time before her night class on nutrition would begin.

Instead of goofing off, the Radford University freshman went straight to her second-floor room in Floyd Hall and started work on a two-page paper that wasn't due for two days.

"I'm one of those people who likes to get their stuff done," Garrand said. "I won't cram and do this at 12 o'clock at night."

Garrand's work now, play later attitude is typical of students in Radford University's Honors Academy. This year, the academy welcomed its largest class of incoming freshmen since it was created in 1997.

Besides swelling the ranks of the academy, the class of 2010 will likely witness the evolution of the Honors Academy from a relatively low-profile program for academic achievers to a full-blown honors college with its own faculty, curriculum and funding.

Ivelaw Griffith, the university's new provost and the former dean of Florida International University's Honors College, has ambitious plans for the honors college.

"Honors is going to be one of the centerpieces of excellence," Griffith said in May. "It will help us to get better students."

Bringing in more top-notch students will help the university see a bump up in the quality of its entire student body, the argument goes.

Griffith announced in August that he will create a committee aimed at transforming the academy and that its director will now report to him. But before any changes can come, the committee will have to take stock of how the academy functions now.

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Radford University honors student Sarah Garrand (right) works on her computer as her roommate, Kaitlin Robertson, eats sushi in their room in Floyd Hall, the main residence hall for the Radford University Honors Academy.

Math and statistics 101

• 151: Number of incoming freshmen in the Radford University Honors Academy in 2006-07, the largest number in the history of the academy
• 25: Number of Highlander Scholars who graduated in 2006
• 421: Number of all undergraduates in the Honors Academy
• 170: Number of honors students living in Floyd Hall and the first floor of Peery Hall
• 4.4: Percentage of Radford University undergraduates who are in the Honors Academy

Today's academy

If you ask Joe King about the Honors Academy, he'll tell you it's the sexiest program on campus -- the most exciting and interesting for both students and faculty.

King is a professor of psychology who teaches a reduced load of two courses a semester so that he can lead the academy. He is the third director of the academy.

This year, about 440 students are enrolled in the academy, about 34 percent of whom are freshmen.

RU formed the Honors Academy as an outgrowth of an honors program that began in 1980. The changes at that time were mostly administrative, but there was one substantial difference: the addition of a residential component.

One of the four residences in Governor's Quadrangle, the three-story Floyd Hall, became the honors dormitory, where honors students could elect to live. This year because of increased student interest, the first floor of Peery Hall is also all honors. That added about 40 more beds, for a total of about 170 spaces in honors housing.

Being able to live in the honors dorm is a big draw for many students, like freshman Sarah Garrand and her roommate Kaitlin Robertson. The housing arrangement was a key reason they chose to be part of the academy, in addition to the challenge of taking more rigorous courses.

Students have to be invited by the university to join the Honors Academy. Invitations go out to incoming freshmen who meet or exceed two of the following three criteria: have a minimum grade point average of 3.5, score 1100 on the SAT or 24 on the ACT and graduate in the top 20 percent of their high school class.

The goal is that students who enter the academy will graduate as honors students -- or Highlander Scholars in Radford-speak.

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Joseph King, director of the Radford University Honors Academy and a professor of psychology, talks with students during an honors section of the University 100 course.

What’s required

To graduate with honors, students must meet the following requirements:
• Completion of a Capstone project. It can be a thesis, portfolio of creative works, a major research project or an off-campus project related to study abroad, community service or an internship.
• Minimum grade-point averages of 3.2 during freshman year; 3.3, sophomore year; 3.4, junior year; and 3.5 to graduate.
• Minimum of 27 honors credits.

Once in the program, they must submit an honors plan of study every year and maintain a minimum grade point average that becomes more rigorous as they move through their college career -- starting at 3.2 as a freshman and increasing to 3.5 to graduate.

Highlander Scholars must also take a minimum of 27 honors credits. In four years of college, that averages to almost 3 ½ honors credits per semester. At RU, the minimum credit hours for graduation is 120.

Honors credits must come from three areas: general education courses, major courses and independent study.

Students can fulfill general education requirements by taking a variety of honors courses, which are limited to 25 students. Many classes at RU, especially in lower division courses, have 40 or more students per class.

No RU faculty are designated as honors only, so King spends much of his time seeking faculty members from across the university to agree to create and teach honors courses.

It isn't usually hard for King to entice professors to work with honors students. The courses give faculty a chance to work with highly motivated students -- something that most professors value greatly.

"This is my favorite class to teach, easily," Niels Christensen said about his honors section of introduction to psychology. "You certainly feel that you need to be on your toes in those classes because the students will ask higher-level questions."

Getting honors credits in their major can be more difficult for students, because most classes in their disciplines are not offered as honors-only courses.

Instead, students must sign an honors contract with their professors, agreeing on extra work or more rigorous assignments beyond the regular syllabus that will make the class qualify for honors credit. Students do get help from King on how to approach professors for contracts, but for the most part, they have to take the initiative.

Sometimes, the contract assignments have been quite elaborate.

Ashley Zahorian, a double major in music and media studies, produced a radio broadcast of an extended history of the Radford University public radio station, WVRU, for one of her contracted major courses. She used the opportunity to start building her portfolio. Zahorian walked in graduation ceremonies in June as a Highlander Scholar but is finishing up a few courses this fall and applying to graduate school before starting a job in Virginia Beach.

Thoughts of a future after college drive many students to stick with their honors coursework over their four years at RU. Robert Godby, a sophomore majoring in political science, said he knows that the academy will push him to be a better student and will allow him to build his resume for whatever comes next.

"The workload might be more challenging, but it's also very rewarding," Godby said.

Finally, students must also work on an intensive project -- called the Capstone project -- in an independent study with a faculty member. The Capstone can take on various forms: a research paper, a portfolio of creative work or even a project related to an off-campus activity such as study abroad. Students must present their Capstone projects to an audience at the spring undergraduate research event on campus.

Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Sarah Garrand looks over the honors calendar in her Radford University Honors Academy Floyd Hall, the main residence hall for the academy.

Tomorrow's college

Though it is unclear exactly what the honors college would look like, Griffith has talked about some changes that are fundamental to the transformation.

First, he would want to find a donor who would provide a substantial sum of money to fund the college. Part of the pitch to potential donors would be that the college would bear the donor's name. The money would pay for faculty and also provide scholarship money for students.

With these extra funds, King would be able to recruit faculty who would likely devote most of their time to the honors curriculum, which would be up to the college to create and implement.

Now, King has no money to reward faculty members who take on the additional work of creating an honors course. He also cannot give professors any reduced teaching time in their course loads because he is sort of borrowing them from their home departments.

With dedicated honors faculty, students would likely find it easier to complete the honors requirements and graduate as Highlander Scholars, said Ashley Zahorian, who is very much behind the shift from the academy to the college.

Griffith has said that the college would also have its own dean, who would be an equal to the other seven deans at the university. That dean would vie for resources for the honors college.

Griffith would also like to see all honors students study abroad.

The money that Griffith would raise for the college could help fund the trips of students unable to pay on their own. That's an idea that King is happy to hear because he has seen the benefits that students in the academy have received from studying overseas with faculty members.

All of these changes could make the entire university a different place, as Peter Sederberg, the former dean of the South Carolina Honors College, can attest.

The University of South Carolina was one of the first universities in the nation to expand its honors program into a full honors college. It admitted its first students in 1978.

At the time, Sederberg said administrators were looking to raise the visibility of honors to attract larger numbers of top students -- just as RU hopes to do.

USC's plan has worked. The college has expanded from about 400 students in 1978 to roughly 1,250 now. That growth has happened even as the rigor of admissions to the college has increased. The average SAT scores of incoming honors students at USC now tops 1400.

The growth has had a permeating effect on the rest of the university, as well.

"If we attract the very best students, the merely good will follow," Sederberg said.

Overall SAT scores at USC average higher than 1100 -- a number that Griffith and Radford University President Penelope Kyle would likely want to cite for RU's incoming students.

The five-year plan

Griffith has pledged to make the shift from the Honors Academy to the honors college in the first five years of his tenure at Radford University.

During the orientation session for this year's freshmen, Steve Lerch, vice provost for academic programs, stood in for Griffith to welcome the honors students to campus.

Lerch told the wide-eyed students -- including Garrand and Robertson -- that their four years at RU would coincide with that change and that they might be called upon by Griffith or King to help come up with plans for the evolution.

"It's a transformational time for the Honors Academy," he said. "I can't tell you what shape it's going to take."