President Jane Close Conoley is considering implementing a new honors college at Long Beach State to “enhance the current honors program.”
Conoley has speculated modeling the new honors college after University of California, Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies. UCSB’s prototype is a “rigorous program” with an on-campus building as a home for accelerated students.
“My goal is to offer an honors experience to our very diverse student body at an affordable price,” Conoley said. “I think students of all economic means should be able to experience the honors experience if they are willing to put in the extra effort.”
CSULB’s current model, the University Honors Program, is under-resourced, according to Conoley, and hosts over 1,000 students. The honors program in place offers priority registration, personalized advising and scholarship opportunities.
The UHP also accommodates honors students in Hillside College Dormitory’s Los Cerritos building.
“Students who are willing to exert the tremendous effort to participate in honors should have a home,” Conoley said. “What we’re looking at is creating a new kind of ‘college.’”
To move forward, Conoley plans to seek input from the Academic Senate as well as students currently in the UHP. As of now, the honors college is in the early stages of discussion.
Honors students are generally on board with CSULB implementing an improved version of the accelerated program.
“If there’s a way to get more people involved in honors, then I say go for it,” said honors student Kevin Katz, a second-year chemical engineering major. “Whether it’s through their living situations or classes, or whatever else, if there’s an outlet for people’s desire to achieve more, then [the honors college] is good.”
Other students have expressed uncertainty with how the improved honors college will prioritize the needs of students.
Although the UHP claims it advocates for student success, there are limited benefits for students who are part of the college of the arts, according to former UHP member Katie McNamara, third-year string bass performance and creative nonfiction filmmaking major.
“There’s very little academic benefit or motivation to join honors beyond the housing and priority registration,” McNamara said. “By the end, it felt more like a checklist of random responsibilities for a piece of paper at graduation and a forgotten line on my resume.”
The new honors college is on a rough five-year timeline. According to Conoley, the administration has to figure out whether CSULB has the funds to set this plan in motion.
“There are other programs that are bigger and desperately in need of new buildings,” said third-year pre-production major and honors student Tom Carroll, in reference to the fine arts buildings.