UALR Honors College opens in fall; freshmen enroll in '16

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Zulma Toro speaks Wednesday with faculty senate President Andrew Wright during a UA System board of trustees meeting on the Little Rock campus.
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Zulma Toro speaks Wednesday with faculty senate President Andrew Wright during a UA System board of trustees meeting on the Little Rock campus.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will soon open an Honors College to provide another opportunity for its students.

The 11,645-student university will start an Honors College for transfer and continuing students this fall. It plans to roll out the program for first-year students in fall 2016.

UALR officials got the approval to create the college -- which would differ from the Donaghey Scholars Program -- when the University of Arkansas System board of trustees met Wednesday. Other universities with honors colleges include University of Arkansas at Fayetteville's 2,853-student Honors College and the University of Central Arkansas' 270-student program. Arkansas Tech University's Honors Program accepts up to 30 freshmen each year.

The program comes at a time when the university is continuing to restructure, after declines in enrollment and, subsequently, tuition and fee revenue. The creation of the Honors College was one of many restructuring recommendations that Zulma Toro, the university's executive vice chancellor and provost, gave to UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson in an October 2014 report, she said.

"This is exciting," Toro said. "Despite the financial difficulties, this is one thing that tells faculty and students that we're looking for strategies to enhance development."

Toro then appointed a task force, which included representatives from all of the colleges, she said. The group looked at market analyses of the possible students for the program and what other universities were doing. The task force helped to create the courses for the Honors College, she said.

The university's Honors College will include a two-year track for transfer and continuing students, along with a four-year track for first-year students. It will also encompass those in the Donaghey Scholars Program, an honors program with a interdisciplinary curriculum and financial stipends beyond tuition and fees.

But the Honors College will include slight differences in the course tracks, Toro said. For example, Donaghey Scholars must study abroad, but that won't be a requirement for Honors College participants, she said.

"The students will have the opportunity to be challenged in and out of the classroom," she said. "This will elevate what we are offering to students."

The Donaghey Scholars Program received about 140 applications last year. An admissions committee reviews an applicant's high school coursework and grade-point average, test scores, recommendations, written essays and a personal interview, according to the website. On average, only 25 students are accepted a year.

"We're receiving more applications than we have spots for," she said. "[Those students] receive offers from other institutions," and most ultimately enroll elsewhere.

The Donaghey Scholars Program will continue unchanged, said Simon Hawkins, interim director of the program.

"The [Donaghey Scholars Program] is essentially a liberal arts program within a research university," said Hawkins, who also led the implementation task force. "If the [program] is built around a set of interdisciplinary core courses, the new honors program is built around research or creative or service learning projects and experiences more closely linked to the student's major."

The university has started advertising to attract applicants and will accept 20 transfer and continuing students in the fall, Toro said.

The task force decided to start with the transfer and continuing students because "it's the smallest in terms of students" and the easiest "in terms of resources," Hawkins said. Those students were important to the task force from the very beginning, he said.

"We didn't simply want to replicate the models that are out there. We want to provide a high-quality, research-driven education to the diverse population that UALR serves," he said. "[The Donaghey Scholars Program] has a reputation for first-rate students who could hold up anywhere in the country. I have students outside of [the Donaghey Scholars] that fall into that category. I want to make sure they get the same opportunities to really do the cutting edge research that they are capable of."

The university is looking to put in place a dean for the Honors College by July 1. The dean will help develop the four-year Honors College program, which will accept 20 freshmen in fall 2016. University officials hope to eventually have 300 students enrolled in the college.

Students interested in the Honors College will apply, submitting coursework and grades, but will be evaluated more broadly. Interested students will also be required to submit a portfolio, including some work they are proud of and an essay explaining what they learned from that work. An interview with faculty members and alumni will follow, and an admissions committee will also select which applicants to accept.

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