Honors Carolina looks to grow, improve offerings to meet student expectations

James Leloudis, associate dean for Honors Carolina, has seen the program grow from a small two-year program into a four-year commitment.

He said students now expect more from the program because many enter the university with course credit, looking for new opportunities.

The program is introducing a new position, career guides, in the 2015-16 school year, which Leloudis hopes will guide students as a bridge between advising and career services.

“We’ve really tried to make a full commitment over the last few years to transform honors into a genuine, full-year program,” Leloudis said. “I’m not sure we’ll ever feel like we’re ever there.”

When they entered UNC as freshmen, 285 members of the class of 2014 were Honors Carolina students, and 232 of them entered their senior year in good standing with the program.

Leloudis said half of the students who were not in compliance had left the program because their GPAs were not up to par. The class of 2018 included 366 Honors Carolina students upon entry in August.

Honors Carolina students must take two honors courses each school year and maintain a 3.0 GPA.

“The other half of those folks who are leaving are leaving because they aren’t able to meet those course requirements for one reason or another,” he said.

Honors Carolina Student Board Co-President Rangoli Bhattacharjee hears complaints from students who feel the course requirements are restricting.

“One of the reasons that we’ve noticed that students wouldn’t be able to complete the program is because originally, the program was really designed to be a first and second-year program, so the kind of offerings it had was really limited in terms of higher-level courses that were offered,” Bhattacharjee said.

An average of 83 honors courses are offered each semester, but most professional schools have limited offerings.

Leloudis said concerns usually come from students seeking higher-level courses deeper into their majors.

“It’s a lot more difficult for a department to offer upper level courses than it is to offer lower level courses,” Leloudis said. “It has to make sense to the department chair about how to manage a finite resource.”

Students can receive honors credit from seven options outside of taking a course, he said. One option is an Honors Contract, which requires students to conduct research.

Sophomore Kathryn Grace Almon said she has had trouble finding courses that fulfill requirements for both her major and Honors Carolina. Almon turned to the Honors Contract to satisfy this semester’s requirement.

“I can’t just keep sacrificing three hours of my schedule to take something like Honors Mongolian Sheepherding,” Almon said. “I have to take STEM classes, and they don’t offer enough STEM classes.”

Leloudis said he encourages students to take courses in subjects they usually would not focus on.

“That’s not good for everybody, and that’s not good or bad. For students who really want to be very focused, that emphasis on breadth as well as depth might not (be a) good fit,” he said. “We really put a premium and a priority on encouraging students to get a very broad-based education.”

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