Students to live and learn in new honors community

Honors and non-honors students agree that the opening of the honors "living-learning community" in August is one solution to shortages in on-campus housing.

The community will be comprised of three residential buildings and an honors classroom.

"I think they're a good idea," Scott Dunkin, an honors sophomore computer science technology major from West Memphis, said. "Any new housing is a good idea."

Non-honors students agree with Dunkin.

"The campus does need more housing, so moving honors students to their own housing facility would make more room for non-honors students in on-campus residence halls," Ashley Kitchens, a non-honors sophomore chemistry major from West Memphis, said.

Gil Fowler, associate dean of the Honors College, said about 450 students are currently classified as honors.

Rebecca Oliver, director of student services for the Honors College, said the complex will house 222 honors students. There will be 88 single bedrooms reserved for upperclassmen, who will share bathrooms. Two upperclassmen will share one bathroom. Incoming freshmen will have the option to live in 67 double-occupancy rooms.

Oliver said insufficiency in on-campus housing is one reason the community is being built.

"The university is growing," she said. "There is that push (for more students) and they need more beds on campus."

These buildings will hold more than just beds for students. In one residence hall, the Honors College Residence Hall Director will be provided with an apartment. His or her office will be in a different building.

A satellite office for the Honors College will be in the last of the three buildings. Each hall will have a central study/social lounge for students. Students also will be able to attend class only a few feet from their dorm rooms.

A standalone building will house two classrooms, which can be converted into one large classroom by the removal of a room divider. The classroom building may include computer workstations.

Oliver said these rooms will be "smart classrooms," equipped with overhead projectors and up-to-date technology.

Ashlie Anderson, president of the Honors College Association, said HCA may meet in the classroom building provided there is enough space for students to hold a meeting in that room.

All these benefits contribute to why this project is called the honors living-learning community.

"It is certainly an opportunity to network and interact with students who are most committed to academics," Fowler said. "We plan to have programming and activities of interest for honors students."

When the Honors College Residence Hall opens, Building Three in NorthPark Quads will no longer be classified as honors only.

"I don't have a problem with it," Alex Douglas, a non-honors senior communications major from Horseshoe Bend, said. "If you study hard, you get rewarded."

Some honors students already have considered the new Honors College Residence Hall as a housing possibility for fall 2009.

"It's good to have an honors dorm. It feels like we're being rewarded for accepting a more rigorous course schedule," Janet Jamison, an honors sophomore chemistry major from Monticello, said. "I plan to move into the new complex, and it's helping with the housing problem."

The construction of the living-learning community is not the only change affecting the 25-year-old Honors College. How the college operates has been shifted significantly, Oliver said.

From spring 2009 onward, continuing Honors College students and honors eligible incoming freshmen will no longer have to fill out application forms.

Incoming freshman who meet requirements will automatically be enrolled in the college via self-service, although they will have the option to decline enrollment in the Honors College.

Also in fall 2009, new requirements for the Honors College will be applied. Instead of the previous 24 ACT score or a 3.5 high school GPA, incoming 2009 freshmen will need to have a 27 ACT score and a 3.5 GPA to be honors eligible. A recommendation from either a professor or an academic adviser will still allow a student who didn't qualify as a freshman to enter the Honors College after one or more semesters at ASU.