Are the Recent Changes to the Honors Engagement System a Good Idea?
By Ashley Hagan
This semester, the Honors College has finally done away with the engagement point system, replacing the 25-point requirement with a new requirement for students to accrue five different experiences. Additionally, there’s a new end-of-the-year write-up for Honors students, totaling 200 to 300 words.
Fortunately, some things have stayed the same, like the types of opportunities that you can use to meet the engagement requirement. Some are one-off events, like Berglund seminars, Wind Down Wednesdays and CommuniTEA, Coffee, and Conversation. Others are longer-term roles, such as leadership positions or becoming a TA for an Honors class, the way I did for Flourishing my sophomore year. Publishing or presenting creative works or research also counts.
Yet, there’s one big difference. Previously, different opportunities would give different amounts of engagement points. After all, an event you attend for an hour requires a different level of commitment than becoming a TA or joining HSEB. Being a TA might get you twenty engagement points, compared to five for a Berglund seminar. Now, though, they’re worth the same amount.
So is this an improvement?
From the perspective of getting Honors students to engage in the Honors community, absolutely. Students who primarily did one activity and brushed off others now have to actually engage. Plus, the write-up at the end of the semester forces reflection that otherwise we might not have gotten.
On the other hand, some people might consider the new system unfair. Committing to something large for the semester, like being a TA, and still having to attend four other activities like everyone else can be frustrating. Additionally, for students who are usually in class when events like Burglund seminars and CommuniTEA are held, things just got a lot more difficult. As someone who works twenty hours a week, there are events I literally can’t attend. I can’t imagine students suddenly getting kicked out of the Honors College due to being unable to meet the new requirements, but it's not impossible.
What can the Honors College do differently?
While there are numerous options for engagement events currently, I would like to see more varied time options for things like Berglund seminars, as well as more career-building workshop opportunities that students would find particularly useful in the short term. I remember being disappointed to miss a mock interview event because I was at work, so it would be nice to have more chances to attend things like these.
My main suggestion, though, would be for there to be some sort of weight with respect to time. Perhaps semester-long commitments like being a TA could count for two events rather than one. It’s completely possible to write a justification for that, after all, because there are different activities involved in TA work. Otherwise, it just doesn’t quite seem fair.
Overall, I think the new system is very streamlined and does exactly what it’s designed to do: promote engagement. Even though it may be frustrating, it’s relatively well-thought-out, and it won’t lead to changes for most students. Meeting the requirements will continue to be attainable for most students, even though some may have to work a bit harder for it than they used to. This is the Honors College, after all. It’s not supposed to be a walk in the park.
Illustration by Emily Phan