The Opportunities of Stony Brook Honors College

Introduction

Now more than 50 years old, the Stony Brook Honors College is one of the country’s first university-designed honors programs. By 1960, leaders had successfully persuaded that it was time to meet in the middle of the length of Long Island to create a college town that would approach a university differently, in ways that would make it both accessible and excellent. From the earliest moments in the life of our university, students turned their attention to four-year students who would be part of the college.

They and their successors did so because they wanted students who were here for longer periods to have opportunities for study as engaging as those available to first- and second-year students. Those leaders hoped to have honors programs that attracted talented candidates and helped us to keep talented ones. Those who designed our honors programs had expectations that were ambitious and that are still in place in some fashion today. As our university has become more complex, however, honors at Stony Brook of the 21st century has had to focus more on the quality of the internal enrollment student experience and less on attracting increasing numbers of the most highly qualified students from throughout the system and the nation.

Academic and Research Opportunities

Small class sizes in SBU Honors provide a haven for faculty-student interaction. The average class size is around 30. Our faculty are encouraged to seek new teaching experiences in innovative Honors courses specifically designed to fuel critical thinking and creativity. The basis of these programs is often either interdisciplinary or thematic. Interdisciplinary system thinking is taught in the SPLH courses that are team-taught by faculty of different disciplines. In contrast, the Scholars for Medicine Combined Program provides enhanced opportunities for our undergraduates to work in any of our medical or biomedical research programs, facilities, or centers. The opportunities are housed within the School of Medicine facilities, but participation supplements, not replaces, the Honors Program experience.

SBU Honors students are encouraged to get involved in faculty-sponsored research projects, independent studies, and colloquia. After the courses have taken place, our students are encouraged to present their findings at a seminar, workshop, or conference. These experiences offer the student the chance to network and broaden their educational experience; stipends and awards may even be available. Opportunities are available in line with your areas of interest and expertise. Available stipends and awards and the application process are also delineated. The Faculty Research and Internship Symposium is an excellent way for students who are thinking of becoming involved in research to meet other students who are involved in research, as well as the faculty who are available for mentorship.

Extracurricular and Leadership Development

The Honors College experience is unique because students experience not only high-powered curricular experiences but also engaging co-curricular experiences. One of the largest and fastest-growing honors colleges in the country, the Honors College boasts over 3,000 members who have access to 11 specialized housing buildings on campus. Honors at Stony Brook is proud to have over 60 clubs and organizations affiliated with the College. From food-related clubs to arts and performance-oriented clubs to academic-oriented opportunities like research, leadership, or our residential quad councils, Honors College students find activities for a wide range of passions. In addition to these clubs, the College’s community service club is one of our largest and most active organizations.

Honors College students have the chance to participate in a civic engagement project each year as well. Under the leadership of professors from a variety of concentrations, students share new skills and experiences with other college students and community members on relevant larger social issues. Recently completed projects include a Kreational Collective Focused on Body Positivity in Communities of Color; Empowerment and Identity; and Gender WORK! Our leadership programming gives Honors students the chance to practice leading their peers both inside and outside of formal club environments. We offer a once-a-year One Day Intensive called the Leadership Institute, as well as a number of sessions held over the course of our Wednesday Night Web Series. In this series, notable student leaders and alumni teach their peers about the expansive definition of leadership.

Impact on Students and Alumni

There is a palpable enthusiasm that exists among current students and alumni of the Honors College. One graduate of the program, who became the U.S. Chess Grand Champion, recently stated, "Respect for evidence and reasoning makes [influence] possible. If the Honors College gave me anything, it was learning that." No strangers to success, Honors College alumni serve in leadership roles in nearly every industry; they include professional and amateur athletes, CEOs, doctors, researchers, and academic PhDs, as well as political and policy advisors. The critical thinking, persuasion and argument, public discourse, seminar-based learning, and public speaking skills gained, as well as the articulation and application of ethical decision-making, unarguably have a lasting impression.

The Honors College is also where students grow in an open and supportive environment, as they complete major-changing research, advocate on behalf of the college, and gain lifelong friends and allies. A former Associate Dean of the Honors College often remarked, "We’re making leaders in a world that needs leaders." University Admissions only offers the Honors College invitation to those who will thrive in the environment of the Honors College. Our students are the critical and scientific thinkers, idea people, entrepreneurs, and empire builders of the future who will work to make the world a better place. After they graduate, Honors College alumni continue to engage in their decades-long connections with their courses, professors, peers, and the Office. Our Honors Institute committee is consistently packed with our graduates. With 2,000 alumni of the program, many of whom are active in the alumni association, they maintain links to the Office. Many even work to improve the program from a board-member-type advisory council.

Conclusion and Future Outlook

In a society facing life-threatening challenges, the need for leadership and social responsibility has never been greater. There is a vital role for Honors Colleges to contribute to this need. We can do so by providing a forum for the development of citizens who can reach across their fields of expertise to understand and address complex issues with innovative solutions. Honors Colleges make explicit and visible their record of commitment to impactful transformation and the necessary qualities and capacities for their execution. Programs such as these provoke us to think about the role of higher education and to establish in our practice what we otherwise merely profess to be the case. In an era of the privatization of higher education, where do truly “public” institutions signal their continued commitment to serving the public good? In an era of educational privatization and pop-up honors programs, what is the quality that students can reliably access if we say “SUNY” or “CSU” or “Pathways”?

The concrete practices of coinquiry and the entrepreneurship and teaching curriculum make the proposed vision of honors education actionable and assessable. The successful completion of such an innovative and transformative program can be assessed over time in terms of individual lives transformed; the establishment of long-term networks among students, faculty, and alumni; and inventories of businesses and services produced. Stony Brook Honors College boasts an innovative and transformative honors education committed to three overlapping areas of value: making opportunities available; emphasizing the critical “making” component of knowledge—the translation from theory to practice; and the meeting in concrete terms of the dynamic present and the changing demands of the future. This essay enumerates and describes the already implemented aspects and accomplishments of the college. It is not merely progressive in action. Our honors college is distinctive in the institutional commitment to ingenuity. Our eagerness for critical inquiry is reflected throughout our practice—from initial initiation to enrollment management to our teaching successes. Our enthusiasm of principles invigorates our programs. Engaging the question of accessibility and opportunity has a concrete effect both within the university and in the honors college. There remain, however, a set of challenges and concerns. Given the dynamic nature of undergraduate education and the changing landscape of the educational marketplace, it is a constant and demanding commitment to be ahead of the curve.

In the future, we hope to build relationships to fulfill the ambitious goals of our students. Community relations and partnerships with working professionals can provide a steady supply of opportunities for exposure and experience in the “real world” facing today’s graduates. The shortage of internships for our students, especially when working in technology transfer, a prime activity of our college, is a cause for great concern. Community partnerships could greatly ameliorate this circumstance. While open enrollment honors could face obstacles in this current era, due to pending budget and policy changes, the need created by the failure of American public schools to provide high quality education is likely to increase, rather than diminish. Additionally, the failure of specialized high schools to keep pace with the accelerating demand for professional education and the needs of this non-traditionally aged student may draw a greater number of students to colleges/programs producing immediately marketable professionals and related expertise. Holistic-ed honors colleges will divert focus and resources to these students. In order to see our goals succeed, we must engender in our future stakeholders a sense of stewardship in us and vision of us as a producer of individual, university, and community excellence. College does “engagement,” but in distinct honorific ways that have the potential to impact the future of this country. Conclusion: Honors Colleges today are like a looking glass. They disturb the status quo. They generate not merely access, but avenues for excellence. They give elite a good name. Students and parents are well-advised to book passage to our new world. And skeptical stakeholders would do well to be wary: honors tells a tale that does not count counter to the claim of “uncustomary success.” We are a college in transition, a college committed to creating pathways to success for all citizens. We merely ask the status quo that pervades American public education to avoid the fallacy of begging the question. If the emperor is naked and the fact creates a revolution, then we must find a hearty tailor to make regal garb for our honors future.

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