Editorial: Honors College should re-emphasize the values of curiosity and democracy of academic study

Under new leadership, it feels like Pitt’s Honors College, currently located on the top two floors of the Cathedral of Learning, might be making a gradual move toward science building Langley Hall.

As reported by The Pitt News in today’s news section, leadership of Pitt’s University Honors College has recently met with student criticism for what seem to be its shifting ideals. A number of frustrated Honors College participants have accused UHC Dean Edward Stricker, a professor in Pitt’s neuroscience department, of minimizing the college’s lofty founding principles in favor of more pragmatic and common academic values.

Established in 1987 by Dean G. Alec Stewart, the current form of the Honors College was founded based on the pillars of intellectual curiosity and providing advising and guidance for students who choose to take on more rigorous studies than required simply for attaining their degrees. Meant as a place where interdisciplinary dialogue and student discussion could flourish independently of course curricula, grades or any occupational pursuit, the college represented for many a commitment to personal intellectual betterment and collaborative conversation for its own sake.

Pitt’s Honors College differs from similar institutions at other universities in that there is no such thing as formal membership in the organization. Participation in Honors College activities and events is voluntary and open to everyone, and enrollment in Honors College classes is open to all who have at least a 3.25 GPA. But although the Honors College under the late Dean Stewart’s leadership exemplified the value of intellectualism and research, many students criticized it for being elitist or exclusionary despite its policies for open involvment.

After Stewart passed away in 2010, newly named Dean Stricker worked to make the resources of the Honors College more available to a larger group of students at Pitt. Although his intentions are admirable, some of the resulting policies have caused some students involved in the Honors College to worry.

Among the changes made under Dean Stricker’s leadership is the moving of Pitt’s undergraduate health professions and premedical advising under the umbrella of the Honors College. The Honors College has also reduced funding to reading groups such as Pizza and Plays and Pizza and Prose, which many students view as rare places available for the informal sharing of knowledge.

While discontented students contend that such actions on the part of Stricker and other UHC organizers represent a departure from the college’s old core value of intellectual curiosity in favor of more measurable academic success that values the sciences over humanities, Stricker contends that the new emphasis on advising and encouragement for academic achievement for a wider portion of the undergraduate population is in the best interest of both the University and its students.

Attainment of intellectual goals — such as good grades, participation in research, etc. — is undoubtedly highly worthwhile for students to pursue, and guidance in these areas is inarguably important. However, there are other offices at Pitt dedicated to providing such assistance — individual department advisers and the Office of Undergraduate Research to name a few.

What sets Pitt’s Honors College apart is its established focus on curiosity and creativity. In a society where the primary focus of educational institutions has almost unquestionably become transcript perfecting and resumé building, such an opportunity to pursue learning for learning’s sake should be cherished — and certainly not de-emphasized in favor of more measurable forms of attainment.

What Pitt’s University Honors College has is the ability to provide students funding and support for intellectual goals that won’t necessarily translate to measurable professional or financial success. With such a resource virtually nonexistent elsewhere, it would be regrettable to say the least for the UHC to lessen its focus on this purpose.

Students’ concerns and impressions that the Honors College is intimidating or elitist are understandable. However, this problem can only be solved internally in the UHC, and including pre-health sciences advising or increasing focus on concrete academic goals is not the best way to remove the stigma of elitism from the College. A better strategy would be to make Honors College activities more accessible and apparent to Pitt students across a wide variety of academic disciplines.

For example, right now, the burden of responsibility is on students to sign up for the Student Honors Activities Council email list — how many honors-eligible Pitt students know what SHAC is, let alone know that there is an email list to sign up for event notifications? We think that the Honors College would be well-served to dramatically increase their digital media presence and other outreach attempts so that more students can be informed about reading groups, lectures and honors classes.

Pitt’s Honors College seems to be in the midst of an identity crisis, and its results have the potential to affect the educations of countless students studying — or planning on studying — at Pitt. But no matter what steps current or future UHC organizers and participants take toward advancing the college’s usefulness, intellectual curiosity should be the driving goal of the College. This high-minded ideal should not be democratized by a focus on awards and results, but by attempting to engage more students in rigorous thought for its own — and their own — sake.