Watson has new goals for the honors program
By Meghan Youker
Staff Reporter

Since her appointment in April to the Honors Program, director Peggy Watson has been looking for ways to expand its involvement.

Watson said her goals for the program are to increase honors student housing, develop honors study abroad opportunities, provide additional flexibility for certain majors and establish more methods for students to enter the Honors Program at various levels of study.

“We need to increase the number of dormitories available solely to honors students,” Watson said. “This year we had 100 requests for only 26 places.”

Watson also said by summer, programs will be available for students to receive three hours of honors credit in Seville, Spain or Edinburgh, Scotland. Subject areas of study for these programs have not been determined yet.

Watson said she is considering new ways to better accommodate honors students whose majors have specific requirements like business, nursing and engineering.

“The program (right now) works better for some majors more than others,” Watson said. “That is definitely something that needs to be more fully addressed.”

Alison Trinkle, assistant to the director, said now is a time of growth and change for the program. This may include a proposal to provide transfer students and upperclassmen the opportunity to enter the program and complete only the upper-level honors requirements with greater flexibility.

“We want to become more inclusive by adding other points of entry into the program,” Trinkle said, “At the same time, we do not want to dilute what other honors students have committed to do.”

Senior psychology major Amber Clark said the honors council completed a proposal for a new university distinction program to accommodate students who want to complete only the upper-level requirements.

“The greatest thing is that the proposal is really flexible, allowing each department to decide what is appropriate,” Clark said.

Approximately 450 students are currently involved in the honors program, and 241 are freshmen, Trinkle said.

Watson was selected as the Honors Program director after interviewing with a small selection committee, including Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs William Koehler, Dean of the Add Ran College of Humanities and Social Sciences Mary Volcansek, former Chair of the Honors Council Sally Fortenberry, associate professor of art history Anne Helmreich, associate professor of radio-TV-film Richard Allen and Clark.

Clark said Watson was chosen because she received the best recommendations from students and placed an emphasis on international education.

“Not only did Dr. Watson have the qualifications and experience we were looking for, but she had wonderful ideas on how to improve the program,” Koehler said.

Watson, who served as the 2002-03 chair of Faculty Senate, said she brings a comfort level to the Honors Program because of her knowledge of TCU and a number of constituencies within the university.

Clark said Watson’s contacts within the university should help students coordinate upper-level honors projects and recruit professors to teach honors classes.

Watson said she decided to apply for the position because she has always been interested in the program and had enjoyed assisting student research and participating in the Honors Fall Retreat.

“I had always had in the back of my mind what a pleasure it would be for me to be more directly involved,” Watson said.