The Faculty Senate overwhelmingly approved a General Education honors program on Thursday, which will be available to Sacramento State students for the first time since the 1970s.

“The honors program is an opportunity to be challenged, work hard and do something unique,” said George Craft, a history professor.

There will be a distinction on the diplomas of students who take part in this honors program, Craft said.

He was not sure exactly what the distinction would say, but it would indicate that the student graduated from the honors program.

“It would raise the caliber of our school and stimulate students to achieve higher success,” said Kelly Donahue, a sophomore majoring in family and consumer sciences.

Hal Dang, a senior majoring in business finance, is opposed to the new program and said it is not a good idea to have a general education honors program because it is more relevant for majors.

One of the goals of the program is to make general education a challenge and not a chore, said Lee Simpson, assistant professor in the history department.

Tony Sheppard, chairman of the recreation and leisure studies department, was not against an honors program, but was not sure that this was the best way to do it.

Sheppard said it would be more prudent to delay the proposal in order to establish ground rules first.

There will be one year of preparation time for the program, which will be enough time to correct any issues that come up, Craft said.

Bob Buckley, a lecturer in the computer science department, suggested a “friendly amendment” to the proposal just before the vote.

It was agreed that reports on the progress of the program would be submitted on Oct. 15 and March 15.

Buckley said he was not against the honors program, but would like to see better criteria for it.

As the proposal currently stands, a program subcommittee would admit students.Freshman applicants who scored at least 1200 on the SAT or had a high school GPA of at least 3.5 would be eligible to apply.

With these criteria, there would be a pool of about 700 students who would be qualified, 50 or 60 of which would have to apply to the honors program for it to happen.

A copy of the proposal said, “Other students of exceptional ability, enthusiasm and commitment may apply.”

One concern voiced by several senate members was that the program would be elitist.Bill Dorman, a government professor, said he was a professor when Sac State had the old honors program, and it was not elitist.

Craft surveyed about 12 schools with honors programs to see if they had problems with elitism. He said that only one answered that it had a problem.

“We have to do something for our better students” is the overall sentiment of the government department, said Bill Dillon, a government professor.

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Brandon Darnell can be reached at [email protected]