With a new director in place, Sacramento State is ready to launch its General Education Honors Program aimed at challenging the minds of freshmen and sophomores.

On Monday, Greg Wheeler, associate director of undergraduate studies at Academic Affairs, made an announcement that Roberto Pomo, chair of the Theatre and Dance Department, will be the new director of the program.

The honors program was developed to “support curiosity and the acquisition of knowledge in highly motivated students,” according to the program’s Web site, and incoming students are eager to join the program, said George Craft, former interim director of the program.

To qualify for the program, students must have either a 3.5 GPA, a 1200 on the SAT or a 27 on the ACT.

The courses cover all of the general education requirements, except for physical sciences, U.S. history, English 1A and foreign languages.

“We currently have 60 students enrolled in the honors program,” Craft said.

The current courses listed for the first semester are education, self-examination, and living; honors world civilization to 1600; and honors mathematical reasoning. Freshmen and sophomores are required to take the three courses plus at least one other course that would fulfill the GE and pre-major requirements.

The courses will have 25-30 students and will use the “Socratic method rather than the lecture method,” Craft said. The Socratic method is based on the ancient Greek philosopher’s teaching style of asking a person many questions to create dialogue.

Participating students must take at least 30 lower division and six upper division units of the honors classes ?” out of a total of 46 lower division units and nine upper division units ?” to graduate with an honors certificate.

The university had an honors general education program during the 1950s and 1960s, but it faded. The university administration began to speak about creating a new system in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1998 the program began to take a concrete form and was finally approved in April 2005.

Craft said there are quite a few teachers who have signed up to advise the honors students.”There are currently eight faculty teaching 12 courses,” he said.

Doraiswamy Ramachandran, a professor with the mathematics/statistics department, said he is very excited about the honors program.

“It’s evolved very well,” Ramachandran said. “I expect it to be successful.”

According to the Web site, any student who joins the honors program would receive a $500 President’s scholarship in his or her first year.

Pomo said the announcement of his new position with the program came as a surprise. “I applied because of the momentum of the program. The college is ready for this program,” Pomo said.

Ramachandran said Pomo is a good choice for the program’s director.

“He is a good person to be involved in this program,” Ramachandran said.

Freshmen and sophomores who are interested in participating in the program can get more information and the application at www.csus.edu/honorsprogram.

Jamie Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected]