Sacramento State has built its General Education Honors Program in hopes that it will attract high-achieving students, and provide a small class atmosphere, enabling students to engage better with each other and their professor.

“We built the field, I hope they will come,” said George Craft, interim director of the GE Honors Program.

The process of building the program took some time. The university, Craft said, had a rigorous general education program during the ’50s and ’60s. That program, he said, faded in the ’70s for unclear reasons. “At the time, there was great upheaval with political conflicts on campus,” Craft said. “It made a huge impact on college life.”

Discussions for a new honors program came up in the late ’80s and early ’90s, Craft said. But clear plans for a program didn’t begin until 1998. The plans laid out in ’98 and ’99 was revived in Fall 2004 and approved in April 2005.

Craft said that although there are many programs for athletic students and students with disabilities there is a lack of programs focused on academic excellence. This program would provide that, he said. “This is a way to fill up the gap,” Craft said.

The program, effective Fall 2006, will primarily consist of lower division honors classes, Craft said in an article published in the GE Newsletter in November. The program plans for each student to have three sections of honors courses for the first four semesters at Sac State. There will be another set of honors courses – that will consist of nine to 12 units – for upper division general education requirements to be fulfilled during junior and senior years.

The program includes courses on great books of world civilizations, humanities and social sciences on an international level, government, social studies, and biology. Each course will have a fewer number of students with only 25-30 students per class.

Craft explained that the smaller classes would enable students to talk, debate, and challenge each other, the material, and their professor. It’s the “Socratic method rather than the lecture method,” Craft said.

The Socratic method was employed by Socrates a famous ancient Greek philosopher and is thought by many to still be the best ways to teach, Dr. Matt McCormick, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, said in an e-mail.

“Socrates would simply ask carefully thought out questions that would draw out answers, clarifications, theories, and objections from whoever he was talking to,” McCormick explained. It is easier to practice this method of teaching with a class with fewer students, he said.

“With a small class it becomes possible to run it more like a seminar where all the students get to talk more, ask questions, raise issues, and discuss the material with the instructor and with the other students. This is thought to be more engaging and to provide more intellectual growth than a big class where straight lectures are the norm,” McCormick said.

Dr. Candace Gregory, assistant professor of history, added that a class with less students will not only give those students a chance to learn more from their instructor, but also to gain knowledge from their classmates. “Smaller classroom size allows for more one-on-one teaching, both between the professor and individual student, but also between individual students,” Gregory said in an e-mail.

Another benefit is that the instructor will have more time to attend to and focus on each student as well as their works, comments and participation, McCormick said. “If there are only 20 students, say instead of 200, the professor can spend 10 times as much time involved in the students’ education,” McCormick said.

Gregory agreed, explaining that by having a smaller class she can have the knowledge of how quick her students learn. “Smaller class size (not smaller classroom, but smaller enrollment) allows me, as the professor, to deal with specific learning needs as they occur. Not all students learn at the same speed or level, but in large classes there is no way for me to compensate for that,” she said.

The university hopes to recruit 60 students to start off the program, who will stay together until they graduate. Each student of the first class to be accepted into the program will receive a $500 scholarship funded by the President Scholars account. Eventually, the program hopes to enroll about 240 students.

To be qualified for the program, students must have a 3.5 GPA or 1,200 on the SAT. Exceptions can be made for students who do meet these qualifications. Applications must be sent in with a personal statement to be reviewed for acceptance into the program. For more information visit www.csus.edu/honorsprogram.

Nika Megino can be reached at [email protected]