THE COLLEGIUM

A Three Year Honors Program

Description: The collegium will be a general honors program for highly qualified undergraduate students. These undergraduate students will be taught, counseled, advised, mentored by a cadre of Seaver College professors to develop serious scholarly intent. The course will be structured around regular Monday evening meetings that will include time for class, seminars, tutorials, and individual meetings. The first year will emphasize the program’s academic foundation. The second year will emphasize student participation in the teaching of particular aspects of the program’s curriculum. The third year will emphasize individual Honor’s Projects.

Major Goals of the Collegium:
1. The Collegium will successfully recruit a cadre of outstanding students for the Collegium and for Seaver College.
2. The Collegium will encourage these students to help in the setting of high standards across academic and co-curricular programs.
3. The Collegium will well prepare these students for future success in graduate school, the professions, and potentially school or college teaching.

Academic Objectives of the Collegium:
--The students will enhance their tolerance of ambiguity.
--The students will improve the sophistication of their communication skills.
--The students will participate widely in the college community while developing analytic tools for understanding that experience.
--The students will explore the academic concept of “Culture.”
--The students will develop their intellectual curiosity; explore areas of scholarly interest; with faculty members develop and teach lessons on areas that reflect both personal interests and course topics; complete a final Honors Project (while the interest area will have been developed over the three years of the program, and the criteria for success will be that of special honors, the project will be equivalent in time spent to a four unit senior project).
--The students will benefit and contribute to the spirit of the collegium, a spirit of confederacy in which, in Aristotle’s terms, all relationships are utile, most enjoyable, and some that lead to friendship.

The Collegium Format:
First Year	First Semester	Second Semester
	Great Books I	Great Books II
	Honors Seminar (2)	Honors Seminar (2)

Second Year	First Semester	Second Semester
	Great Books III	Great Books IV
	Honors Seminar (1)	Honors Seminar (1)

Third Year	First Semester	Second Semester
	Honors Project (2)	Honors Project (2)
	(beginning)	(conclusion)

Students in International Programs will have the option of staying connected to the program through e-mail or by re-enrolling in the Collegium upon return (with a minimal participation of six semesters). Students who expect to graduate in three years may need to attend some summer sessions. Fourth Year

Option One--student will have graduated in three years.
Option Two--student completes graduation requirements in four years instead of three. Completion of Honors Project may be at end of third or fourth year.
Option Three--student simultaneously completes B.A. as well as an M.A. in Education.*
Option Four--student simultaneously completes B.A as well as an M.A. in Religion.
Option Five--student simultaneously completes B.A. as well as a Teaching Credential and/or an M.A. in Education.*

* Students will be expected to undertake student teaching or a teaching internship or a role as a Heritage discussant.

The Collegium Curriculum: “Culture and Education”

Outline:

I. The Role of the University

A. The Liberal Arts
B. Expectations about Writing
C. The Hidden Curriculum
D. Two Cultures: Art and Science
E. “The Enlightened Eye” and “The Educational Imagination”
F. Experience and Education
II. The Study of Culture
A. Impressionism as a Way of Knowing
B. Paideia
C. Cultural Literacy
D. Multi-Cultural Literacy
E. Popular and High Culture
F. Western Heritage
III. The Teaching of Culture
A. The Socratic Method
B. Dialogics
C. Models of Teaching
IV. The Creation of Culture
A. The Prospectus
B. The Honors Project

Required Reading:
Christensen, “The Generative Rhetoric of the Sentence.”
Strunk and White, The Elements of Style
Anyon, “Social Class and the Curriculum.”
Jackson, Life in Schools (selections)
Harvard Educational Review, Socialization and Schools
Power, Main Current in the History of Education (selections)
Eliot, T.S., Christianity and Culture
Chambers, “Popular Culture.”
Gans, “Popular Culture’s Defects.”
Hirsch, Cultural Literacy
Eisner, The Enlightened Eye; The Educational Imagination (selections)
Banks, Multicultural Education
Dewey, Experience and Education
Monet, Impressionism
Adler, Six Great Ideas
Snow, Two Cultures
Joyce, Models of Teaching
other t.b.a.

Faculty Cadre to include:
Michael Gose, Chair
Royce Clark
Gary Hart
Claudette Wilson
Blaine McCormick
and all Great Books faculty