Letter to the editor: Priority registration a necessity for honors students
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Perspective
I read your Oct. 29 lead article and editorial about the new priority registration policy with great interest and greater dismay.
Regrettably, the reason the Progress gave for why honors students are registering early is entirely wrong. Honors students did not somehow "win" this registration because their GPAs are higher.
In a response I sent to editor Kaylia Cornett on Wednesday, I explained that priority registration is a common feature of honors programs nationally because of the unique scheduling needs of honors students.
At Eastern, honors students must complete 28 hours of honors coursework, seven of which do not count toward any general education, major or minor requirements.
Sparse sections of honors courses are offered at limited times (our required honors composition course, for instance, meets five times a week and only four sections are offered each year). The honors students who are required to take these courses often have not just one or two, but sometimes three and in the case of at least one student I know, four majors.
As was pointed out, honors students also are involved to an unusual degree in the overall life of the university (three of the last five SGA presidents were honors students, for instance, as was the last editor-in-chief of the Progress).
Priority registration is seen as so critical to the timely degree completion of honors students that it is now a benchmark of the National Collegiate Honors Council, one of NCHC's "Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program." Without it, Eastern's nationally distinguished honors program falls behind.
Last year, athletics and the Office of Services for Individuals with Disabilities brought forward a proposal for priority registration. I was asked to be part of a larger Faculty Senate task force charged with its consideration.
I showed that of the seven Kentucky state institutions we considered, five had priority registration for its honors students while 13 of our 19 benchmark institutions included honors students in similar policies.
After much discussion and research, our collaborative and cross-campus task force revised the proposal and brought it before all of the major university governing bodies, including SGA. Our task force noted that while priority registration did not seem like the best way to do it, our working students with and without families do need additional help to finish their degrees on time.
We recommended that the provost's office investigate how best to do that.
The Progress was right when it noted that priority registration does not benefit everyone. But Eastern's administration was most concerned that this policy would support its larger endeavor to increase the likelihood that students from Eastern graduate on time.
We hope that priority registration will achieve this. If it doesn't, we'll find that out when we review the policy in the following two semesters and move to correct whatever mistakes were made in its implementation.
I hope the Progress has a similar system for correcting the mistakes its writers make.
Thank you,
Linda Frost, Director
EKU Honors Program
Regrettably, the reason the Progress gave for why honors students are registering early is entirely wrong. Honors students did not somehow "win" this registration because their GPAs are higher.
In a response I sent to editor Kaylia Cornett on Wednesday, I explained that priority registration is a common feature of honors programs nationally because of the unique scheduling needs of honors students.
At Eastern, honors students must complete 28 hours of honors coursework, seven of which do not count toward any general education, major or minor requirements.
Sparse sections of honors courses are offered at limited times (our required honors composition course, for instance, meets five times a week and only four sections are offered each year). The honors students who are required to take these courses often have not just one or two, but sometimes three and in the case of at least one student I know, four majors.
As was pointed out, honors students also are involved to an unusual degree in the overall life of the university (three of the last five SGA presidents were honors students, for instance, as was the last editor-in-chief of the Progress).
Priority registration is seen as so critical to the timely degree completion of honors students that it is now a benchmark of the National Collegiate Honors Council, one of NCHC's "Basic Characteristics of a Fully Developed Honors Program." Without it, Eastern's nationally distinguished honors program falls behind.
Last year, athletics and the Office of Services for Individuals with Disabilities brought forward a proposal for priority registration. I was asked to be part of a larger Faculty Senate task force charged with its consideration.
I showed that of the seven Kentucky state institutions we considered, five had priority registration for its honors students while 13 of our 19 benchmark institutions included honors students in similar policies.
After much discussion and research, our collaborative and cross-campus task force revised the proposal and brought it before all of the major university governing bodies, including SGA. Our task force noted that while priority registration did not seem like the best way to do it, our working students with and without families do need additional help to finish their degrees on time.
We recommended that the provost's office investigate how best to do that.
The Progress was right when it noted that priority registration does not benefit everyone. But Eastern's administration was most concerned that this policy would support its larger endeavor to increase the likelihood that students from Eastern graduate on time.
We hope that priority registration will achieve this. If it doesn't, we'll find that out when we review the policy in the following two semesters and move to correct whatever mistakes were made in its implementation.
I hope the Progress has a similar system for correcting the mistakes its writers make.
Thank you,
Linda Frost, Director
EKU Honors Program
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Ben Kleppinger
posted 11/05/09 @ 2:33 PM EST
As a graduate of Eastern and the Honors program, I know what an exercise in futility it can be to try and register for classes right when registration begins. (Continued…)
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