Greetings from the University Honors Program!  I trust you have had a refreshing summer break – whether working, traveling, interning, or simply relaxing – and are getting ready to return to LCU for another year, or begin your first year here.  We have been working extensively to prepare for the coming year, and I wanted to update you regarding several important changes and other matters.

• The most obvious change is the addition of a full time, twelve-month staff member.  In July Lauren Sportsman joined us as Honors Recruiter and Academic Coordinator.  Lauren is energetic, creative, and quite skilled in all areas of her work, and she is already making a major difference in our planning and production.  New marketing brochures, Washington handbooks, communication media, updated academic files, and a more attractive office entry are all evidences of Lauren’s outstanding work.  I hope you will take the time to meet her.

• We also welcomed a new LCU president on July 1, Tim Perrin.  President Perrin and I have met frequently, and Honors is a priority for him.  Among our new goals, we intend to increase recruiting efforts and greatly expand our overall Honors student population, to add a Great Books initiative, and to solidify our Washington internship and Study Abroad opportunities.

• As a central part of the new president’s LCU Inauguration, Honors will host an Honors Convocation, with a major speaker, on Wednesday September 26 at 2:30 p.m.  All Honors students will be required to attend, so plan your schedules now.  This event is a high profile, historic event in our history, and you will want to be there.

• We are continuing our move toward emphasizing academic quality in all of our programming, which means adding more dedicated Honors classes and using our resources more carefully.  One immediate consequence you will notice is that we did not renew our Broadway tickets tradition.  We will, however, purchase selected tickets for at least one show, and we will work to provide more venues for interdisciplinary learning in and out of the classroom.

• We already have planned a first Honors Chapel (Tuesday September 11 ) and Pizza in the Parlor (Thursday September 13) during the third week of school.  Unless your schedule prohibits attendance, we will expect to see you there, when we will review more of the year’s activities.

There has never been a better time to be at LCU and in the prestigious University Honors Program.  The university support for Honors is at an all-time high, and the future looks very bright.  Several new and dynamic young faculty are joining the school this fall, and opportunities for an exceptional education abound.
Blessings,

Dr. Stacy Patty