Provost's Column

IU Bloomington is moving quickly toward our shared goals of ensuring broad access to education for talented students, advancing world-class scholarship, and increasing meaningful service in our communities — local and global. Critical to this effort is attracting and challenging the most academically motivated students from across Indiana and around the world. 

Our campus’s 2023 incoming class earned a record median high school GPA of 3.90 and brought with them an average of 14 credit hours of college-level work — another record. Students in this high-achieving class have vastly varied backgrounds and a diversity of strengths to match. A few of the most ambitious have earned spots in top scholars programs like Wells and Cox Research, with more finding their place in the Hutton Honors College, as well as departmental and school honors programs. 

One of the key opportunities we have ahead is to enhance and better coordinate our offerings and support for honors programs across IUB, with the goal of delivering the highest quality experiences for our most academically driven students. We also need to ensure consistency across honors programs, increasing demand for some and completion rate for others. We want these students to be challenged, while providing them the support to meet these challenges.  

Since last spring, Hutton Interim Dean Rebecca Spang has worked with colleagues leading school and departmental honors programs, fellow faculty members, and current honors students to understand how IU Bloomington can elevate our honors education to the greatest effect. 

I am grateful for the contributions of everyone who has worked on this initiative so far, including Interim Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Vasti Torres, Senior Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Michael Lundell, the campus Undergraduate Academic Council, the BFC Executive Committee, all of the deans, and the faculty members of the Hutton curriculum committee. Their dialogues are beginning to lead to action. 

Starting in the fall 2024 semester, the Hutton Honors College will focus on providing students strong foundational skills through interdisciplinary coursework and an external minor. Two new gateway courses have been proposed, focusing on the nature of knowledge at IU and beyond; they will be run as a pilot project in 2024-2025 and further changes incorporated into the Notation requirements for 2025-2026.

Meanwhile, school and departmental programs will continue to focus on advanced courses and research, as well as other experiential learning activities within the student’s field of study. The requirements for schools and departments will continue to evolve within their home units as faculty deem appropriate. 

Together, we hope to provide greater consistency for all students who pursue honors programs. These conversations have also provided a general framework for schools and departments that wish to create or further enhance their own honors programs.   

Students who apply and are admitted into honors will be able to choose the path(s) best aligned with their ambitions — whether they choose the Hutton Honors program, the school/departmental honors program, or both. As a result of these updates, the whole of our campus community will notice a higher degree of interconnection and undergraduate academic motivation. These distinct but interrelated programs will be highlighted on a new, centralized webpage that will be launched in coordination with the Office of Enrollment Management later this spring. 

As we elevate honors education at IUB, every member of our community stands to contribute. And as undergraduate student success translates to exciting careers and fulfilling lives for honors alumni, communities near and far will enjoy the benefit of their impact.