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UH wants to widen
honors program
for gifted

The idea, now in the infant
stage, is to retain Hawaii's best
and brightest students

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By Suzanne Tswei
Star-Bulletin

To attract and retain Hawaii's best and brightest students, the University of Hawaii is looking to expand its 40-year-old honors program for gifted students.

"We are in a very infant stage, just brainstorming, about what we want to do with our honors program down the road," said Ronald Cambra, associate dean of of Academic Affairs & Student Academic Services.

A group of community leaders, university faculty, administrators and students met last week to discuss the possibilities, which include giving the program more autonomy by setting it up as a college.

More discussions will be scheduled to solicit additional input from within and outside of the university, Cambra said. A more detailed plan is expected by next summer.

"There will be a whole series of stages we'll have to go through. We are just beginning the talking stage to look at attracting some of our better students," Cambra said.

Although the program admits students with demonstrated abilities through grade-point averages and test scores, the aim is not to be exclusive, Cambra said.

"We are trying to expand it as broadly as possible, to include as many students as possible. We want to give students as a full, and as challenging experience as possible," said Cambra.

The program is designed to provide students the benefits of a liberal arts college, said James Caron, program director. Although the university is a large institution, students are able to enroll in small and specially designed classes.

Students invited into the program must have a B average and their Scholastic Assessment Test scores must be a combined 1,200 with at least 580 in the verbal and math sections, Caron said. But others may be admitted with recommendations.

In the past 10 years, the program has averaged about 400 students, which is about 3 percent of the university undergraduate population, Caron said.

If an honors college is established, an advantage would be permanent or semi-permanent faculty positions and that would result in better curriculum development, Caron said.

Currently the program borrows faculty from other departments.

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Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii