Sally Mc Donnell Barksdale Honors College - History

History

The College of Liberal Arts at the University of Mississippi instituted the first Honors education in 1952. Monies given by the General Education Board under an agreement with the Board of Trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning provided the opportunity to create “a special program to meet the requirements of the best students” and to bring to campus “nationally known and distinguished lecturers and professors” to interact with these and other students. The 1953-1954 Bulletin of the University of Mississippi noted that “The College itself had instituted a Scholars program to provide special instruction to superior students….” The program was first led by Assistant Professor Doris Raymond, Preceptor for the Scholars Program, (A.M., University of Chicago; Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University). During the second decade, Assistant Professor Anita Hutcherson served as the Preceptor of the demanding program. Thus, the Scholars Program became a permanent feature of the College of Liberal Arts, offering a set of core courses and encouraging a special project in the scholar’s major field of study.

In Fall 1974, under the direction of Professor George Everett, the University Scholars Program replaced the Scholars Program and soon these opportunities became available to all of the top performing students including and in addition to those in the College of Liberal Arts. In 1983, the University Honors Program emerged to offer students the ability to take a set of core courses together, and then to contract work on an individual basis with professors to graduate with Honors from Ole Miss. Professor George Everett directed this program through 1995.

In 1996, the Provost created a committee to design an Honors College that would build on these past achievements at Ole Miss and create more opportunities for our high-performing students to study and work together. Students would take courses together, not on a contractual basis, but in a small, seminar format for the majority of their program for the first two years. Students would then explore their world through internships, study abroad, directed readings, and/or research in a laboratory. Honors scholars would cap their senior year with a thesis that emerged from their individual departments and would demonstrate distinction in writing and research. The Committee also asked of each student to give back to the community through voluntary work a certain amount of time each semester to integrate their learning into active commitment to our society. Thus, Honors College scholars would spend an invaluable portion of their undergraduate career with other scholars in active learning both inside and outside the classroom.