Honors College students gather for "Conversations with the Dean," which is an event where Dean Ray, of the honors college, brings in a guest speaker to address students. This event was know as "Dinner with the Dean" last year but this year's large honors freshmen class created need for more classes so there isn't enough money to provide a meal for attending students.

Bright Freshmen Class Creates Big Problems

The 2009 freshmen class is the highest ranked class at a public university in state history, because of this the honors classes are filling up faster and are exceeding the 19 person limit.
This year's freshmen class includes 196 National merit Scholars and 70 regents scholars. Over 90 percent of National Merit Scholars are admitted into the honors program.
"This creates a need for more classes. The honors organic chemistry class that is offered through the chemistry department has close to 40 students enrolled in it. Students have made it clear that they are unhappy stating that they were promised no more than 19 students per class," said Dean Ray of the Honors College.
For the spring semester, the honors college plans to add eight to ten additional classes to try to accommodate the larger number of students. They will also be looking to add more honors courses offered outside of the college for the 2010-2011 school year.

Click Here to listen to Dean Ray give more detail about the Honors College's future plans.