The Honors College is interested in what its students have to say about their experiences in the program.
Granger Babcock, associate dean of the Honors College, has organized a series of focus groups that will be held in the coming days to get a feel for what students think about their experiences in the residential college.
“These aren’t true focus groups,” Babcock said. “These are quick and dirty focus groups. For me, it’s just an opportunity to meet students, get to know them a little better and hear what they have to say about the Honors College. You never improve anything unless you get feedback.”
Mark Dochterman, Honors College student activities coordinator, said he had to send out invitations to the focus group quickly because the end of the semester is approaching.
“Trying to get these focus groups together has been a matter of time more so than us sitting down and picking the students we want in the groups,” Dochterman said. “I’m still working on it.”
The first focus group, which the college set aside for seniors, is for today in East Laville Hall. The focus group for juniors is on Thursday and the sophomores’ group is on Friday. All the groups are meeting at 6 p.m.
The freshmen focus group is scheduled for Monday at 12:30 p.m. in East Laville Hall.
Dochterman said the college complied random lists of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors were compiled, and invitations were sent out. Some emphasis was placed on selecting students who live in East or West Laville Hall, and seniors writing an honors thesis were preferred.
“These were put together rather hastily because we’re getting close to the end of the semester, and I really wanted to do this,” Babcock said.
“Hopefully they’ll yield some good information. For seniors I’m really interested in how the thesis works as a capstone for their experience. For first-year students, I’m real interested in knowing what it was they needed from the Honors College or Residential Life that they weren’t getting and needed when they came in. What are we missing? What can we do to better help students be successful?” he said.
 
Contact Parker Wishik at [email protected]