The Eastern Michigan University Honors College registration drive ended Wednesday. The drive was intended to raise awareness of the program and raise the number of Honors students to over 1,000 for the first time in a decade.
John Feldkamp, assistant director of the HC, said the drive was “meant to really encourage Honors-eligible students to apply for the program.”
According to Feldkamp, the HC’s current population is 950, “about 100 students higher than we have been in the last four years.”
The goal was to receive 100 applications through the drive.
Rebecca Sipe, director of the Honors College, said the drop in HC students over the last decade corresponded to a drop in the total EMU population.
“The Honors student population has been representative of the overall student numbers for the past decade or so,” Sipe said. “When the EMU population dropped, Honors numbers appear to have dropped as well.”
Sipe said there were approximately 800 students in the HC when she became
the director in 2010.
According to EMU Chief Financial Officer, John Lumm, the HC budget comes from the university’s general fund. This means all students help pay for it through tuition. For the 2012 fiscal year, its budget was $738,000.
Students receive benefits for being enrolled in the HC, including
personal academic advising, early registration, special financial aid opportunities, access to HC programs and trips, and smaller class sizes.
The HC has a maximum of 20 students per class. Michelle Byrd, an Honors Psychology Instructor, said students benefit from the small class size.
“Students thrive and grow in the small classes,” she said. “It is my expectation that students graduating from the program will be well-prepared either to enter the workforce or for graduate studies.”
