Campus News

Withers Selected as New Honors Program Director

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 18, 2012) — Benjamin C. Withers, chair of the University of Kentucky Art Department, was recently selected as the new director of the UK Honors Program.

"It's a great opportunity to add to the long tradition of undergraduate education here at UK," Withers said of the Honors Program. "That's something that's important not only for the students and faculty, but for the people in the Commonwealth. The better we are at educating undergraduates, the better the state will be down the road."

Withers joined the UK Art Department in 2004, after studying medieval art at the University of Chicago. As department chair, he led tremendous growth in the size of the art faculty, improvements to studio facilities, and he administered multiple revisions to the department's programs. Withers said his ability to lead faculty discussions and his experience with multifaceted programming will aid him greatly in overseeing the Honors Program.

"An art department is different from many other departments on campus. While we have undergraduate and graduate degree programs, we also sponsor many different types of co-curricular activities," Withers said. "We organize and present exhibitions, we develop cooperative internships that get our students involved outside of the classroom, and we engage the community through exhibitions and lectures off-campus as well. I think that kind of comprehensive view is something they were looking for in the Honors Program."

The Honors Program will also see significant changes to the curriculum in the fall; the University Senate recently approved a new curriculum, which Withers said will allow students to enroll in interdisciplinary courses specifically in Honors or to choose classes in their majors that count for Honors credit. Travel abroad, service-learning and individually-designed research projects can also count as Honors experiences.

Withers described the new curriculum as a suite of programs, rather than an isolated program.

"We want students to have the choice to take Honors courses within their majors or minors, but when they do select the course, there needs to be some common qualities that distinguishes the courses as Honors," Withers said. "They need to be more challenging in certain ways that are specific to Honors, or they need to cover a greater breadth of material so students can see connections they may not see in a regular course."

Courses labeled strictly as Honors, such as those in the current structure, will still be offered; however, Withers hopes to expand upon the two existing tracks.

"Right now there are two tracks: western civilization and world food issues," Withers said. "I would like to see something like that continue, not in a required track, but through a choice of six to eight courses that relate to a theme. Individual students will be able to link these courses within the curriculum to provide some coherency and consistency."

The new structure will also facilitate more interdepartmental discussion and collaboration. Withers said he hopes that faculty members, after teaching Honors courses, will bring back to their own colleges the discussions and discoveries they make from teaching the best and brightest at UK.

"President Capilouto has expressed a vision of Honors as a magnet, an intellectually attractive program that draws students from Kentucky and other states to Lexington," Withers said. "The ultimate goal is to help create a program that will stand as a symbol for the quality of education that students can get at UK, calling attention to the excellent teachers and students found in every college and department on campus."

Meg Marquis, senior academic coordinator for the Honors Program, said she was very excited to watch the program evolve under Withers' leadership.

"There are a lot of great things on the horizon for the Honors Program, from the curriculum to the new living spaces," Marquis said. "Ben Withers has a real passion for the Honors Program and for seeing it reach its full potential."

As the university just broke ground on a new residence hall that will dedicate up to 600 beds to Honors students, Withers said this is an exciting time to join the program.

"This new residence hall will provide yet another way for students to create friendships and form a lasting community," Withers said. "Having someone from Agriculture talk to someone from Arts and Sciences, or someone from Fine Arts interact with an engineer, is part of what Honors is all about."

Withers will officially take the post of director on July 1.

"This can be a transformative moment for the University of Kentucky, this emphasis on undergraduate education," Withers said. "The Honors Program will bring the talent, the intelligence and the abilities of these students and faculty together, so that through the intellectual and personal connections they make, they can live better lives as citizens and human beings."

MEDIA CONTACT: Sarah Geegan, (859) 257-5365; sarah.geegan@uky.edu