Around Campus
Livingston College’s ‘scholar-in-residence’
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Archived article from Oct 4, 2004
By Pam Orel
While Rutgers has a range of approaches to teaching honors programs, Livingston is the only undergraduate college with a formal agreement that draws faculty from an academic department into the college to work for an extended period. Faculty and administrators feel it’s worth the time and money.
The scholar-in-residence initiative, which began as pilot project to bring together top faculty and undergraduate honors students, has evolved into a structured agreement between the college and the philosophy department. Under the agreement, finalized last spring, a senior faculty member teaches the interdisciplinary honors courses that
Livingston honors students take every year, gives a lecture as part of the public honors colloquium, keeps an office in the dean’s suite and serves as an adviser to the dean on curriculum issues. The college funds the cost of a teaching assistant who provides some instructional assistance to the philosophy department during the time the scholar-in-residence is participating in the college honors program.
“Every one of our residential scholars has enhanced the quality of the academic honors program dramatically and has served as an outstanding role model for students,” said Arnold Hyndman, dean of the college.
“It’s a special opportunity to interact with students in different ways,” added Howard McGary, professor of philosophy and current scholar-in-residence. McGary teaches honors seminars and a workshop for senior Livingston honors students; he also will give a public lecture on Dec. 3, tentatively titled “Frederick Douglass on Racial Assimilation.”
Peter Klein, professor of philosophy and a scholar-in-residence under the pilot initiative that began four years ago, said he keeps in touch with many of the honors students he taught during his two years in the program.
“It’s a real pleasure to work with a very small group of dedicated, very motivated students who have such varied career goals and interests,” he said. Klein is the chair of a newly created committee, under the auspices of Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), looking at the range of general honors and departmental honors programs at Rutgers offered by the New Brunswick-based liberal arts colleges and FAS departments.
Michael Batlogg, a student representative on the committee, said that despite the rigors of the honors program, students enjoy the personal attention and the mix of backgrounds and academic directions in each of the honors classes. “The program is a true gem,” said Batlogg, a senior majoring in economics and information technology and informatics. “Faculty are really enthusiastic about our group, and the students get to know one another very well.”
Anne Ashbaugh, now a professor of philosophy at Colgate University, created the initiative while serving as an associate dean at Livingston in 2000. “It exposes students to the work of top faculty and gives faculty a welcome chance to work with small groups of undergraduate students on a long-term, consistent basis,” said Ashbaugh, who will divide her time between teaching at Colgate and at Rutgers starting next year.
“I feel fortunate to have this in place,” said Hyndman. “Students get an experience that is
on par with that of any Ivy League school in
the country.”
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