OREM — If you're a student in a psychology class at Utah Valley State College, chances are you're going to be asked to write research papers about mental-health treatment.
If you're in the college's Honors Program, however, you'd still have to do that paper — but you'd also be asked to observe or help at a facility that provides mental-health treatment and then dissect your experiences with peers and a professor.
This fall, students in the decade-old Honors Program will be required to enrich the theory learned in classes with hands-on service work, said Joy Ross, who has been charged with expanding the program.
To bolster the Honors Program class offerings, UVSC chiefs are pushing an extra $157,000 into the program's budget. Additional money will provide scholarships for 30 entering freshmen.
UVSC administrators have described the plan to expand the Honors Program as an "investment in academics" on campus.
Brad Cook, UVSC academic vice president, said the program is needed at the public college "so (students) don't have to leave this valley to get the very finest education."
President William Sederburg recently told the college's Board of Trustees he hopes the program will attract top-notch students.
Such initiatives are seen by some in the community as part of the school's not-so-secret campaign to become a university.
"(UVSC) is in the process of going toward university status," said Ross Childs, the head counselor at Pleasant Grove High School. "I think they've got to increase their opportunities for upper levels (advanced academics) and things like that. To me, it makes sense."
But Spanish Fork High School counselor Alan Albright said the program will only "appeal to a select few students.
"If you look at the honors program at our high school, out of 1,800 kids, you're talking 60."
Ross envisions the Honors Program as a "community of learners," as she calls it, made up of students and their professors.
Some say that honors classes are just more difficult, but "an honors education is something that is broader and deeper," Ross said.
A new space is being prepared for the Honors Program in the Losee Learning Center. There will be officers, group-study and research areas and an honors student association.
It's roomier than the program's current space in the Liberal Arts Building.
New Honors Program courses range in topics from Bob Dylan to metaphysics to international human rights. Students in the program must maintain a 3.25 grade-point average and take 25 honors credits to get an honors degree. College administrators say it will not take longer than usual to obtain an honors degree.
The current program has honors-recommended courses in several academic disciplines, but no "foundation classes" through the Honors Program.
Trevor Morris, a student graduating this spring in behavioral science with honors, said he enrolled in honors-recommended courses but "honestly, I couldn't name one other person in the honors program beside myself." Morris works for Ross and believes the strength of the expanded program will be the feeling of community. Through the student association, students can learn about each other's research projects and collaborate, he said.
Applications for the scholarships should be submitted by April 15 to receive priority consideration, though some may be awarded after that if funds remain. Applications are available at www.uvsc.edu/honors.
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com