News from NCHC | May 2023

In This Issue...

From the President

Meet the National Office Staff

Board of Directors Nominations

NCHC23 Featured Speakers

NCHC23: Meetings

NCHC23: Call for Consultants

NCHC23: Call for NCHC:Engage

NCHC23: Call for SIH

NCHC23: Call for Arts Master Classes

Call for Monograph Submissions

 

 

JNCHC Call for Submissions

2023 Virtual Roundtables

NCHC Summer Institutes

NCHC Awards

NCHC Career Center

From the President

 

Dear Colleagues,

I am delighted at the changes this spring has brought to NCHC!  At the February Board meeting we committed ourselves to improving the situation at the national office.  After Mary Beth Rathe’s departure in October, Amber and Tyrra managed to run a very successful conference in Dallas, but it was clear that they were working too hard and overwhelmed by their myriad responsibilities.  On December 1 Laura Damuth joined the office as our Interim Executive Director and her six-month contract will end at the end of May.  Laura has served NCHC very well.  She has offered Amber and Tyrra considerable support, she had led the process of assembling much needed process and procedure documents, and has made sense of financial details and programs.  Most importantly, Laura has overseen the hiring of two new staff people for the office!

Danielle joined the staff in March and Angie did so in April.  They are taking on the important work of contacting institutions with lapsed memberships and helping them return to NCHC.  They are helping to craft a process for program reviews in collaboration with the Assessment and Evaluation Committee.  They are learning financial operations and processes.  The office now has four great staff members who can focus on the work they were hired to do.  Amber can manage communications and marketing, and Tyrra can bring together proposals and logistics to create the 2023 NCHC conference and plan additional professional development events.  Laura has helped galvanize the staff and we now have an office of four fabulous and devoted people who are ready to welcome a new Executive Director.

The search for the new Executive Director is proceeding well and the first round of interviews will begin at the end of this month.  The final round will take place in the days before the summer Board of Directors meeting 15-16 June.  We hope to have new leader in place in July.

The Board continues to be focused on improving organizational excellence within NCHC.  We have a committee handbook that lays out the charges and expectations for NCHC’s many committees.  We have a Programming Committee and a process for soliciting, reviewing, and supporting professional development and student-centric programming.  These are large projections that require the work of the national office, the committees, and the Board of Directors and I greatly appreciate the commitment our volunteers show to NCHC and the time they dedicate to making the organization stronger.  At NCHC we all learn from one another, and we are fortunate to have so many generous teachers in our ranks. 

On a final note, I want to congratulate Rosalie Otero on being named the 2023 recipient of the NCHC Founder’s Award.  Rosalie’s leadership was essential for the success and development of NCHC.  We are delighted that she will join us in Chicago to receive her award at our national conference!


Susan 

 

 

Meet your National Office Team

Click Here for more!

 

 

Board of Directors Nominations

"The times they are a-changin'..." and higher education is no different. NCHC seeks leaders with vision and a strong work ethic to join the NCHC Board of Directors to meet the challenges of moving the organization to the forefront of national and international discussions.

Nominations are now open for several board positions to serve in 2024, including vice-president, professional at-large members (3 in total), and student at-large members (two 2-year terms and one 1-year term).

Below is the link to information about the qualifications needed to run as well as the board member expectations and nomination requirements.

Board Nominations Packet

How does this work? If you meet the qualifications and expectations, submit a nomination packet by June 1, 2023. The Nominating Committee examines the completed packets and shapes a slate that fills the organization's myriad needs in terms of diversity in expertise, skills and experiences, personal identities, institutional characteristics, and geographic distribution. We want as representative a group as possible to build a strong board capable of leading the wonderfully diverse organization that is NCHC.

Still have questions? Please contact the Nominating Committee Chair, Christina McIntyre, for more information.

We look forward to seeing YOUR nomination packet in June!

 

NCHC23

Register for NCHC23 today!

 

 

NCHC23: Meetings Submissions

Have you made your meeting request for NCHC23?

Meeting proposals are open to all NCHC Committees, regional organizations, and/or special interest groups. If you are interested in reserving meeting space during the conference week, please submit meeting requests through the Ex Ordo proposal system. Select Meeting in the track, all formats. The title of the meeting should indicate the committee and/or special interest group requesting the meeting. The 200–300-word abstract should indicate the purpose/charge of the meeting. The authors should be the committee co-chairs and/or contact people for this meeting.

Request your Meeting for NCHC23

Deadline: May 31
AND.... read on to also get involved at NCHC: Engage!

 

NCHC23: Calls for Volunteers

Call for Consultant Connect
A Consultant Center 2.0 Experience!

Always a conference favorite, arranging meetings with consultants gives attendees the opportunity to speak with experienced honors deans, directors, and advisors in an informal setting.

We are looking for volunteers to lend their expertise to the new NCHC23 Consultant Connect experience. Upgraded from previous versions of the Consultant Center, Consultant Connect will allow you to list your name in the conference mobile app and your Calendly link of available times to meet. Conference attendees will be able to book a time on your calendar, or you can make arrangements to meet at a time that’s convenient for you both, rather than a specific window in the conference schedule. Space will be set aside for as a designated meet-up spot for consulting appointments to take place.

If you are planning to attend the annual conference in Chicago and you enjoy meeting people on a one-on-one basis from a variety of institutions to sharing what you know about a particular topic, then this opportunity is for you!

Volunteer for NCHC23 Consultant Connect!

The deadline to submit the form is June 30, 2023. Acceptances will be notified by July so that you may build your conference schedule and share your availability ASAP.

If you have any questions about serving in the Consultant Connect experience, please contact Tyrra Edwards, Director of Conference & Events at tedwards8@unl.edu. 

Thank you for your service to NCHC and your fellow conference attendees. 

__________________________________

Call for NCHC: Engage Breakfast

The NCHC: Engage Breakfast is a dynamic opportunity for NCHC members to get engaged in NCHC activities and communities, taking full advantage of all their membership offers.

Presenters will highlight their unique engagement opportunities at idea stations positioned throughout a large ballroom space, coinciding with an all-attendee breakfast. NCHC will provide one 6-ft. table and two chairs per idea station. Easels may be available upon request. Presenters may bring laptops or iPads to demonstrate information, but power connection will not be available. Other technology (LCD projectors, power strips) will not be allowed.

The goal of NCHC: Engage is to inform attendees about new and emerging options to take action and get involved in NCHC activities and groups. Creative displays and handouts are highly encouraged to draw attendees to your station. Materials can also be uploaded to the NCHC23 Mobile App.

All presenters must be representing an NCHC committee, subgroup, initiative, activity, or event.

Host a table for NCHC: Engage!

Deadline: June 30

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Call for Students in Honors Facilitators

NCHC is once again offering a Students in Honors (SIH) track as a part of the Annual Conference. A popular conference event, students will meet with honors faculty 1-on-1 to get feedback on a resume, CV, personal statement, elevator pitch (introduction) or how to talk about their honors journey with others.

These sessions will take place at NCHC23 during the Students in Honors (SIH) sessions, likely on Saturday November 11. The more volunteers we get to staff a 1-hour session, the better we can serve the students who attend our event in Chicago. Can you contribute your expertise for an hour during NCHC23?

Please complete the submission form below with your preferred area(s) to consult in. Applications will close Friday, May 28, and we will follow up with you over the summer with further details. Thank you for your participation!

Submit Your SIH Consultant Application

Deadline: May 28

__________________________________

Call for Arts Master Classes

Welcome to the NCHC23 Chicago Arts Master Classes!

Arts master classes are performance workshops and clinics that allow for individual or group creative presentations, coached or facilitated by experts in the discipline. This year we are offering master classes in drama, film, micro fiction, and music. 

Applicants for the music master class must submit a recorded audition piece.

Audiovisual (AV) technology is available for arts master classes. All AV requests must be made at the time of proposal submission. Late AV requests cannot be accommodated.

DRAMA: The drama master class will be facilitated by Donna Clevinger (Mississippi State University). Questions should be directed to dclevinger@honors.msstate.edu.

FILM: The film master class will be facilitated by Michele Forman (University of Alabama Birmingham). Questions should be directed to mforman@uab.edu. 

MICROFICTION - New this year! The microfiction master class will be facilitated by Jennifer Cognard-Black (St. Mary’s College of Maryland). [We all know what short fiction is—but what is a microfiction? At its most basic, a microfiction is a story told in 280 words or less. Yet this form must also catch a reader’s breath, offering compelling characters, a central problem, efficient plots, and resonant endings. As the well-known microfictionist Jerome Stern has asked, “What can be done on a single typed page in this oldest of ways of telling? What bright shapes can it contain?"] Questions should be directed to jcognard@smcm.edu.

MUSIC: The music master class will be facilitated by Galit Gertsenzon (Ball State University), Bernardo Scarambone (Eastern Kentucky University), Larry Smith (Missouri Baptist University), and Rebecca Sorley (University of Indianapolis). Questions should be directed to ggertsenzon@bsu.edu.


Evaluation of applicants will begin on May 26, 2023, with participants being selected on a rolling basis through August 31, 2023. The earlier you apply, the greater your chance of acceptance and the more time you will have to arrange funding and transportation for the conference. Successful application by July 1, 2023, will ensure inclusion in the prepared conference materials.

General questions regarding the NCHC23 Arts master classes should be directed to Steven Edwards at sedwar@dcc.edu or (504) 234-4457.

Steven Edwards (Delgado Community College)
Coordinator, NCHC23 Arts Master Classes

Submit for the Arts Master Classes

 

 

Call for Monograph Papers

Belonging in Honors - NCHC Monograph Series Call for Papers

The concept of belonging has gained traction in higher education over the course of the past decade. That concept, however, has a much longer history in fields such as psychology, evolutionary theory, or more recently social cognitive neuroscience. These fields converge to affirm the human need for belonging because it supports identity development, well-being and happiness. More importantly, social psychologists and student affairs scholars have demonstrated that a sense of belonging has implications for students' persistence and retention in college and graduate school. Because “belonging is inherently tied to our social identities and the nuanced forms of oppression experienced, and resisted by students from minoritized social identity groups” (Vaccaro and Newman 4), much of the work on belonging has focused on the nuanced needs of specific identity groups, especially students who were long excluded from institutions of higher education. 

One of the strengths of honors education is our collective investment in building community among our students, faculty, staff, and administrators. This monograph concerns itself primarily with the essential but fluid sense of belonging and its relationship to more common concepts in the literature on honors education, such as diversity, inclusion, and community. Theorists and practitioners have contributed ideas for what constitutes best practices to create more inclusive honors programs and colleges and increase the diversity of our students' identities. Belonging in Honors proposes to build upon this rich literature to explore the structural changes as well as the critical practices and pedagogies implemented over the last decade to support all honors students from matriculation to graduation and to prepare them for a changing world. While a sense of belonging might be subjective and prove challenging to measure, it is essential to create space for excellence for a larger number of people. Honors practitioners’ reflections on, and systematic analyses of, the mechanics of belonging are essential to the identification of future directions and frameworks for honors education.

The editor of Belonging in Honors invites critical and scholarly submissions that reflect honors practices far and wide, qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Specific disciplinary approaches and clearly positioned voices that engage with, respond to, and add to the following prompts are expected:  

  • Intersectionality and identity are key to understanding barriers to a sense of belonging to institutions whose audience was originally conceived more narrowly. What structural changes have been implemented to ensure that less represented minorities or differently abled students, for instance, also have a sense of belonging? How have efforts to give all students a sense of belonging impacted enrollment management, financial aid, curricular approaches and other practices affecting honors students’ experience in college.
     
  • Students, faculty, and staff will derive a sense of belonging from intentional and mindful practices. How do institutional size and demographic makeup impact what makes a successful strategy? What lessons can be applied across institutions?
     
  • If the literature on sense of belonging has clearly demonstrated its positive correlation to retention, few studies to date extend their analyses of retention to completion. How has the value of giving students a sense of belonging in honors been measured? Have such quantitative analyses been helpful in advocating for honors more broadly? 
     
  • Honors educators have long been concerned about building and fostering community. Who is made to feel at home in honors? How has the increasing diversification of honors students’ identities led practitioners to foster community in new ways to provide all our students a sense of belonging? 

 

Submission Guidelines & Deadlines

Deadlines
Submission of abstracts due: 15 June 2023
Submission of essays: 1 November 2023

Submission

Traditional essays, the length of which may vary. The editor of this monograph encourages all authors to familiarize themselves with the NCHC Style Sheet. All submissions, solicited and unsolicited, will be peer-reviewed by the Publications Board of the National Collegiate Honors Council.

Questions, abstracts, and full essays should be sent to Anne Dotter at adotter@jccc.edu as word documents. 


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
 

Call for JNCHC  Submissions

The next issue of JNCHC (deadline: September 1, 2023) invites research essays on any topic of interest to the honors community.

The issue will also include a Forum focused on the theme “Creating an Honors Faculty,” in which we invite honors educators to examine how honors faculty are defined, selected, recruited, retained, and rewarded. We invite essays of roughly 1000-2000 words that consider this theme in a practical and/or theoretical context. 

The lead essay for the Forum is by Lynne C. Elkes of Loyola University Maryland. In “Creating and Celebrating Honors Faculty,” Elkes applauds the unique quality of honors educators, who approach their students and their work with a passion beyond what is expected of higher education in general. Teachers attracted to honors become part of a community of learners along with their students, contributing not just their academic expertise but their whole selves to their shared love of learning, going beyond any expected job requirements to partner with their students, to mentor them in their research, and to help them become better people as well as students. At the same time, honors programs tend to lack structure compared to typical academic disciplines, which have defined hierarchies and systems of rewards such as tenure, promotion, and salary protocols. Honors programs typically attract different kinds of faculty at different ranks and with different levels of job security, from tenured to contingent. This flexibility and ineffability—sometimes controlled chaos—can create authenticity, but it can also lead to abuse when faculty are taken for granted and expected to take on significant extra responsibilities without attendant expectations of reward. Elkes suggests that some standardization within the practices of hiring, retention, compensation, and job responsibilities could reduce this kind of abuse, acknowledge the special dedication of honors faculty, and evoke a higher level of respect not just for honors teachers but for the kind of devotion they commit to teaching and learning.

Contributors to the Forum on “Creating an Honors Faculty” may, but are not obliged to, respond directly to Elkes’s essay. Questions that Forum contributors might consider include:

  • Is the loose structure and hierarchy of honors faculty a benefit, liability, and/or inevitability?
  • How should honors faculty be selected, and who should select them?
  • Is there any hard evidence for the assumption that honors faculty are exceptionally dedicated to teaching?
  • Would a traditional academic reward system disrupt the passion and personal dedication we associate with teaching in honors?
  • Does honors have—or can it create—a just and satisfying reward system different from that of a typical academic discipline?
  • Can a different kind of reward system for honors faculty promote diversity, equity, and inclusion?
  • How is an honors faculty created on your campus, and does it work?
  • What character traits are essential for a good honors teacher?
  • What academic credentials (if any) should be required to teach in honors?

Information about JNCHC—including the editorial policy, submission guidelines, guidelines for abstracts and keywords, and a style sheet—is available on the NCHC website.

Please send all submissions to Ada Long at adalong@uab.edu.

NCHC journals (JNCHC and HIP) and monographs are included in the following electronic databases: ERIC, EBSCO, Gale Cengage, and UNL Digital Commons. Both journals are listed in Cabell International's Directory of Publishing Opportunities.

 

NCHC Events: Virtual DEI Roundtables

Sign up for a free Virtual Roundtable in 2023 to dive deep with your NCHC Community!

These free virtual events are presented by sponsors or NCHC Committees, and available for all in the honors community to participate in! Add these to your calendar today:

 

 

NCHC Events: Summer Institutes

2023 Summer Institute Series

NCHC is bringing you a series of Professional Development options for 2023 that includes both in-person and virtual options. Grow your skills and your honors cohort this summer, no matter your travel situation! Whether you are new to honors or an experienced director or staff member, you can find creative approaches and best practices from NCHC's expert facilitators.

 

NCHC Awards

 

Career Center

View or share your posting on the NCHC Career Center!

As a part of your NCHC membership, you have free access to the job listings on the NCHC Career Center - and can also post open listings at no charge! 

To access listings or post a job in the Career Center:

  • Go to https://www.nchchonors.org/, click on MEMBER LOGIN in the top right corner.
     
  • Once logged in, across the green bar click on the Quick Links drop‐down, Career Center.



     
  • Once in the Career Center click on Search Openings, or Submit an Opening.

Get Started Today