ABSTRACT
This book argues that honors colleges must both adapt and communicate their value despite the current state of higher education in the United States. The conclusion revisits these uncertainties and makes the case for an optimistic vision for the future. Honors colleges inevitably will metamorphose into intellectual greenhouses for universities. Greenhouse conditions are not only ideal for growth and cross-pollination but also exist as a temporary stop on the larger trajectory of a flourishing life. As future needs and challenges unfold, it is critical that honors education not lose its way in the noise and fears surrounding higher education. Honors must provide interdisciplinary opportunities, imaginative thinking, personalized mentoring, and high-quality academic courses for students who want more out of their college education. Collectively, honors colleges at public research universities afford meritorious and academically motivated students with access to education that instills special qualities into their alumni as society’s future leaders. Each generation will deal with threats to enrollment, budgets, politics, and the workforce. Through these challenges, honors colleges at public research universities must balance merit with access while providing academically talented and motivated honors students with a “best-of-both-worlds” education, always in search of excellence and never content to rest on seemingly immutable traditions.
