Early-bird Honors students lined up at the new Etscorn Honors Center to sign up for appointments as advising for spring classes began.

Etscorn Center Delights Honors

The Irvin F. and Alice S. Etscorn Honors Center opened in time for the new school year in August 2004.

With two walls of glass, the Etscorn classroom is a virtual out-of-doors facility with a roof. The east and west walls give full views of grass and trees. It has the feel of an open-air seminar room of typical college literature with a difference -- it has AC and heat, not to mention a full range of high-tech teaching resources.

The Etscorn classroom seats 30 students in its classroom mode, and seats up to 60 as a guest-lecture venue.

South of the classroom, a sleek student study area, Honors academic counseling offices and the director’s office help double the space now available for Honors use. The Etscorn Honors Center provides nearly 3,000 additional square feet of geographic space to enhance Honors resources. As for imaginative intellectual space, the resources have opened up a whole new realm.

The U of L Honors Program has rapidly grown in recent years, with the number of eligible first-year U of L student applicants doubling to nearly 950. Over 450 of these applicants made U of L Honors their college choice this year. The new Honors Etscorn Center is not only welcome, it is absolutely essential. The Honors Program offers over 100 classes and seminars a year, many of which can now be scheduled for Honors facilities in the Etscorn Center or the Honors House rather than squeezed in other facilities across the campus.

The new center has been in development for several years, and many individuals deserve thanks for helping the new space become a reality. Foremost among them is Dr. John Richardson, director of the University Honors Program, who has worked nearly five years to shepherd the new facility into being.

The Etscorn Honors Center is named for Irvin F. and Alice S. Etscorn. The Etscorn family is a longtime supporter of U of L’s University Honors Program providing Etscorn tuition scholarships to deserving Honors students.

Demolition in the space began in late spring 2004 in the previously little-used public spaces of Threlkeld, the Honors residence hall. When classes began Aug. 25, the Etscorn Center was as busy as if it had always been a central part of the University Honors Program’s facilities.

A Very Brief History of the U of L Honors Program

U of L is fortunate to have a long-established, carefully developed University Honors Program. With the opening of a new facility, we find ourselves reflecting on Honors’ history and remarkable growth. Originating in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1982 as an outgrowth of departmental honors programs in English and political science and individual honors courses in chemistry and mathematics, by the fall of 2004 the Honors Program has become a university-wide program with over 1,200 students enrolled.

In 1998 Dr. John F. Richardson (chemistry) began his service as Honors Program director. Among academic program offerings added since then are increased coursework and Honors advising as well as Honors-associated programs such as Honors Scholars and the National Fellowship and Scholarship Office. There has also been notable facility and equipment growth and student participation since 1998.

In 1987 Honors began its initial expansion when Provost William Dorrill established a University Honors Committee, charging it to inventory the potential for a university-wide undergraduate honors program. The committee's report in July 1988 recommended enhanced implementation of the Arts and Sciences model on a university-wide basis, as well as further exploration of honors opportunities.

In the 1988-89 academic year, the Honors Program achieved a new status with a landmark event, the establishment of a Board of Overseers fund to furnish and supply what is now the Overseers Honors House. The Honors House, a townhouse built in the 1870s, one of a row of period residences on what was then First Street, provided a desirable new location and facility for the program. Before beginning life as the Honors House, the building was used for many years to teach art, including a period as fine arts annex for the Art Association of the Louisville School of Art. When Honors moved to the Honors House it was located in a building constructed as a dining hall for the Navy V-2 program  during World War II.

With the naming of nearby Threlkeld Hall as the Honors Program residence hall in 2002, Honors facilities now cluster at the center of campus. The opening of the new Etscorn Honors Center in the public area of Threlkeld in the fall 2004 semester marks another significant shift in Honors resources, expanding the physical resources to make way for increasingly enriched academic development.

The first director, Dr. William G. Bos (chemistry) was appointed in April 1982 by Dean Lois Cronholm and charged with the responsibility for developing the honors curriculum proposed in the Arts and Sciences Faculty Assembly document. Succeeding Bos as director were Dr. Charles W. Brockwell Jr. (history), 1983-86; Dr. Dale B. Billingsley (English), 1986-89; and Dr. John H. Flodstrom (philosophy), 1989-98.