Bob Taylor is a political scientist, not a politician, but his approach to building the John Dewey Honors Program is as zealous and personal as a presidential hopeful working a New Hampshire Elks Lodge.
"Some faculty are hands-off," says sophomore Jen Marquis, the residential advisor for the new John Dewey Honors floor at Millis. "Bob is hands-on. He had everyone over to his house, we get four or five emails a week from him, hes always at events."
From hiking spots to guitar licks to the in's and out's of everything from enviropolitics to French cheese, Taylor is there to answer his honors students questions. "Hes unbelievable," Marquis says.
Taylor requires each student in the program to take him out to breakfast or lunch once a semester, with UVM picking up the tab. He holds honors office hours at Living/Learning on Fridays, then chases that three-hour schmoozefest with a social hour that features exotic cheese, crackers and juice. (Sherry, to his sorrow, is verboten.) Taylor figured the social hour would bomb — after all, what student wants to hang out with a professor as a Friday-night warm-up? — but hes been surprised to host 20 to 40 cheese-hungry undergraduates each week.
"A liberal arts guy"
"I want the program to stay small and manageable," says Taylor, "with intense faculty involvement. I believe in labor-intensive education."
Intense is right. While the honors program has been around since 1995, this year marked the introduction of two major innovations: a first-year component (previously, honors students applied for admission as sophomores and juniors) and an honors floor at Millis.
Taylor, typically, made it a personal mission to make both as successful as possible. First-years invited into the program by dint of their high school records but hesitant about committing found Taylor at class registration day, pen and forms in hand. Honors students unsure about living in the new dorm received summer phone calls from Taylor, who admits to doing "a little cajoling."
Cajoling, apparently, works.. Forty-seven honors students from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the School of Natural Resources opted to move in.
Their bonding was intense and nearly instant. The floor studies together, parties together and volunteers together. Marquis says other R.A.s envy her — the students on her floor get along and follow the rules, making the routine walking patrols common in other halls almost superfluous.
Taylor likes what he sees on the floor.
"Im a liberal arts guy," he says, "I believe in combining studies and social life."
Labor-intensive education
Taylor may be a fervent advocate of the virtues of liberal arts education, but he is not an elitist. In fact, he was initially somewhat reluctant to invite first-years into the program, because he wanted students to make their claim to membership with their college work. He also wanted to ensure that the program would have room for students who, while perhaps unexceptional in high school, flourished in college.
"I like the self-selection process. Instead of throwing this at students, I want to have them earn it," he says.
Students who arent invited into the program during their first year can apply as sophomores. This year, the program received about 80 applications for the 40 second-year slots.
Once accepted into the program, Dewey students take 13 to 22 seminar credits, complete a senior year honors thesis or creative project, and get opportunities to attend special lectures and field trips. To stay in the program, students have to maintain a GPA of 3.2 or higher and complete three semesters on the Deans List by the end of their junior year.
Student response is positive. Dewey scholars generally rave about the program in their evaluations, and they tend to do better and stay at the university longer than their peers. The honors program is gaining traction among undergraduates: Even before this years expansion, the program has grown in size almost every year.
"Good things tend to happen when you give people the best possible education," Taylor says.
The down side of labor-intensive education is, well, all that labor. Taylor is gifted with prodigious enthusiasm — recall the hiking trips, cheese parties, extended office hours, and "four or five" weekly e-mails — but he doesnt plan to keep up the pace indefinitely. When the time is right, he intends to step down and pass the program along to another director.
But for now, Taylor is enjoying his hands-on presence in the lives of some of UVMs best students.
"I get to be with them in all sorts of contexts now, and they rise to that kind of attention," he says. "This has been as gratifying as anything Ive done in my career."
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