At Play on the Fields of Honor(s)

Who could argue with Skip Godow’s list of roles and qualities desirable in an ideal honors leader? With appropriate caveats concerning the wide variation in programs and institutional contexts, he envisions well the comprehensive demands of modern-day honors administration, demands that match my experience of over fourteen years as dean of an honors college of 1300 students as I strive imperfectly to embody the qualities he idealizes. Of course, one might emphasize one of Skip’s points more or less. If an honors administrator is required to perform a number of non-honors university duties, the roles are even more complex. One might also stress more the importance of clear and persuasive writing and inspiring and eloquent speech. And despite Skip’s healthy dose of realism in emphasizing “management” skills foreign to faculty culture, one might point out that leadership in honors retains perhaps the greatest affinity for faculty culture among administrative positions