By Sumara Ahmad and Julia Gardiner
After teaching religion for five years and acting as the founding chair of the religion department, Warren Frisina rejoined the University Honors College (HUHC) at the start of the fall semester, taking up a post he held when the school was first established. Frisina described his homecoming as a mix of “the familiar and the strange.”
Beginning in the Fall 2005 semester, the religion department came into its own under Frisina’s direction and became a department as opposed to a program. “It was hard to let go of the religion department,” Frisina said, but he added that said he could not bring himself to turn down the position at HUHC.
“We put some seeds into the ground,” he said of his work in the early stages of HUHC in the fall of 2001. Now, Frisina says he is returning to a flourishing program.
Frisina said with an enrollment of 800 students, HUHC is optimal size-large enough to be diverse while small enough to be tight-knit.
In his new role, Frisina said he has the chance to “work with students who bring this kind of energy” and to “be stimulated by colleagues’ interests,” an opportunity he sees as impossible elsewhere.
“The field of focus is the whole University,” Frisina said, regarding the diversity of the honors program. The dean of HUHC must not only create a curriculum but also take the honors student beyond the perimeters of the classroom. Since the summer months, Frisina, along with Associate Dean Neil Donahue and Senior Support Specialist PeggyAnn Matusiak, has been implementing “ways to inspire students to take leadership roles,” he said.
Programs such as the Dean’s Advisory Board, a group of students who bring comments and suggestions about the honors program to the dean, including housing concerns and suggestions for trips, the Service Corps, which provides opportunities for students to volunteer in the community, and the HUHC Blog, which keeps students updated on the activities and changes in the program, have been created. The programs are media set up for students to have a direct link to faculty and fellow HUHC students. They also provide for more opportunities for students to give feedback,” Frisina said. A profile on Facebook.com is in the works as well.
“I am extremely interested in opening more lines of communication and involving more students in planning Honors College programs and activities,” Frisina said.
Frisina entered his position with high aspirations for changing and developing the program further. “Institutions are developed over time,” Frisina said. “I’m not interested in an Honors College that is insulated from the rest of the campus. [I want students] seeing the Honors College as a point of intersection, a launching pad.”
Despite additions, the required cluster for freshman HUHC students, Culture and Expression, has remained unaltered. “[Dean J. Stephen Russell] left in place a good solid structure,” Frisina said. However, he said the course cluster will be inspected and observed. “I want students and faculty to talk to me about constructive ways to improve an already great institution. What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses?”
Frisina’s predecessor, Russell, was a popular figure among existing HUHC students, and there was a fair amount of contention at the change. “I was sad to see him go because I think that changing the dean of Honors College does not offer the stability that honors students might seek in the program,” said AJ Durwin, a sophomore philosophy major.
Frisina is still adjusting to his position. “It’s an ongoing process. [I can think of] at least 10 different things I want to happen immediately,” he said.
Senior Katheryne Terris shares Frisina’s fervor. “I get far more e-mails from Honors College about changes. I got one about changing the [Honors College living room]. He’s all about changes and keeping people involved,” she said.
Warren Frisina rejoined Honors College this Fall after a five year absence, during which he acted as chair of the religion department.