Photo Courtesy of the Honors College website
By: Analia Fiestas/Staff WriterThough the Honors College’s new dean was announced in June, she has held that position for more than five years as its interim dean.
The long and national search for a dean of the Honors College officially ended on June 1 with Lesley Northup named as the college’s permanent dean.
“It is good to know that I measure up against national competition,” Northup said to Student Media. “The search and hire process also gave me a chance to help educate the FIU community on what Honors does and why.”
Northup holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; the Episcopal Divinity School; and the Catholic University of America, where she studied ritual and liturgy.
University Provost Douglas Wartzok expressed his satisfaction of the national search results through a letter he wrote to the University community sent in July.
“The national search confirmed that our Honors College has identified a unique niche with its blend of intellectually demanding interdisciplinary courses, an emphasis on developing future leaders, a strong program of creative and research activity and requirements for active community engagement,” said Wartzok in the letter.
Prior to being selected as the permanent dean, Northup was an associate dean at the Honors College for two years and also interim dean for five years.
The work she delivered during those seven years earned her the Provost’s Operational Excellence award in 2009.
Northup began her career at the University in 1993, when she joined what was then the Department of Philosophy and Religion.
After years of teaching, her efforts were rewarded when she received a Teaching Incentive Program award and two FIU Faculty Senate Excellence in Teaching awards.
Northup was always active in university affairs. She served on the Faculty Senate, the FIU Athletic Council, the Board of the Academy for the Art of Teaching and the Access and Equity Committee.
Looking forward, Northup has many plans for the Honors College.
“We are going to be working hard to secure a new Honors building with Honors housing, administration, classrooms, support spaces, and some commercial space as well,” she said. “We are ramping up our undergraduate research program substantially and will begin to be able to award some research stipends.”
In addition, Northup said the Honors College is inaugurating a new program, Honors Education in the Arts. HEARTS will incorporate some elements of the fine and performing arts throughout the curriculum and a variety of programmatic contexts.
Northup, along with others, will create a formal Honors Internship Program that takes advantage of unique community relationships.
“We are moving toward implementing service-research, undergraduate community-based research resulting in a feasible application to create a solution for some identified community problem, throughout the curriculum,” she said.
Northup believes that an honors college should be student-driven. Because of that, she has already put in place several initiatives to highlight that—a required leadership course, community service requirements and an honor code.
She is also a firm believer of strengthening an international focus, which is why she says all Honors courses will be qualified for Global Education credit.
As Northup explains, each section of the second-year honor courses, which already deal with issues of “inhabiting other lives,” will be enhanced with the addition of two cutting-edge teaching developed by its faculty in conjunction with the National Honors Professional Organization: Reacting to the Past, a research-focused role games that improve public speaking, quick thinking and transactional skills.
“Our popular study abroad programs will expand from four countries to six, and have been reconfigured to move away from cultural tourism and into hands-on, experiential learning,” said Northup.
Northup confirmed that the Honors College has added a full semester prep course before each month-long trip and a major research component to each program as they continue to differentiate Honors Study Abroad and build in excellence.
“I believe strongly that international education is a crucial educational element, and am ramping up efforts to develop funding for every Honors student to have a foreign study opportunity,” said Northup.
Northup will have oversight for everything that happens in the college, from personnel, to programs and financial matters.
“A large portion of each day is devoted to issues that come up in the regular course of business that need my input—either as advice, directives, or permission. Also, we are very student-centered, so I also see a lot of students,” added Northup.
According to Northup, the best honors college in the world needs to have values, virtues and a vision, and she says she will work hard maintain those at the Honors College.
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