Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

Sanctuary Literary Arts Journal Call for Submissions

Sanctuary Literary Magazine, the official journal of the SRHC, is thrilled to announce our open submissions period! We're looking for excellent creative work from students at SRHC institutions

Calling all poets, writers, artists, photographers!

Sanctuary Literary Magazine, the official journal of the SRHC, is thrilled to announce our open submissions period! We're looking for excellent creative work from students at SRHC institutions—check out our guidelines for more information. Submissions close on January 31, 2024. Send all questions, comments and concerns to us at honorsprogram@uab.edu

 We can't wait to see your amazing work! 

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Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

SRHC Logo Contest

SRHC is looking for a new brand identity!

The purpose of the contest is to design a new logo for the Southern Regional Honors Council. The logo may be used in all media – including online, print, on merchandise and other visual collateral.

SRHC is looking for a new brand identity!

The purpose of the contest is to design a new logo for the Southern Regional Honors Council. The logo may be used in all media – including online, print, promotional materials and other visual collateral.

Contest Rules

  •  To be eligible, each entrant must be a currently registered undergraduate student at an SRHC Member Institution.

  • Individuals or teams may submit no more than two entries (a separate Entry Form must accompany each submission).

  • All submitted work must be the original work of the entrant(s) and must not include, be based on, or derived from any pre-existing or third-party designs, trademarks, or copyrighted images.

  • All entries will become the property of the Southern Regional Honors Council. By submitting an entry, each entrant agrees that any and all intellectual property rights in the logo design are deemed assigned to Southern Regional Honors Council.

  • Except where prohibited by law, an entry submission into this contest constitutes permission to use the winner’s name, likeness, prize information, and information provided on the entry form for publicity purposes, without further permission or compensation.

  • SRHC reserves the right to modify the winning logo to better fit the needs of the organization.

  • The decision of the SRHC Executive Committee will be final.

  • The SRHC Executive Committee reserves the right not to select a winner, if in its sole discretion, no suitable entries are received. The new logo will be officially revealed at the SRHC 2024 annual conference. 

  • The selected winner MUST submit a scalable vector version of the winning design so that it is adaptable to electronic and print media, to reproduction on small and large surfaces, and to use in color or in grayscale.

How to Enter

To enter the SRHC Logo Design Contest, eligible participants must:

  • Complete the Official Entry Form on the SRHC website.

  • Submit a logo design in .jpeg, .png or PDF formats (if you are chosen as a winner, you MUST be able to provide a high resolution vector file (e.g., in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign).

  • Submit your completed Entry Form and logo design by January 31, 2024.

Selection Criteria

  • The SRHC Executive Committee will evaluate all entries based on the following criteria (though other criteria may be considered):

    • Relevance – Does the entry align with the theme and goals of the Southern Regional Honors Council?

    • Originality – Does the composition exhibit original design, creativity, and imagination?

    • Aesthetic Quality – Does the submission command attention? Does it display visual balance and color coordination? Do all the elements work together to create a unified and appealing design?

 Award

The winner will receive a $500 award. If the winning design is produced by a team of students, SRHC will award one prize of $500 (divided equally among the team).

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Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

Official Statement on SRHC 2024 in Jacksonville, FL

SRHC recognizes that recent travel advisories to Florida issued by organizations including the NAACP, Human Rights Campaign, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Equality Florida may impact the decision of member institutions and individuals’ decisions to attend the SRHC 2024 conference.

Florida Travel Advisory

SRHC recognizes that recent travel advisories to Florida issued by organizations including the NAACP, Human Rights Campaign, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Equality Florida may impact the decision of member institutions and individuals’ decisions to attend the SRHC 2024 conference.

SRHC is an educational institution that is committed to advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion of all students, faculty, and staff in our region. Although a change in location is not possible, the 2024 Conference Planning Committee and the SRHC Executive Committee are fully committed to providing a safe and welcoming conference for all attendees.

Specifically, the 2024 Conference Planning Committee and the SRHC Executive Committee are implementing the following:

  • Conference Programming: Specific sessions supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion of our diverse members within our region

  • SRHC Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement: Development and adoption of a statement that clearly demonstrates SRHC’s commitment to supporting our diverse communities within our region

  • Conference Code of Conduct: Development of a conference conduct policy that provides a harassment-free experience for all participants

  • Local Resources: The Annual Conference Planning Committee will identify and share resources and initiatives in the Jacksonville area that align with SRHC’s mission. Links will continue to be added to the conference webpage and mobile app for in-person attendees.

The organizing team intentionally selected a conference theme to encourage proposals that recognize how to build bridges on a variety of topics which may include diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creativity - Call for Submissions

Students interested in submitting their creative work or undergraduate research can find more information on the submission process below. The deadline to submit is September 1, 2023. Submissions received after that date will be considered for the 2024 issue.

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity is the official undergraduate journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council. Submissions are accepted from students currently enrolled in an undergraduate degree program . UReCA fosters the exchange of ideas between undergraduate students, providing a platform where students can engage with, and contribute to, the advancement of their individual fields. UReCA has published five editions to date and continues to work toward the dissemination of meaningful undergraduate work.

Our vision is an academic community without borders, a connected network of aspirational students committed to the advancement of knowledge and appreciation of the arts. UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity fosters the exchange of intellectual and creative work between undergraduate students, providing a platform where students can engage with and contribute to the advancement of their individual fields.

Our mission is to curate relevant, progressive and academic content that appeals to the undergraduate student. We, the creators, are also the audience, and therefore are attuned to the interests of our peers; we commit ourselves to becoming the number one undergraduate journal in the nation. UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity is sponsored by the National Collegiate Honors Council, and is currently managed, edited and produced by a team of twenty-nine undergraduate students from each of the NCHC regions and a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Though diverse, we share a common goal: the production of a prestigious national journal, for students, by students.

Students interested in submitting their creative work or undergraduate research can find more information on the submission process below. The deadline to submit is September 1, 2023. Submissions received after that date will be considered for the 2024 issue.

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Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

Call for JNCHC Papers

The next issue of JNCHC (deadline: September 1, 2023) invites research essays on any topic of interest to the honors community.

The next issue of JNCHC (deadline: September 1, 2023) invites research essays on any topic of interest to the honors community.

The issue will also include a Forum focused on the theme “Creating an Honors Faculty,” in which we invite honors educators to examine how honors faculty are defined, selected, recruited, retained, and rewarded. We invite essays of roughly 1000-2000 words that consider this theme in a practical and/or theoretical context. 

The lead essay for the Forum is by Lynne C. Elkes of Loyola University Maryland. In “Creating and Celebrating Honors Faculty,” Elkes applauds the unique quality of honors educators, who approach their students and their work with a passion beyond what is expected of higher education in general. Teachers attracted to honors become part of a community of learners along with their students, contributing not just their academic expertise but their whole selves to their shared love of learning, going beyond any expected job requirements to partner with their students, to mentor them in their research, and to help them become better people as well as students. At the same time, honors programs tend to lack structure compared to typical academic disciplines, which have defined hierarchies and systems of rewards such as tenure, promotion, and salary protocols. Honors programs typically attract different kinds of faculty at different ranks and with different levels of job security, from tenured to contingent. This flexibility and ineffability—sometimes controlled chaos—can create authenticity, but it can also lead to abuse when faculty are taken for granted and expected to take on significant extra responsibilities without attendant expectations of reward. Elkes suggests that some standardization within the practices of hiring, retention, compensation, and job responsibilities could reduce this kind of abuse, acknowledge the special dedication of honors faculty, and evoke a higher level of respect not just for honors teachers but for the kind of devotion they commit to teaching and learning.

Contributors to the Forum on “Creating an Honors Faculty” may, but are not obliged to, respond directly to Elkes’s essay. Questions that Forum contributors might consider include:

  • Is the loose structure and hierarchy of honors faculty a benefit, liability, and/or inevitability?

  • How should honors faculty be selected, and who should select them?

  • Is there any hard evidence for the assumption that honors faculty are exceptionally dedicated to teaching?

  • Would a traditional academic reward system disrupt the passion and personal dedication we associate with teaching in honors?

  • Does honors have—or can it create—a just and satisfying reward system different from that of a typical academic discipline?

  • Can a different kind of reward system for honors faculty promote diversity, equity, and inclusion?

  • How is an honors faculty created on your campus, and does it work?

  • What character traits are essential for a good honors teacher?

  • What academic credentials (if any) should be required to teach in honors?

Information about JNCHC—including the editorial policy, submission guidelines, guidelines for abstracts and keywords, and a style sheet—is available on the NCHC website.

Please send all submissions to Ada Long at adalong@uab.edu.

NCHC journals (JNCHC and HIP) and monographs are included in the following electronic databases: ERIC, EBSCO, Gale Cengage, and UNL Digital Commons. Both journals are listed in Cabell International’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities.

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Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

Belonging in Honors - NCHC Monograph Series Call for Papers

The editor of Belonging in Honors invites critical and scholarly submissions that reflect honors practices far and wide, qualitatively as well as quantitatively.

The concept of belonging has gained traction in higher education over the course of the past decade. That concept, however, has a much longer history in fields such as psychology, evolutionary theory, or more recently social cognitive neuroscience. These fields converge to affirm the human need for belonging because it supports identity development, well-being and happiness. More importantly, social psychologists and student affairs scholars have demonstrated that a sense of belonging has implications for students' persistence and retention in college and graduate school. Because “belonging is inherently tied to our social identities and the nuanced forms of oppression experienced, and resisted by students from minoritized social identity groups” (Vaccaro and Newman 4), much of the work on belonging has focused on the nuanced needs of specific identity groups, especially students who were long excluded from institutions of higher education.

One of the strengths of honors education is our collective investment in building community among our students, faculty, staff, and administrators. This monograph concerns itself primarily with the essential but fluid sense of belonging and its relationship to more common concepts in the literature on honors education, such as diversity, inclusion, and community. Theorists and practitioners have contributed ideas for what constitutes best practices to create more inclusive honors programs and colleges and increase the diversity of our students' identities. Belonging in Honors proposes to build upon this rich literature to explore the structural changes as well as the critical practices and pedagogies implemented over the last decade to support all honors students from matriculation to graduation and to prepare them for a changing world. While a sense of belonging might be subjective and prove challenging to measure, it is essential to create space for excellence for a larger number of people. Honors practitioners’ reflections on, and systematic analyses of, the mechanics of belonging are essential to the identification of future directions and frameworks for honors education.

The editor of Belonging in Honors invites critical and scholarly submissions that reflect honors practices far and wide, qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Specific disciplinary approaches and clearly positioned voices that engage with, respond to, and add to the following prompts are expected: 

Intersectionality and identity are key to understanding barriers to a sense of belonging to institutions whose audience was originally conceived more narrowly. What structural changes have been implemented to ensure that less represented minorities or differently abled students, for instance, also have a sense of belonging? How have efforts to give all students a sense of belonging impacted enrollment management, financial aid, curricular approaches and other practices affecting honors students’ experience in college.

Students, faculty, and staff will derive a sense of belonging from intentional and mindful practices. How do institutional size and demographic makeup impact what makes a successful strategy? What lessons can be applied across institutions?

If the literature on sense of belonging has clearly demonstrated its positive correlation to retention, few studies to date extend their analyses of retention to completion. How has the value of giving students a sense of belonging in honors been measured? Have such quantitative analyses been helpful in advocating for honors more broadly?

Honors educators have long been concerned about building and fostering community. Who is made to feel at home in honors? How has the increasing diversification of honors students’ identities led practitioners to foster community in new ways to provide all our students a sense of belonging?

Submission Guidelines & Deadlines

Submission of abstracts: 15 June 2023

Submission of essays: 1 November 2023

Submission

Traditional essays, the length of which may vary. The editor of this monograph encourages all authors to familiarize themselves with the NCHC Style Sheet. All submissions, solicited and unsolicited, will be peer-reviewed by the Publications Board of the National Collegiate Honors Council.

Questions, abstracts, and full essays should be sent to Anne Dotter at adotter@jccc.edu as word documents.

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Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

SRHC Notice of Proposed Dues Increase

SRHC Notice of Proposed Membership Dues Increase

The SRHC Executive Committee is responsible for managing the SRHC’s finances and ensuring the financial health of the organization. This includes setting recommendations for annual membership dues. Recently, the Executive Committee recommended a $25 dues increase to help maintain SRHC's strong financial health now and into the future.

This recommendation will be presented to the membership at the SRHC Business Meeting at the National Collegiate Honors Council, where it will be discussed further.

The dues increase will be presented to the full SRHC Membership for a vote at the annual conference in Charlotte, NC.

WHY IS THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE PROPOSING A DUES INCREASE?

It has been ten years since the last SRHC dues increase, from $50 to $75 in 2012.

As you know, the cost of doing business continues to increase with inflation rates greater than 8% in 2022. It is a priority of the Committee to ensure that the SRHC continues to have strong financial health now and into the future.

The SRHC membership is strong and committed to the organization. This is evident by the long tenure of membership and the high membership renewal rate. It is because of committed members like you that the SRHC continues to set the standard for high quality educational content, professionalism and networking. The Executive Committee wants to continue providing you with access to its membership benefits and, namely, a high quality conference experience.

SRHC provides a number of added benefits for its members including:

  • Student Stipends for Partners in the Parks (PITP), NCHC Semesters, NCHC Winterims, and other NCHC-Affiliated Programs

  • Support for Sanctuary, the regional literary and arts publication for SRHC

  • Discounted conference registration rates for members

Each of the programs and benefits above are provided so that the SRHC may provide support for honors students within our region.

HOW MUCH IS THE PROPOSED INCREASE?

The SRHC Executive Committee is recommending an increase in membership dues from $75 annually to $100 annually for institutional memberships. We are not recommending an increase in individual memberships or student memberships.

WHEN WILL THE DUES INCREASE BE IMPLEMENTED?

If approved, the dues increase will be effective with the 2023 dues renewal invoices that are sent to all members in early July.

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Aaron Hanlin Aaron Hanlin

SRHC 2023 Honors in Transition

The Southern Regional Honors Council invites proposals for the 2023 Annual Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina from March 30 to April 2. This year’s conference is co-hosted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Catawba College.

The conference theme is Honors in Transition. We welcome members of honors programs and colleges to submit proposals on any topic, though as you prepare for the Conference we encourage you to consider how your work informs understandings of transitions and how individuals and communities can navigate transitions.

The Southern Regional Honors Council invites proposals for the 2023 Annual Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina from March 30 to April 2. This year’s conference is co-hosted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Catawba College.

The conference theme is Honors in Transition. We welcome members of honors programs and colleges to submit proposals on any topic, though as you prepare for the Conference we encourage you to consider how your work informs understandings of transitions and how individuals and communities can navigate transitions.

Our undergraduate years are a season of life in which we experience a great deal of transition. Arriving as first year students and preparing to leave as graduates, we pass through two distinct periods characterized by disquiet in losing a sense of oneself and one’s place—socially and physically—as well as excitement with the chance to find our new selves in our social groups while exploring the new places that quickly become “home.” Today’s students navigate these personal transitions while inhabiting a changing environment that leads us to feel we are in a transitional era regionally, nationally, and globally—all simultaneously.

The migration of individuals and economic enterprises to and away from Charlotte drives significant social transitions in the city and surrounding region. As individuals and organizations making up Charlotte change, the natural, economic, social, and political environment of the city shifts day-by-day. This period of intense transformation is just the latest in a series of similar periods that began with settlement. The communities that are home to SRHC’s colleges and universities share similar histories and contemporary challenges of transition with Charlotte as the South is one of the fastest-changing regions of the United States.

In our individual lives and community life, transition often means others are left behind—intentionally or unintentionally—or choose to stay behind, nostalgic for the past. The fears of uncertainty often mask the opportunity for meaningful personal and group change in our honors programs and colleges, higher education, our societies, economies, polities, and planet. As current and future leaders, we must acknowledge our responsibilities to set a path for navigating transition that embraces opportunity and to ensure all those who wish to continue the journey with us feel welcome and supported along the way.

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SRHC Candidates Up For NCHC Elected Positions!

The Southern Regional Honors Council (SRHC) has a long history of providing leadership within the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC).  Today, is the final day to cast your vote in the 2019 NCHC Election.  Again, this year, the slate of candidates for executive offices includes many members from SRCH, and we encourage you to vote for and support these candidates.

Vice President (vote for 1)

Christina McIntyre

 

Board Candidates at Large (vote for 3)

 Daniel Roberts, Virginia State University

Steven Edwards, Delgado Community College

Kathy Cooke, University of South Alabama

Scott Cook, Madisonville Community College

Victoria Bryan, Cleveland State Community College

 

Student Board Candidates – I year position (vote for 1)

 Abagael Kinney, Northwestern State University

JheDienne Adams from UTC running for the 2-year position

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