Dear UHP Community,
Hello and welcome to the start of the 2021-2022 academic year! We are eager to come together this fall— in person!— around campus, on The Vern, and in the UHP townhouse.
We look forward to once again debating politics and philosophy over coffee or extra-sweet hot chocolate in the townhouse. To challenging each other’s points of view and discovering new truths about ourselves. To struggling with seemingly impossible assignments and emerging with a deep and lasting understanding of the material. To exploring DC or taking a hike outside the city. To capping off the Honors experience by pondering the meaning of time, the ethics of humor, or the writings of Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Márquez. We look forward to the energy of a classroom debate and to the quiet moments of intense focus and reflection in between. To sharing a meal and to getting to know each other again and to learning how we’ve all grown and changed since we were last on campus together. And, as is true every fall, we are particularly excited to be welcoming new students into our community of scholars.
As a program, we are committed to continual reflection on how we can make this community a more inclusive place for all students. It is important to us that folks of all identities feel welcome in the UHP; a truly interdisciplinary program requires a truly inclusive community.
We want to acknowledge the initiative taken by the UHP BIPOC Collective — a student-run group formed in 2020 that was created by and for UHP students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color, including both domestic and international students. The UHP BIPOC Collective is not affiliated with the UHP administration and seeks to empower and support one another and hold the UHP accountable through providing programming, opportunities, and collective power to raise issues of concern with UHP administration, faculty, and staff.
We are appreciative of their determination to voice their truth and advocate for change, and also for all of the feedback that students from across our community have provided. We’ve heard students share how they’ve felt excluded or undervalued in our community and classrooms and we want to acknowledge the vulnerability, effort, and time that students took to engage with us to help make the program better for everyone. Through these often difficult discussions, we have made progress toward our goals in the last year. Task forces of faculty, students, and staff have worked collaboratively to reform aspects of the program including its admissions protocols and our peer advisor program.
We are excited to continue working toward our goals as well as aiming for new ones. To that end, it is important that we continue the work of the UHP Diversity & Inclusion committee and ensure that we include more student voices in these conversations. We invite students who are committed to openly discussing topics relating to diversity and inclusion in the UHP, and who want to help guide the program in developing new goals and priorities alongside UHP peers, faculty and staff to join the committee. If you’re interested in joining this committee (or if you’d like to nominate a peer), please complete the interest and nomination form. We also encourage you to share any ideas or thoughts you have on the form.
With our return to campus, we are creating several opportunities to reconnect and build community through in person UHP events and activities (as is possible based on GW health guidelines). Please be sure to read our e-newsletter, the Honors Newsflash, every week to remain aware of important program dates/deadlines and to learn more about the happenings of the program and the University. We also encourage you to connect with us on our Honors Blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn group. If you learn about a University event that might be of interest to students within our community, you are welcome to advertise the event by submitting information here.
As always, your UHP faculty and staff are available to support you this semester, and we urge you to reach out at any time.
Sincerely,
Bethany Cobb Kung
Director, University Honors Program
Associate Professor of Honors and Physics
Resources:
Counseling and Psychological Services: https://healthcenter.gwu.edu/counseling-and-psychological-services
Office for Student Success: https://studentsuccess.gwu.edu/
Academic Commons: https://academiccommons.gwu.edu/
Office of Advocacy & Support: https://safety.gwu.edu/oas
Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement: https://diversity.gwu.edu/
Make an appointment with a UHP Program Manager: https://honorsprogram.gwu.edu/make-appointment
