Emphasizing Co-Curricular Experiences to Address Increasing Honors Enrollment and Diminishing Resources

A program giving equal emphasis to honors coursework and targeted co-curricular experience provides one solution for a public university facing both increases in enrollment and decreases in financial resources. Undergraduate research, study abroad, and campus leadership provide high-impact experiences to students for honors credit. Measurable outcomes are presented

Positioning Honors Colleges to Lead Diversity and Inclusion Efforts at Predominantly White Institutions

Honors Colleges are well positioned to be leaders in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives on the campuses of Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) by embracing motivated and engaged students from a broad range of backgrounds. Stretching the missions of honors education beyond narrowly defined academic excellence to embrace intellectually curious and creative students and not just those with stellar standardized test scores and GPAs will yield more dynamic and inclusive communities. Embracing holistic admissions practices allows honors colleges to build cohorts of students whose experiences may or may not include being recognized as the smartest in the class in their K-12 experience and opens honors learning to students who think differently or challenge traditional academic expectations. Fostering partnerships with offices on campus that address student life, equity issues, and mental health puts honors colleges in the middle of the matrix that defines the experiences of all students and makes honors more relevant and approachable to students who might not have been reached by traditional efforts to recruit the academically elite. Centering social justice campaigns will make honors colleges attractive to students who might not have considered themselves honors material. Changing the way honors colleges conduct assessment might allow for the importance of diversity and inclusion questions to take center stage. Removing systemic barriers, while creating supportive and inclusive honors experiences that prepare students to engage in future social justice initiatives, allows honors, even in PWIs, to lead the effort to create a more diverse and inclusive future

A CONTENT ANALYSIS COMPARING TEACHER ORGANIZATION REPRESENTATION OF THEIR POLICY-RELATED ACTIONS WITH PORTRAYAL OF THESE ACTIONS IN NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS

This study is a critical content analysis interpreting how the policy-related actions of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers are portrayed in the national newspaper discourse and how these portrayals compare/contrast with the way in which the two teacher organizations would like for their policy-related actions to be portrayed, as evidenced by each organization’s news releases. This analysis concludes that the National Education Association more often receives a negative portrayal in the national newspaper discourse than the American Federation of Teachers, and links this difference to numerous advantages, demonstrated by the AFT, in communicating its policy-related actions. This study concludes that both organizations, but particularly the National Education Association, would benefit from changes to the way in which they present their policy-related actions, so that each teacher organization may more effectively counter negative media portrayals

A Charcoalified Ovule Adapted for Wind Dispersal and Deterring Herbivory from the Late Viséan (Carboniferous) of Scotland

International audiencePremise of research : Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) anatomically preserved ovules are pivotal to our present understanding of the Paleozoic primary seed plant radiation, but few are known from the late Viséan stratigraphic interval approximately 330 million years ago. Here, we document an exceptionally well-preserved mesoscopic charcoalified ovule from late Viséan limestones that is adapted for wind dispersal and for deterring herbivory.Methodology : We use synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM) and low-vacuum scanning electron microscopy (LVSEM) to analyze histological features not identifiable through traditional methods.Pivotal results:The ovule is small, 2 mm long and 1.25 mm in maximum diameter, and has a dense covering of spirally arranged, long, slender, hollow hairs with glandular apexes and a distal papilla. The nucellus is fused to the integument up to the nucellar apex, and above this, the integument comprises eight apical lobes, each with a single vascular bundle. The nucellar apex has a domed pollen chamber and large central column characteristic of hydrasperman-type (lagenostomalean) pteridosperms, but it lacks the distal salpinx seen in most hydrasperman ovules, leaving an exposed distal opening to the pollen chamber for pollination. Differences with existing taxa lead to the erection of Hirsutisperma rothwellii gen. et sp. nov.Conclusions : The apical glands presumably functioned as granivory deterrents; coprolites (fossilized feces) from herbivorous arthropods are abundant in the fossiliferous horizon and at this stratigraphic interval. The small ovule size and its dense covering of hairs indicate Hirsutisperma was adapted for wind dispersal and was an r-selected species, producing large numbers of small offspring in unstable or changing environments. Taphonomic implications are discussed, including preservational biases for charcoalification. Hirsutisperma provides the first clear evidence for ecological niche partitioning in Mississippian hydrasperman-type ovules