CMU Honors director James Hill to step down, return to teaching political science

Honors Program Director James Hill will step down in May after seven years in the position.

“If I stay much longer, I’ll be the director with the longest term, and I don’t think I want that distinction,” Hill said.

The average honors director has served for a term of three years, said Judy Idema, associate director of the Honors Program.

Hill came to CMU in 1980, teaching political science for 23 years before taking up his current post in the Honors Program. He will return to teach political science after he steps down.

“When I finish this year, I’ll have been here for 30 years. Man, that went by fast,” Hill said “It doesn’t feel like 30 years.”

Hill said when he was hired to the director position, he was told his main goal would be to build the program.

“When I started out, the program was hidden away in scattered rooms in Larzelere,” he said. “You couldn’t find us.”

Accomplishments

During his tenure as director, the program moved from Larzelere to its current offices in Powers Hall. At the time, CMU did not have specific honors faculty, so Hill implemented a selection process by which 200 honors faculty have been added to the program.

Idema said Hill also increased the number of honors courses offered annually to 100 from 30, raised the GPA and ACT requirements for admission to the program, increased graduation numbers from the program and gave students the opportunity to study abroad through the Honors Program.

“In the past seven years, I have accomplished all my goals but one, which I don’t see happening any time soon,” Hill said.

His final goal for the Honors Program is to have an honors college established at CMU but, because of what he called the “exodus of senior administrators,” including the university president and provost, it will not happen in the near future.

Search is on

Hill’s replacement, Idema said, will come from the pool of 200 current Honors faculty.

Claudia Douglass, interim vice provost of Academic Affairs, is in charge of organizing the search for the new Honors Director. She said the process has already started and that applications will be screened starting Nov. 30.

The new director will be chosen in early 2010 and will take over the post on Aug. 16, 2010.

“That gives quite a long period of time for this person to be mentored by Dr. Hill. We’re really looking forward to an excellent transfer of knowledge,” Douglass said.

Hill said he built up the program, so his successor should focus on cultivating the students.

“The big battles have been fought. Now we need to take care of the students,” Hill said.

-Staff Reporter Ryan Czachorski contributed to this report.