A New Year

It's been nearly six months since I posted to this blog, so I thought that late Friday afternoon would be a good time to bring everyone up to date on the happenings in the UF Honors Program.  The big news from the summer is that we moved our offices.  Our suite in Hume Hall was nice, but we are happy in our new home on the third floor of the Infirmary (Honors is in the "Nurses' Wing").  We are joined there by the new UF Center for Undergraduate Research, HHMI Science for Life, the McNair Scholars Program, and SEAGEP.  Please stop by when you get the chance. 

[caption id="attachment_110" align="alignleft" width="261" caption="The Nurses' Wing of the Infirmary"][/caption]

The question we get all the time is "What is happening to the old space?"  Well, glad you asked.  It is being converted into a study lounge for the residents of Hume and others in the Honors Program.  It will contain two small group study rooms, a conference room for student group use, and many comfortable chairs (like the ones in Library West) for individual quiet study.  The renovations are underway, and we hope to have the new space ready in time for fall semester exams.  Also, in collaboration with Dean Judy Russell of the UF Libraries, we will begin a pilot program to have a reference librarian on duty in the new study space three nights per week.  Most students, having grown up with Google, think they don't need a librarian, but I assure you that a good librarian (and UF has some of the best around) is an invaluable resource when it is time to write papers or perform literature searches.  I am excited about this new project. 

During Preview this summer, incoming first-year Honors students received a copy of A Primate's Memoir, by Dr. 

Dr. Robert Sapolsky

Robert Sapolsky, a biologist at Stanford.  Dr. Sapolsky studies stress and its effects on the body and our health; he is a recipient of a Macarthur Foundation "Genius Grant" among other honors.  He will be our guest for a public lecture on Wednesday, October 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the Rion Ballroom in the J. Wayne Reitz Union.  This is free and open to the public; I hope you will join us.

From the less serious side of things:  we had the Sweet Dreams Fire Truck at Hume to celebrate the end of the first week of classes.  The first 300 students to show up got a scoop of Gainesville's finest ice cream, courtesy of the Honors Program. 

[caption id="attachment_112" align="alignright" width="249" caption="Ice Cream!"][/caption]

We are grateful to the parents and friends of the Honors Program who support activities like this through their contributions to our Parents' Fund.

 

Finally, in the totally frivolous category, I was on Jeopardy! on Wednesday, September 15.  I did not win, as I ran into Roger Craig who had set the single-day scoring record of $77,000 in the previous show.  I had a good time, though, and made some friends in the process (Roger is a fellow Virginia Tech grad, as it turns out).  Just to prove I'm not making this up:

[caption id="attachment_114" align="alignleft" width="292" caption="Alex and Dr. K"][/caption]

 I hope everyone's semester is off to a good start.  Please stop by our new offices and say hello.