On Sept. 30, Whitney Knight wrote a criticism of Dean Christopher Snyder and his efforts to undertake improvements for Shackouls Honors College. To be clear, these are improvements Dean Snyder believes to be necessary for the advancement of learning at Mississippi State University based on his decades of experience in university education at leading schools in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Knight is a sophomore at MSU, and her views — I suggest — barely reflect that level of academic experience.
She begins by claiming SHC is not “behind” other schools since there is no standard for the SEC honor programs. She is particularly concerned about Dean Snyder’s proposal that the SHC should require a senior honors thesis, like that of Ole Miss and LSU. Thus, although Knight notes SHC is less rigorous in terms of requirements, she somehow feels it isn’t behind these schools, which are clearly MSU’s competitors.
Whatever the case, there is a lot of room for improvement in our student’s research and writing skills. I say this as a professor at MSU who has also taught and worked with students from other universities and colleges. Knight claims a writing requirement is “tangential,” especially she suggests, for engineers. She doesn’t know the ability to write about one’s disciple — even if one is an engineer or agriculturalist — is a necessary skill and ability.  To think otherwise is to be ignorant of how academia and the professional world, in general, operate. She would know this if she had more than two years experience in academia.  She should, however, know it already.
Oddly, Knight states that rather than require writing, SHC should first “implement honors advising to connect students with resources that can help them.”  The irony is all universities are structured around the idea that writing an extended paper under the guidance of professor is the best way for a student to “connect with resources that can help them.”  The fact is in and through the writing process one learns about one’s subject, and this is true for any professional discipline at any level. If Knight is required to write a senior honors thesis she will know this.
Most disappointing was Knight’s statement here: “We don’t need an elite honors college with a fancy name and fancy requirements.” Firstly, this is ungracious and rude since the name “Shackouls” derives from Judy and Bobby Shackouls, who kindly donated their personal funds to support excellences in education at MSU.  Thus, the name isn’t “fancy” in the pejorative sense implied by Knight, but it is meant to honor the donors who have made the honors college possible. Secondly, MSU does need an elite honors college, and there is nothing fancy about a senior thesis.  There is something sadly complacent about Knight’s ideas, as if all MSU students and faculty wish to stubbornly seek second, third or fourth best.  I do know there are many students who desire excellence in their work, and not the sub-standard Knight argues for.  I hope they will voice their views, too.