Undergraduate Academic Affairs

October 28, 2010

Expanded Role for Honors Program Director

Undergraduate Academic Affairs

James J. Clauss

James J. Clauss recently accepted an expanded role in Undergraduate Academic Affairs and is now associate dean in addition to his work as the director of the Honors Program.Photo courtesy of University Week

James J. Clauss, director of the Honors Program, has accepted an expanded his role in Undergraduate Academic Affairs and is now associate dean.

As associate dean, Clauss will increase collaboration across campus between Honors and campus partners; work to create partnerships that recruit a diversity of high-achieving students; continue to facilitate the implementation of the new Honors curriculum and consider its potential for other areas of campus or other campuses; collaborate nationally with other Honors programs; and continue to build and frame the work of Honors around the region. This expanded portfolio will also formally align the Honors Program with the Robinson Center.

For Clauss, the new role is “structurally logical” but is also recognition of the importance of Honors as an integral part of the University. Quick to shine the spotlight elsewhere, he says the increased profile of the Honors Program is due to the talent and dedication of the Honors Program staff who have long advocated for the changes that have been made in the new curriculum.

“Jim has supported Honors through the process of re-visioning the Honors curriculum to wonderful results,” says Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. “He brings an open mindset, scholarly focus and spirit of collaboration to each new endeavor. Honors and UAA will benefit from having Jim in an expanded role and the University will as well.”

The Honors Program creates an academic community for UW undergraduates seeking interdisciplinary and experiential learning experiences in preparation for cutting-edge research in their majors and beyond. Honors brings faculty together from many and diverse units on campus and recruits students from across the state and around the world. The program asks students to take intellectual risks; to seek an understanding of the interdependence of all branches of knowledge; to take leadership roles in confronting global change; to see the complexities of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, and nationality; and to value a life of continuous learning and personal growth.