The Aquinas Scholars Honors Program is seeking improvement this fall by adding a Living Learning Community and changing its academic requirements for membership.
Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Michael Jordan said the program has been in a continual state of development, but St. Thomas is always looking for new ways to enhance it.
Along with the addition of the LLC, philosophy professor and Program Director Steve Laumakis is developing plans to make the program more prestigious. Laumakis said he hopes to raise the bar in terms of requirements for incoming freshmen.
It currently takes a score of 28 on the ACT, 1200 on the SAT and a high school GPA of 3.5 to receive an invitation into the honors program. Laumakis aims to raise these requirements to a 30 or 31 on the ACT, 1300 on the SAT and 3.6 GPA.
“We can return to an original vision, promote community within the honors program and give the participants of the Aquinas Scholars a better reputation,” Laumakis said.
Though Laumakis said the program will lose some good, hard-working students by raising the bar, so many incoming students qualify for the Aquinas Scholars Honors Program that he sees this as a sign standards need to go up.
Laumakis added that certain departments have pushed back against raising the program’s academic standards.
“I get concern from faculty board members from the hard sciences in particular. (Science majors) take more difficult courses, and hence, it is more difficult for them to have a high GPA,” Laumakis said.
Senior Maddie Saarela, who serves as the president of the Student Board of Aquinas Scholars, said these changes will undoubtedly prompt a discussion about what the focus of the Aquinas Scholars program should be.
“I sympathize with the hard sciences, but by increasing the requirements for the program, we are also increasing the benefits that one receives by entering into it,” Saarela said.
Senior Olga Zamulko, who serves as the vice president of the Student Board of Aquinas Scholars and is graduating soon with a bachelor’s degree in biology, said hard work will be required from those who pursue science majors while being a part of the program.
“The higher GPA would be possible … but would require hard work and commitment from the students. However, many students in the sciences choose to pursue a graduate degree after college, so they are already conscious of their GPA and work hard at it,” Zamulko said.
Jordan is excited for the chance for students to carry their academic interests outside of the classroom.
“Intellectual climate is always going to be improved when we have enhanced academic activities, when we encourage students to continue conversations in the residence halls or on the playing fields or throughout campus,” Jordan said.
Jeffrey Langan can be reached at lang5466@stthomas.edu.