CAC’s honors program is on hold until the fall of 2022.  

The CAC Honors program did not accept any new students this fall and possibly will not be accepting any new students this coming spring of 2022. However, those already in the program will still receive scholarships and be considered Honors students. Although much is still in the air, the tentative time that the honors program may be reinstated is the fall of 2022.  

CAC is currently undergoing a reorganization and is hiring new staff to fill in positions, and one area affected by this reorganization is the Honors program. When talking about the college, Kinsey McKinney, a professor of English and an Honors program faculty member, stated, “They just don’t know where Honors fits right now.” As CAC moves things around, the honors program has been put on the shelf to be reinstated at a later time.     

The main purpose of the Honors program at CAC is to provide students who are passionate about academics a place to thrive. It encourages like-minded students to work together and help each other while completing large projects. The honors program is a great way for students to get accepted into Honors programs at four-year universities in the future.   

In the past, to be admitted to the honors program a student had to be recommended by a professor or an advisor. If a student wished to graduate with honors, they needed to dedicate nine credits to the honors program. Six credits were for the two Honors Colloquium classes, and the other three were set aside for three Honors Seminar classes, which were one credit each. 

Future honors students may experience the program differently.  In an interview, McKinney stated, “I imagine the program will take a very different look when and if it does return.” McKinney said that upon its return, the Honors program may change to a new style. Instead of offering Honors Colloquium or Seminar classes, the college will have an Honors version of select classes. This model will be tested with a new Honors English 102 class. Similar to systems used in other universities and high schools, the Honors English class would not replace a regular English 102 class. In this model, a student would need to be recommended by their English 101 professor or an advisor in order to enroll in the Honors English class.  

If you visited CAC’s web page for the Honors program here, then you probably noticed Phi Theta Kapa and the academic team as well. What are these organizations? Phi Theta Kapa “PTK” is its own entity. PTK is recognized by The American Association of Community Colleges as the international academic honors society for two-year colleges. The academic team sprouts from Phi Theta Kapa and is a way for students to receive scholarships. 

The Honors program will most likely be reinstated in the fall semester of 2022. For more information about the program, please contact Professor McKinney at [email protected] or Mary K Gilliland, Vice President of Academic Affairs, at [email protected].