ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 22, 1997 TAG: 9702240045
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BRIEFLY PUT
* HUNDREDS of American colleges and universities have honors programs. Popular since the 1940s, they offer special classes and programs for outstanding students; they are, among other things, a device for lesser-known public institutions to recruit students who might otherwise be attracted to academically elite colleges and universities.
Now, reports The Christian Science Monitor, a new trend has come along: establishing not just honors programs, but honors colleges. Since 1993, the number of honors colleges has doubled to about 40.
But what's the difference between an honors program and an honors college? In concept, very little. But in perceptions, apparently, a lot. Honors "colleges" attract somewhat more student interest than honors "programs," reports The Monitor - and a lot more donations. Don't look for the trend to end anytime soon.
* ACTOR Robert Redford was at President Clinton's side last fall when Clinton designated 1.7 million acres in southern Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Now, Utah legislators who opposed the monument are pushing a resolution to study whether to make part of Redford's 6,000-acre resort in Provo Canyon a protected wilderness.
But the lawmakers' effort to make a point dramatizes one they don't intend. Redford owns his 6,000 acres. The 1.7 million acres set aside in the new national monument is public land, owned by all Americans - of whom Utah anti-environmentalists are a tiny minority.
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB