Barrett commemorates 20 years of excellence
<p>Barrett, the Honors College, will celebrate its 20th anniversary during ASU Homecoming this year with a festive event for alumni, current students and faculty, and some of the key people who brought the college into existence.</p><separator></separator><p>Former ASU President Lattie Coor, founding Barrett dean Ted Humphrey and current dean Mark Jacobs will speak at a celebration beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 14 in the Center Complex Courtyard. To commemorate 20 years of excellence in honors education, Barrett alumni will be recognized for their scholarly and professional achievements.</p><separator></separator><p>A 6 p.m. dinner also will feature a special message from Finland by U.S. Ambassador Barbara Barrett, followed by the traditional “Lantern Walk” up A Mountain.</p><separator></separator><p>It was in July of 1988 that the Arizona Board of Regents authorized the creation of the “University Honors College,” naming philosophy professor Ted Humphrey as founding dean. A month later the college opened its offices in McClintock Hall, as the first residential honors college in the United States.</p><separator></separator><p>Humphrey helped create a college from scratch that would fit within a large public university, offering a rigorous core curriculum, summer study abroad, undergraduate research and wide-ranging internship opportunities.</p><separator></separator><p>In 2000 the college received an endowment of $10 million from Craig and Barbara Barrett, and it was named in their honor the following spring. In the years since its founding, the college has become a force that has shaped the student body, helping ASU enroll 583 National Merit Scholars in last year’s student body, up from two dozen in 1991.</p><separator></separator><p>The college moved to the Center Complex of Irish, Best and Hayden Halls in 1996, and Jacobs joined the college in 2003 when Humphrey returned to the classroom.</p><separator></separator><p>A new nine-acre Barrett complex is scheduled to open for the fall of 2009, as the first four-year residential honors college within a public university in the nation. It will include a sustainable living and learning community, and will feature a dining hall, multi-use classrooms and meeting spaces, a fitness center and an outdoor amphitheater for teaching.</p><separator></separator><p>For more information or to RSVP please visit <a href="http://honors.asu.edu">http://honors.asu.edu</a>. The Barrett Homecoming festivities continue on Nov. 15, when the college will host a tent at the Block Party.</p>