February 24, 2025
Newsletter link: https://mailchi.mp/ffe30698b249/this-week-in-honors-feb-24-2025
- From the Director
- This Week in Honors
- Advising Updates
- Service Updates
- Honors Student Association
- Outside of Honors
From the Director
Folks,
I hope you have had great weekends and have been able to get out to enjoy the warmup. With temperatures touching 60F in the first half of the week, be sure to take a walk—it’s important to introduce intervals into work and study. To pause. To breathe.
So, first a huge thanks to all the students, staff, and faculty who assisted in Honors Scholars Day on Friday, 21 February. We had great turnout—about 160 potential students attended—and there was an enthusiastic charge to the day. It will be a few weeks before we know for sure, but it feels like a success. And that success is a testament to all of you—to both your excellence and your investment.
In particular, I want to thank the student (and recent alumni) speakers, each of whom were impressive—thoughtful and moving: Moayad “ Moe” Abuzaneh and Lucia Knapp (who started us off and welcomed the Provost); Jayson Evans, Emily Rosenthal, Maxwell Zinzilieta, and Kendra Mackey (who were with me, talking to students and then their parents), and; Giselle Krikorian, Maisy Garrison, and Aly Abou-Zaid (who wrapped up the day, talking about their university experience and the important place the JMHP has had in it).
Watching them, I could see—individually and together—the best of the John Martinson Honors Program. Their curiosity, their poise, their service, their ability to collaborate, their resilience, their thoughtfulness, their vulnerability, their care, their effort to balance tradition and innovation, their adaptability, and their willingness to lean into the hard work that they each faced: they embodied the ideals of the JMHP. In their mirror, I hope you saw yourselves too.
Mirrors can degrade, of course, giving back dull or distorted images. Blank spaces can open in them—‘holes’ which reflect nothing. Often what is happening is that the silver backing of the mirror is peeling off, de-adhering. As the reflective surface pulls away from the glass, the reflection distorts and eventually splotches of emptiness open in the mirror. Blank zones. It seems that something like that can happen in society, too. Is that happening to us?
In Spring Snow, Mishima suggests that the tensions and contradictions of Taisho Japan become so extreme that some people fail to see themselves in the conventions, norms, and habits of their time, while, at the same time, those social habits and institutions fail to address the needs of the people. Kiyoaki is swallowed by such a blank zone: “the image he cherished was formed in a mirror backed with thin, brittle foil that was easily torn away to reveal nothing but a dismal blankness. His tears soaked his pillow and he called her name again and again through the night in helpless frustration.” This collapse of the reflective circuitry of society can lead to radically different types of behavior: indifference, withdrawal into past traditions, pursuit of fantasies, or, in Kiyoaki’s case, pursuit of impossibility. Mishima: “from the very beginning, you’ve been bewitched by impossibility,” Honda tells his friend, Kiyoaki, “something which is outside the scope of authority or money. You were drawn in precisely because the whole thing [Kiyoaki’s pursuit of his love interest, Satoko] was impossible.” In Kiyoaki’s case, the pursuit of his impossible desire leads to greater and greater efforts to achieve an impossible end: “hope and despair, dream and reality now come together to cancel each other out.” Finding no end to his desire, it grows monstrously and consumes him. Kiyoaki is killed (or kills himself) by the mismatch between what he desires and what he can achieve. His desires are unbounded because of the rapid transformations of everyday life in Japan, leading to a collapse of taken for granted norms. Spring Snow seems to be an examination of what Emile Durkheim called anomie. And it would seem an important concept for us to have in our thinking kit as we diagnosis our own time.
As Kiyoaki lay dying—consumed by his misdirected desire—his friend Honda is observing: “One of them lay critically ill for the sake of love. The other was preparing himself for the grave demands of reality.” Because, if the peeling of the tain of society’s mirror leads to destructive behaviors—the self-destructive pursuit of impossibility—it can also lead to the invention of new norms that can organize rational hope. We’ll see what Honda is capable of in Runaway Horses, the sequel to Spring Snow. Regardless of Honda’s fictional abilities, I wonder if we are capable of building a world which provides wide and rational belief in hope. What are the conditions for the possibility of such hope?
Minimally, the wide and equitable cultivation of certain skills and abilities. Skills and abilities that the JMHP is trying to nurture. This week we will be launching the first of our workshops—opportunities to work with faculty and other honors students to strengthen and refine basic skills. The first one will be this Tuesday, 25 February, at 5pm in the Bluff Multi-Purpose Room. I’ll be providing some rules of thumb for good practices of reading and how to carry them into success in a discussion based, seminar-style class. I hope to see some of you there! The rest—dealing with topics like public speaking, active listening, and research—will be coming; watch for an announcement!
Also, from 27-31 March there will be events in the Fuller Dome, celebrating Buckminster Fuller. As you hone skills in your professions, don’t forget that it is important to also hone the imagination. Why? Because, as Fuller stated, “Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction manual came with it.” Make sure to visit the Fuller Dome if you can this week (or any week) and contemplate our responsibility.
And please keep sending me accomplishments: in honors and out; in the classroom and out; in Greek life or athletics or your spiritual lives! I look forward to showcasing the remarkable work you are all doing. Hope you have great weeks!
This Week in Honors
- Fly High workshops begin with READING EFFECTIVELY & PARTICIPATING IN DISCUSSION CLASSES with Dr. Eric Ruckh at Bluff Multifunction Room TUESDAY, February 25th at 5pm. Drinks and Dewey's pizza will be provided.
- Shape the Honors curriculum, join the shark tank competition to pitch a course idea!
- For 1st years: Suitable tasks added for Learning Lounges and Gaggle!
Advising Reminders
- Advising appointments are available on Starfish for Summer/Fall 2025. Sign up now!
- Pre-work before advising is now available: https://www.siue.edu/provost/honors/advising/forms.shtml
- Drop-In Advising for quick questions and support with your advisor can be done in-person or virtually.
- Ian In-Person Wednesdays 9:30-11:30
- Carol & Meagan Digital Drop-In Wednesdays 1:30-4:30
- Tisha In-Person Wednesdays 2:00-4:00
- Everyone In-Person Fridays 2:30-4:30
Service Updates
- Promote STEM through outreach with local communities. Contact our own Lillian Waghorn with questions! Check out the flyer here.
Honors Student Association
- Calling all investigators! The HSA Escape Room is coming up quickly, with this year's theme being Murder Mysteries. Will you be able solve the puzzles and answer the mysteries before time runs out? Registration is officially open. Not interested in putting your investigation skills to the test? Check out the opportunities for service hours! With any questions, please contact dhindri@siue.edu
- Volunteer Sign Up: Help run our escape rooms the nights of the event!
- Trial Run: Get service hours helping test the escape room, but be quick! Only 16 spots are available.
- Have questions about upcoming events, HSA, or college life in general? Come talk with an HSA Representative at our Kimmel desk! This week's schedule includes Monday 3 - 4 (rep Annie), Tuesday 9 - 11 (rep Olivia), and Wednesday 11 - 12 (rep Rachel). Calendar here: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/2?cid=c2l1ZWhzYUBnbWFpbC5jb20
- HSA is collaborating with JMHP to bring back our annual Shark Tank event. Have an idea for an honors class you wish was taught? Present your idea to a panel of faculty members with the opportunity to make your dream a reality!
Outside of Honors
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Super quick, 2-question survey about social book club interest. This particular group is more focused on the social aspect of the club. There are no reading requirements or monthly discussions surrounding a specific book. Rather, in each meeting, we can discuss any recommendations, upcoming releases, and other bookish activities. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Megan Knight at meknigh@siue.edu.
- LGBTea Empowerment Group, Meeting March 18 and April 15 in LL 3021 from 2:30pm - 4:00pm. Connect with fellow LGBTQ+ students in a judgment-free space. Come as you are! Contact Lisa Lilek or Sara Beiermann for more information. Flyer here.
The Fuller Dome on campus is holding a 90th Day Celebration, a special five-day event from 3/27-3/31. Everyone is encouraged to attend part or all of the event offerings. In addition to the event, some special opportunities have been opened for Honors Students.
- Attend the dress rehearsal for the one man play 'R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe' written by D. W. Jacobs. (date/time TBD, likely either Friday, February 28th or Sunday, March 2nd). It will be a full dress rehearsal and the Playwright and Actor would love an audience. It will also be a good opportunity for you to see the play for free, as the actual event dates are ticketed. Contact Tovia Black for final dates and to see if space is available.
- Participate in the two interactive events, with preference that you can commit to participate in both part 1&2, especially the World Peace Game.
Friday 3/28/25
*8:00am – 11:30am: World Resource Simulation Center Part 1
With Local bioregional concerns
11:30am – 12:30pm: Lunch (MUC cafeteria)
*1:00pm – 3:30pm: World Resource Simulation Center Part 2
With Local bioregional concerns
**We'll have 6 computer screens with real life data that we'll be working with, in teams of 2-3 students each
AND
Saturday 3/29/25
*8:00am – 11:30am: World Peace Game Part 1
11:30am – 12:30pm: Lunch (MUC cafeteria)
*1:00pm – 4:30pm: World Peace Game Part 2
**This is an interactive, cooperative role-playing game with the goal of equally distributing world resources, using a floor sized dymaxion map as the game board.
The 2 events mentioned above will be free for the students who actively participate, and we'll have some other free events offered as well. Official flyer with full list of events to be shared soon!
