Message from the Dean

I have spent nearly 20 years in higher education, and I continue to be amazed by the proactive and enthusiastic nature of college students.  This is especially evident in the LSU Honors College community, where the students need little encouragement to take the initiative to achieve academic excellence, create a sense of community and build the foundation of leadership the Honors College advocates.

The results speak for themselves.  Honors students compete annually for prestigious awards like the Goldwater and Truman Scholarships, hold high leadership positions in various organizations at LSU and make things happen in and around our community.  Most recently, two of our students – Sarah Berard and Heather Kirk – were honored with the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships which will send them to Spain and France respectively to pursue their education and engage in community service. 

This past October 250 of our students embarked on a trip to New Orleans in a group build of homes in St. Bernard Parish and Central City.  In partnership with Shell Oil Company, the LSU Honors College centered the project on a current course that deals with the aftermath of a disaster. Jed Horne, author of Breach of Faith joined the group, and the fervor with which they attacked this project truly makes one proud. 

A hallmark of The Honors College is the student teacher interaction that happens in our small seminar classes.  One such class is our newly created HNRS 2021:  “Cinema: Fantasy and Reality.”  Highlighted in this E-Newsletter is both the professor (an Honors College alum) and participants of this class.

And as Louisiana State University grows in popularity and exposure in the wake of the 2008 BCS National Champion Tigers, the Honors College program continues to grow and expand as well.  The French House is now the top capital priority of the LSU Board of Regents, renovations have already begun on our Laville residence halls and we have already received over 4,800 student applications for next year!

It’s a great time to be a Tiger!

Dean Nancy Clark

Honors College Student Service and Achievements

Nearly 250 students -- five busloads -- took part in the 2007 Honors College Freshman Service Project in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish as the Honors College partnered with Shell Oil. "Breach of Faith" author Jed Horne, posing in front of one of the groups, visited the volunteer sites and spoke to students. "Breach of Faith" was this year's LSU Summer Reading Program book and was also used in the course HNRS 2000: Critical Analysis and Social Responsibility.

Honors College Freshman Service Project

In October, the Honors College took a huge step forward with its Freshman Service Project as nearly 250 student volunteers converged on the New Orleans area.

In partnership with Shell Oil, Habitat for Humanity and CrossRoads Missions, groups of volunteers worked at different sites in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish – areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – to help expedite the hurricane recovery efforts.

“I’ve done a lot of nailing,” mass communication freshman Ashley Carver said while working with Habitat for Humanity in St. Bernard.  “I know I’m nailing things, and it’s going to build into something.  I’ve done a lot of volunteer things in the past, but it’s always been in segments of time.”

While several groups of volunteers built houses in St. Bernard, another team traveled to Central City to work with CrossRoads, clearing debris and preparing properties for future renovations.

“We moved approximately five yards of sand in and around the sides [of this house], and we de-fenced this property and moved out three cubic yards of trash,“ said CrossRoads staff member Chuck McCoy.

Some students attended the service project as part of their HNRS 2000: Critical Analysis and Social Responsibility course.  Jed Horne, author of “Breach of Faith,” one of the books covered in the course, visited the work sites and spoke with the student volunteers.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” he said.  “I can’t think of a better conjunction of real world experience and academic learning.”

Aside from those attending for the class, many volunteers made the trip on their own.

“It seems like an insignificant thing to do, but it’s all important in the big picture because it makes our life easier the next time we have to work down here,” said McCoy.  “When the younger generation comes in and will take the time to do something to help somebody that they’ve never met and probably never will meet – I love it.”

McCoy and the other volunteer coordinators weren’t the only ones who had a rewarding experience on the service trip.  “It just feels good to be giving back,” Carver said.  “I know there’s so much to be done, and I guess little by little things are getting done.”

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships

Back in Baton Rouge, service continues to be emphasized as two Honors College students have received Rotary Club Ambassadorial Scholarships to fund year-long trips to Europe, where they will live, study and volunteer.

English Literature junior Sarah Berard will be sponsored by the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge for her trip to Spain, where she will study at the Universidad de Valencia.

LSU alumna Heather Kirk graduated in December 2007 with a B.A. in Political Science, will be sponsored by Sunrise Rotary Club of Baton Rouge for her trip to France, where she will study at the Universite de Nice.

Berard and Kirk will be doing more than just studying, however.  “A lot of it is service,” Kirk said.  “A lot of what we do is travelling around and being that face for the United States and getting involved in what we can.  We’re in a unique position as scholars in that they want us to come and be hands on for different programs that they have.”

Both students said the Honors College was instrumental in their scholarship distinction.

“I first heard about the Rotary scholarship from [Director of Fellowship Advising] Dr. Arms,” Berard said.  “Had it not been for her influence, I wouldn’t have known about it, and I wouldn’t have applied.”

“I routinely tell people that the Honors College is one of the two best decisions I made in coming to college,” Kirk said.  “I think it’s been a great resource.”

As part of its four-year plan, the Honors College emphasizes Service during the freshman year.  Kirk and Berard suggested ways that freshmen, along with any interested student, can get involved.

“Try to find something that really pertains to what your goals are,” Berard suggested.  “Try to be very involved in one thing.”

“I’d recommend service organizations,” Kirk said.  “I know the Honors College has a lot of things like that to get involved in.  I would definitely recommend Rotaract.  It’s a great way to get involved with service, and it’s a great affiliation to have.  If any new freshmen are looking to get involved, we’ll take them all.”

Groups of volunteers worked at multiple sites in the New Orleans area, partnering with CrossRoads Missions and Habitat for Humanity. Here, students help prepare property in New Orleans for further development.

CrossRoads volunteer staff member Chuck McCoy chats with Breach of Faith author Jed Horne at the Central City volunteer site.

Honors College junior Sarah Berard (left) and alumna Heather Kirk will travel to Spain and France, respectively, through their Rotary Club Ambassadorial Scholarships.

French House Named Top Renovation Project

While the Honors College student body remains in the upper echelon of the LSU campus community, the core facility of the Honors College has also been given such a distinction.

In October, the Louisiana Board of Regents designated LSU’s French House as the highest priority project on its capital outlay list.  The planned renovations include restoration of the Grand Salon on the first floor and a thorough revamping of the second and third floors to provide additional classroom and office space. 

 “I am thrilled that we will be able to move forward in restoring the beauty of the French House and in serving our wonderful Honors College students,” said Honors College Dean Nancy Clark. “We have succeeded in attracting Louisiana’s very finest students, and they deserve a state-of-the-art educational facility for their training as our future leaders.”

The French House was built in 1935 by the Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth architectural firm, which designed the state capitol and Governor’s Mansion, as well as other campus buildings.

The French House distinction coincides with renovations to the other components of the Honors College campus.  The West Laville residence hall has closed down for the spring semester to have work done, and East Laville Hall will follow suit.  The former Laville Food Emporium, located between the residence halls, has been renamed the 459 Commons and reopened as a first-class dining complex.

When the renovations are completed, LSU will have one of the few Honors College campuses at a public education institution in the country.

(Photo courtesy of Forever LSU)

The Louisiana Board of Regents has tabbed the French House as its top priority. The French House, built in 1935 and designed in the style of a French Chateau, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and houses the LSU Honors College.

HNRS 2021: "Cinema: Fantasy and Reality"

It's unlikely that, in reality, a black monolith would be planted on Earth to coax the evolution of its indigenous species, then thousands of years later reappear on the moon, rocket itself to Jupiter and open a blinding vortex into the threaded fabric of space and time.

Commander David Bowman’s amazing journey is simply a cinematic fantasy portrayed in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The classic film is just one of the list of films to be discussed in the new Honors film course, HNRS 2021:  “Cinema:  Fantasy and Reality.”

English professor Zack Godshall proposed the new course and teaches it Wednesdays from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the French House. 

“The main goal for the course is to encourage students to engage in a participatory way with the cinematic medium, whether with popular films, documentaries, or art films,” he said.  “By exploring the nature of the medium, the way the medium communicates and how the medium affects us individually and socially, we can have a clearer understanding of what is actually happening during the strange and seemingly magical ritual of watching a movie.”

Some of the films viewed and discussed for the class include Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Psycho, Kubrick’s 2001, Orson Welles’ F for Fake, Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line and Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man and Fitzcarraldo.

Godshall will also make a presentation entitled “God’s Architects: a documentary film about fiction and reality” as part of the Honors College Faculty Research Series.  He will show clips from a documentary film he is making and discuss the nature of representing "reality" or "truth" in a documentary film.

“The Honors College promotes inter-disciplinary study in a seminar setting, and so I thought the course would be suited well in such an environment,” Godshall said.  “I also don't remember any cinema courses in the Honors College when I was an Honors student from 1998 to 2000, and so I thought students might be interested to take a Honors Cinema course.” 

As with many of the Honors seminar courses, student participation is critical.  In-class assignments and a group presentation account for 35 percent of a student’s grade.  And Honors students do not disappoint.  Already, on the second day of class, students are passionately debating the personality flaws in Jimmy Stewart’s portrayal of L. B. Jefferies in Rear Window.

“The Honors students bring a willingness to engage in discussion, which is nice since the course hinges on discussion,” Godshall said.  “I also find in Honors students a general desire to comprehend the subject and the problems that we uncover.  There is an experimental nature to the course in that each class, while built upon distinct objectives, embraces an exploratory and experimental attitude.  The Honors students are really open to that approach, which serves well both the course and everyone involved.”

Professor Zack Godshall stays after his HNRS 2021 "Cinema: Fantasy and Reality" course to speak with criminology sophomore Matt Smith about the film, Rear Window.

Honors College Welcomes Autumn Montgomery

The Honors College is proud to welcome Autumn Montgomery, our new Upper Division Academic Adviser.

Montgomery, who previously served as recruiting coordinator for Cox Communications, will also serve as Fellowship Coordinator, working with Dr. Drew Lamonica Arms.  She will assist Upper Division students with their course selections, enhance the Honors Thesis Colloquium and inform students of fellowship deadlines.

With the addition of Autumn Montgomery, Michael Blandino will relinquish his role as Upper Division Academic Adviser and will take over IT duties.

Having graduated as an honors student from the University of New Orleans with a degree in Drama and Communications concentration in film, Montgomery said she had many wonderful, first-hand experiences in honors programs that lured her to the Honors College.

“Actually it’s one of the most exciting places to be a part of,” she said.  “I definitely feel there are a lot of opportunities for progress, and to see Dr. Clark and the rest of the administrative team make such strides and efforts to expand and update the program is very exciting.  I’d like to be a part of that.”

Autumn Montgomery will serve as Upper Division Academic Adviser and as Fellowship Coordinator for the Honors College.

Tiger Tracks: Catching up with Honors Alumni

The Honors College loves hearing back from its former students. Please send us an email to honorsalumni@lsu.edu with an update and a photograph. Please do check back in and tell us and your classmates about your successes and experiences!

Class of 1977

Larry G. Franceski attended Louisiana State University before the Honors College was established. He was instead enrolled in the Honors Division of the College of Arts and Sciences.

After graduating, he received a J.D. from Harvard University in 1980 and was admitted to practice law in Texas that same year.  Now also licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Franceski has been a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. – one of the most prestigious law firms in the country – since 1989.

Franceski has extensive experience in international business transactions and commercial law and was recognized for his experience in financial restructuring in Washingtonian magazine's 2004 "Best Lawyers" issue.  He is also a member of the National Bar Association and the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Larry Franceski ('77) has been a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. since 1989.