Honors program lectures focus on hobbits, elves
By Vanessa Quanstrom
IV Leader Staff, Oct. 2, 2003
IVCC offers a wide array of programs, clubs, organizations, sports teams, and mini-courses to keep students busy all year round.
Among these is the Honors Colloquium Program which every semester offers lectures about pre-assigned readings.
In the past, the Honors Colloquium has discussed books such as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and “Cinderella.”
Numerous first-rate speakers, including the nationally renowned Connie Neal, have come to our campus to lecture.
This semester the Honors Colloquium’s Lectures will be based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”
All Hobbit lovers are welcome to join these lectures that will take those participating into the heart of the Middle Earth and back.
Tara Coburn, English instructor, and Michael Phillips, geology instructor, have presented “The Controversy of Allegory in the Lord of the Rings” and “the Geology and Geography of the Middle Earth” respectively.
The next lecture is schedule to be Oct. 8 when Michael Foster from the Illinois Central College in Peoria will come to talk about “An Unexpected Party: Tolkien in the 1960s”.
Other speakers will include instructor and local attorney Vincent Brolley, philosophy instructor Robert Abele, and Kimberly Radek, English instructor and faculty director of the Honors Program.
The Honors Program’s lectures take place every other Wednesday from 2 to 3:50 p.m. in room F-114 (in front of the auditorium).
Although students have to have been accepted in the program to be enrolled in the course, the lectures are open to the public.
To be an Honors Program member a student must have a minimum G.P.A. of 3.5. Entering freshmen must have an ACT of 26 or higher and the student must maintain his or her grades.
Members are required to write an insightful essay to evaluate each lecture and, upon completion of the semester, the department grants the honors students (those not in financial aid) a tuition reimbursement portion of credit classes.
Being a member of the Honors Program can open doors, but most important it can open your eyes to a more challenging academic world, according to members.
For information on the Honors program, contact Radek at 224-0395.