Scholars Snub

With more than 450 Chancellor’s Scholarships being tossed at the best high school graduates in the state, University of Arkansas administrators thought enrollment in the UA’s College of Arts and Sciences honors program would increase by as much as 75 percent this fall.

But if summer freshman orientation is any indication, the number of potential honors students planning to attend the UA was up only slightly from last year.

Bernard Madison, dean of the Fulbright College, says about 170 students who were qualified for the honors program attended two sessions of orientation specifically for potential honors students. That compares to about 150 last year.

“That’s not as much as we anticipated,” says Madison. “It’s a little confusing. There are a lot of things that don’t add up yet. … With all the effort, we expected more than have shown up. It’s just not the large numbers we might have had considering the potential.”