New Honors House plans in place

By Leah Miza, Photo Editor

A new Honors House is being funded by anonymous donors and will be built where the former Inter-Faith House stands.

Twenty-seven students will be able to move into the new house by fall 2017.

Amanda Barry, student honors program coordinator, said the honors program has been seeking to create a larger sense of community for the past several years.

“It was expressed that having a larger house where more students—30, give or take—could live and interact together would help to achieve this goal,” she said.

Amy McClure, co-director of the honors program, said the new structure will possibly host seminars, classes and study rooms.

“We have an office and study area but we can’t get in it,” she said. “It’s locked all the time. So, we don’t really have a space that’s viable.”

McClure discussed another idea that was tossed around. “For the upstairs, we’re looking at different configurations of rooms. One of the things that they have suggested are special singles that are very small. That encourages people to mingle in the common area.”

Amy Downing, co-director of the program, said, “The house will have more common spaces and some teaching spaces in the form of small seminar rooms. The Honors Board will be working closely with students to determine how to best utilize these new resources in the context of the broader Honors Program at OWU.”

Although not much can be said on the donors, McClure said, “They’re very interested in the honors program, so it just became a natural fit.”

The current Honors House will be passed on to a current Small Living Unit, said Colleen Garland, director of development.