ORONO – Two years after it was created, the Honors College at the University of Maine is growing by leaps and bounds, attracting an increasing number of academically motivated students seeking small classes, challenging courses and opportunities to work closely with faculty.

An outgrowth of the former honors program established in 1935, the Honors College has 650 students, up from 500 in 2002, when it was first established. Seven years ago, 225 students were enrolled in what was then still a program.

The aim is to “provide an academic and intellectual community for students who are looking to get the very most out of their education,” said Charlie Slavin, newly appointed dean of the college, who previously served as director of the program.

For students, who are chosen based on their high school grades and SAT scores, the Honors College comprises the best of two worlds.

“I get the intimacy of a liberal arts college, but I also get all the resources of a large research university,” said Seth Robertson, a junior microbiology major from Woodland.

The University of Maine isn’t the only place where the honors curriculum is thriving. The number of honors colleges and programs is increasing nationwide, in part because public institutions are trying to compete with private institutions to attract top students, said Norman Weiner, president of the Iowa-based National Collegiate Honors Council, the professional organization for honors colleges and programs.

Also, “there is a genuine interest in improving higher education, especially when it comes to the very best students, who often get lost in the shuffle,” said Weiner, director of the honors program at the State University of New York at Oswego.

There are 50 honors colleges and 850 honors programs across the country, varying in size, structure, budgets and curriculum. But they all “emphasize ideas rather than information,” Weiner said.

Unlike in high school, where honors courses often mean more work or a higher level of difficulty, in higher education honors classes are “more discussion-oriented, aimed at critical and analytical thinking,” he said.

During their first four semesters at UM, honors students read the Bible as well as texts from Darwin, Machiavelli, Plato, Shakespeare and other great thinkers to get “a sense of the breadth of human intellectual questioning,” Slavin said.

As juniors, they participate in small group discussions that focus on specific topics such as “just and unjust wars” and “ethical and social dilemmas in biology.”

When they are seniors, honors students write a thesis and put together a list of 12-15 texts – defined loosely to include books, movies, works of art and music – that have influenced them, either positively or negatively. Part of their thesis defense is a discussion about their selections.

Lauren Reich, a freshman, likes the program because it requires her to read books she wouldn’t have chosen on her own.

“The Great Dialogues of Plato is something I normally wouldn’t be exposed to,” said the Connecticut native, who is majoring in art education. “It opens up a completely different world of thinking.”

Rachel Lombardi, a sophomore from Turner, didn’t hesitate to enroll in the Honors College. “I was looking for a way to expand my understanding of the world,” said the history major.

Students and faculty in the Honors College, who come from a variety of fields and departments throughout the campus, each lend a different point of view, said Slavin, a former math professor.

“We’re looking at questions the way a historian, a biologist, and a philosopher might look at them,” he said. “It’s all those perspectives being mixed up when you talk about important texts and big questions that make it so exciting.”

That was the draw for Kirstin Cloutier of Cushing, a senior majoring in communications, who considered applying to Maine’s small liberal arts schools but changed her mind when she heard about UM’s Honors College.

“I like the idea that you could be in a class and there’s a chemistry major and a philosophy major debating the reading from last night. It’s very interesting to see what people from different academic fields bring to a discussion,” she said.

The difference between an honors college and honors program currently is cloudy, according to Weiner of the National Collegiate Honors Council. He said the council plans at its conference next month to examine characteristics that could be used to define an honors college.

At UM, Slavin said he held off making the transition from program to college. “At first I wasn’t sure we had either the curriculum or the number of students or the campuswide connections I wanted us to have. We worked on all of those things,” he said.

Now, more faculty members are connected with the Honors College, the number of honors courses that honors students must take has been increased, and the honors curriculum has been expanded so that classes satisfy most of UM’s general education and graduation requirements.

Most important, said Slavin, “honors associates” have been hired to work with the admissions office; advise first- and second-year students and help them fit honors classes into their schedules; support seniors while they write their thesis; organize trips to honors conferences; and plan for the annual honors alumni gatherings, among other things.

“I believe they’re what enabled us to support the transition,” Slavin said. The associates, who are required to have graduated from the honors program within the last four years, have “instant credibility with the students,” he added.

Jonathan Beever, 24, an honors associate from Cornish who graduated from the Honors College last year, thought the position “would be a way to give back.

“But it’s not quite like giving back, because so much is given to me. I get the opportunity to transition from student to professional,” he said.

The Honors College continues to evolve. A second honors residence hall has been established and there’s a new requirement that students attend five cultural events either on campus or in the Bangor area and then write about their reaction.

In addition, the college has begun issuing an annual magazine, Minerva, named for the goddess of wisdom. The publication, which is produced by the Honors Associates, highlights the achievements of honors students and connects the college with its 800 alumni. It could serve as a recruiting tool, Slavin said.

A big part of the change from program to college has been in mindset, he said. “A program is something you do, … a college is something you’re a part of, something you belong to. When making the transition, we worked very hard to make certain that we created a community – a college.”