March 18, UAB Unveils Newly Renovated Spencer Honors House

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Honors Program will mark a new beginning this month with the unveiling of the newly renovated Spencer Honors House during a special dedication ceremony.

Posted on March 14, 2002 at 3:53 p.m.

STORY:

  

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Honors Program will mark a new beginning this month with the unveiling of the newly renovated Spencer Honors House during a special dedication ceremony.

WHEN:

  

Monday, March 18, 2002 at 12:30 p.m.

WHERE:

  

Spencer Honors House
1190 10th Avenue South
Birmingham, AL

WHAT:

  

The Spencer Honors House has undergone a major renovation to better accommodate the program’s 200 students who use the building for classes and social events. The 9,231 square-foot church building was constructed in 1901. The renovations to the building were made possible with a $2 million gift from William and Virginia Spencer.

A new roof has been added, and the church has fresh paint inside and out. The church’s sanctuary has been divided into a large lecture hall and, in the other half, a seminar room and several small alcoves where students can study and relax. Other features of the renovated Spencer Honors House include:

  • Four new offices for staff and a large reception area downstairs;

  • A large recreation area where students can socialize, relax or study;

  • A second seminar room downstairs;

  • A computer room that holds up to eight computers

“The old Honors House accommodated the art history department as well as the Honors Program,” said Ada Long, Ph.D., the program’s director. “The renovated Spencer Honors House is exclusively for the Honors Program, and all classes, extracurricular activities and social events will take place there. Students will no longer develop eyestrain in the old dim lecture hall … Passersby can notice the new lighting at night through the magnificent stained glass windows that, for the first time, show off their true colors while illuminated from inside.

“With the renovations,” she said, “we can now accommodate more classes and activities now that we have two seminar rooms and a lot more flexible space.”

UAB Honors Program Facts

  • The UAB Honors Program provides gifted and highly motivated students with an intimate, innovative and challenging, interdisciplinary course of study. The program is limited to a total enrollment of 200 students. A maximum of 50 students are selected for the program annually.

  • The Honors Program courses are team taught by faculty from various disciplines, including English, biology, engineering, biochemistry, business, psychology and theology. Students take at least 33 hours of Honors coursework to graduate.

  • Students have frequent individual contact with the teaching faculty and have numerous opportunities for independent projects and research related to the central theme.

  • UAB Honors Program courses are organized thematically and cover a broad range of material so that students are introduced to all the areas covered by the core curriculum requirements and to a wide variety of other areas as well. Topics of past courses have included: “The Nature/Nurture Debate,” “Ethics,” “Creativity in the Arts and Sciences” and “The Environment: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.” The courses change each year.

  • Through the Honors Program, students are given opportunities to participate in numerous extracurricular activities and social-service projects each year.

  • Students in the UAB Honors Program have won major scholarships and awards, including Rhodes, Marshall, Truman and Fulbright and the National Science Foundation fellowships.