When you look into the future, what do you see?
This million-dollar question has been on the mind of the Honors community at The University of Alabama for several months. With the arrival of a new dean and serious renovations to Nott Hall on the horizon, it’s easy to feel lost in the shuffle of change, especially if you’re a senior like me and will be departing from campus just as a new chapter of Honors begins. In reality, however, the Honors College has always been a place of change, good changes – changes in mindset, changes in perception, and changes in curiosity. Even this magazine is changing. Perhaps the mysteries of the future, then, are already revealed unto us in the present. In this edition, we propose an answer to the question of the future in the form of a question of our own: “Who is the Honors College?”
We’ve included stories of Honors faculty and staff and the impact they’ve left on students’ college journeys, stories of what the Honors experience looks like, and stories of Honors students who challenge tradition to bring about positive change on campus. These stories are bound by the central question of Honors identity, and their unique answers bear witness to the diversity and heterogeneity of our community. In the past, this magazine has formed around themes centered on the Tuscaloosa community, campus history, the arts scene, and others. This time, we’re keeping things close to home.
When I joined MOSAIC Magazine as a writer, I was already heavily involved in the Honors College, and I knew I had a voice I could contribute through my writing. Now that I serve as the editor, it’s clear to me how naive I was a year ago. The real message – the real voice – is more than each story we present here. The real voice is every story working together towards a central idea, and that’s what we present here in this edition.
To all the Honors administrators, instructors, staff, Honors students past, present, and future, to the Nott Hall all-nighters, to everyone who has given a little piece of themselves to this institution – this one is yours.
-Will Raney, Editor in Chief
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