concrete bench under a large oak tree outside UCA's Administrative Building. Schedler asked Farris if the university could offer remedial courses to students who needed them, could it not also offer a comprehensive program for what he called the "severely gifted"? What if it could start an Honors College offering talented students an intensive approach to learning within the broader university? What if it could democratize a first-rate education in a state not otherwise recognized for educational excellence? "The context for the conversation was our desire to do more for our good students academically and to help recruit and keep good students," wrote Schedler, "especially if UCA was to make its mark as the quality undergraduate program in the state." Farris said little that day, letting his friend talk through the idea, but three days later he got a note: "That is one of the best ideas I've heard of in a long time. I want one of those by next fall. What do you need?" Schedler had actually begun thinking about founding an Honors College on the campus almost a year earlier. The idea for such an institution first emerged in a conversation between Schedler and Michael Kelley, another faculty member. Schedler and Kelley argued, first to fellow professor Phillip Anderson and then to administration officials, that the establishment of an Honors College might help UCA recruit and retain talented undergraduates, and improve the stature of the university as a whole. President Farris, Vice President Marvin DeBoer, and Dean Robert M. McChesney all agreed that the idea had merit, and recommended that a full study be undertaken to consider Schedler's proposal. Schedler accepted the university's invitation to create the UCA Honors College and was named its first director. Schedler initiated an Honors pilot program in the fall of 1982 with an initial appropriation of six hundred dollars. Other early contributors of time and talent included UCA faculty members James Brodman, Eugene Corcoran, Robert Lowrey, and Helen Phillips. The first recruiting class of 1982 included sixty freshmen, together comprising an average ACT score of 26.8. A special Honors Center for honors class instruction was outfitted in the summer of 1983. The Honors program derived its pedagogical underpinnings from the traditional small liberal arts college. The Honors College jealously guarded its small class sizes, intimate teacher/student relationships, a dedicated faculty with tenure in Honors, and intense studies of a variety of