The honors program at Iowa State may soon have a new administrative director after the second of two interview forums was completed Thursday.

Laurie Fiegel is a candidate for administrative director for the honors program at Iowa State.

She comes from New York as an administrative honors director of the honors college at Stony Brook University where she has been since 1996.

She talked about the role of honors in the 21st century at a Research I institution.

“The Board of Commissions put together a report a few years back in 1998 that talked about where undergraduate education is going on Research I campuses,” Fiegel said.

The report said a Research I institute is identified as giving out 50 or more doctoral degrees, receives more than $40 million in federal support and is mainly a research facility, Fiegel said.

There are only 88 Research I institutes in the United States, Fiegel said.

“According to the Boyer Report, there needs to be a symbiotic relationship on campus between the kind of undergraduate experience available only at research institutions,” Fiegel said.

“Our students need to start engaging in their education.”

She encourages outside work and ongoing research projects throughout college careers, so students have some capstone experience.

“When you’re working with honors students, you start to introduce them to the idea of research, to the idea of being part of a team and the responsibility of research,” Fiegel said.

She feels students need to work on a senior thesis so that students have the benefit of the writing component.

“You have to be able to write,” Fiegel said. “It’s a good opportunity for interdisciplinary education.”

Gene Takle, interim director of agronomy and geological and atmospheric sciences and faculty director of the University Honors program, said he is delighted to have Fiegel on campus.

Fiegel believes that Iowa State has a strong honors program that is connected with its students.

She also has a student affairs background, where she worked in the residence halls at Stony Brook.

Takle said he wonders why Fiegel would leave the cosmopolitan area to come to Iowa State and wonders why Iowa State appeals to her.

“Because I have a lot of the programmatic background, I think that helps when you’re coming into a program,” Fiegel said.

“I think having somebody with both backgrounds – the academic side and the programmatic side – proves a good skill set. You can work with students and understand the student prospective.”

She said she wants to look at the program and look at what is working. She doesn’t want to come in and change everything.

Fiegel said she also doesn’t want new students to come to Iowa State and be lost, but wants them to feel connected.

“One thing you never want to happen to a first-year student when they’re on campus is for them to walk around and for them to have no place to go,” Fiegel said.