Second of six stories
By Rick Vacek | April 10, 2024
Newcomers to the cornerstone program of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College often fail its first test.
They don’t know how to pronounce Collegium V, let alone understand what it implies.
Collegium V, the precursor to the Honors College, features smaller class sizes and more research, internship and extracurricular opportunities … plus an interesting name.
Most say koll-EEJ-ee-uhm, as in college. That’s what several dictionaries decree, too.
But that’s not correct at The University of Texas at Dallas.
Here, the pronunciation is koll-EEG-ee-uhm – as in colleague, with a hard g. The “V” is for the Roman numeral signifying the number 5, which explains why its acronym, CV, is pronounced see-five.
So why is that preferred, and what is the story behind it? It goes back to the classical training of Dr. Dennis Kratz, director of the Center for Asian Studies at UT Dallas.
Kratz was dean of the Office of Undergraduate Education in the early 1990s when he invited a new faculty member, Dr. Edward “Ted” Harpham, to a UT Dallas soccer match. The University had recently started enrolling freshmen, and Harpham was keen on starting an honors program to attract gifted students.
“I told him that if he ever got something going,” Harpham recalled, “he should talk to me.”
Kratz didn’t forget those words, and a few years later he invited Harpham to join a committee that would explore the idea further. There was only one problem: No one in the group truly understood what the components of an honors program should be, and a consultant from another university didn’t narrow it down.
“He basically said, ‘Do what you think you want to do for your students. There is no template. You can do a variety of things.’ It was basically, ‘Figure it out,’” Harpham said. “So, of course, we created an honors program that was going to be harder than all the jeebies.”
There was only one aspect of it that added heebies to Harpham’s jeebies: “I made it clear to everybody that I didn’t want to run it. I was going to teach public policy and political theory for the rest of my life and didn’t want to be an administrator.”
Nevertheless, he couldn’t say no in 1998 when he was asked to take over as manager of the new program. But what should it be called? That’s where Kratz’s knowledge of the classics ramped up.
Choosing “Collegium” was the easy part. It means “college” in Latin.
The meaning behind the “V” wasn’t as obvious. It goes back to the four elements (earth, water, air, fire) designated by the ancient Greeks. Aristotle added a fifth element – the quintessence, or the essence of the experience.
It struck a chord with the creative minds of Kratz and his wife, Dr. Abby Kratz, a former UT Dallas associate provost. The provost, Dr. Hobson Wildenthal, loved it, too. But Harpham said his first reaction was, “Are you crazy, Dennis?”
“This was a Latin scholar saying, ‘You have four undergraduate years. Collegium V will be the essence of your undergraduate education,’” Harpham said.
“The only problem is, I had to explain this to people at everything. They’d say, ‘What is Collegium V?’ I’d say, ‘Well, it’s a name from a classic scholar from Harvard.’ But it was really kind of neat because it was something different.”
As is the program itself. A key part of its allure is the opportunity to mix with students across a variety of majors and disciplines.
Neuroscience sophomore Giana Abraham, a member of the Collegium V Executive Council, has seen how that network feeds her passion for storytelling. “That’s the cool thing about CV: You get to meet people who build into your story,” she said.
That means a wide range of interests and passions.
“You’re exposed to people who are not doing the same thing you are,” biology junior Samar Ahmed said. “I think if I wasn’t in the Honors program, I wouldn’t have met physics majors, math majors, public policy majors. You meet a lot of unique people.”
But the student-to-student relationships aren’t the only reason undergraduates thrive in CV, she added:
“With a smaller class size, you can really get to know a professor more. It’s a little more personal. I feel like I know the material more in depth or I have a deeper understanding of it.”
If it hadn’t been for Collegium V, senior Aryan Verma wouldn’t have taken courses on neuropharmacology and cellular neuroscience with Dr. Eva LaDow, senior lecturer in neuroscience and one of six Honors College faculty members.
Her instruction and mentorship proved critical in Verma’s development as he prepares for a career in geriatrics.
“The small classes provided an opportunity to get to know other people in an intimate setting, and it turned out to be a discussion-based class,” he said. “It also allowed me to build a close relationship with Dr. LaDow. I used the information when I was volunteering and doing clinical research.”
But many students don’t enter college with a concrete career plan. Dr. Douglas Dow, associate dean of the Honors College and clinical professor of government and politics, likes to use the word “experiment” to describe everything they do at UT Dallas.
“They experiment in the classes they take, including the classes that they’re required to take, as well as their choice of major,” he said. “They experiment in determining, ‘Do I want to try to do research with a faculty member? Do I want to do an internship? Do I want to do a study abroad? Do I want to learn a language?’”
But first, they have to learn the language of Collegium V’s name.
Before he retired in 2023, Harpham kicked off his first lecture to incoming students each year by explaining the meaning behind Kratz’s classical brainstorm. “This makes you cool because no one really knows,” he would tell them.
No doubt many of them also needed a pronunciation lesson, which makes Kratz chuckle. All these years later, he’s still having fun with his idea.
He acknowledges that koll-EEJ-ee-uhm, as in college, is preferred by most linguists, adding, “And so, with the minimal powers invested in me as the founder, I hereby grant permission to use it.”
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More Honors College stories:
No Question, Honors College’s Value Goes a Long Way
National Merit, Terry Scholars Are Game for Opportunities