Dr. George Potts, current Chair of the Psychology Department, succeeded psychology professor Dr. Danny McIntosh on July 1 as the director of the University Honors Program.

“There’s a lot of challenges in directing the Honors program – figuring out what courses to offer, how many courses to offer on what days, which speakers to bring to DU,” said Potts.

Having only had the position for a few short months, Potts is making the transition with the help of Shawn Alfrey and plans to maintain the existing vision for the Honor’s program, which he describes as “superb.” Potts doesn’t foresee any momentous changes.

Potts said he is most looking forward to being able to interact with students again in his new position.
“The frustrating part about holding an administrative position is that I really love teaching, and serving as chair of the [Psychology] department took me out of the classroom and consequently, out of contact with students,” said Potts.

By directing the Honors Program, Potts thinks it will be much easier to connect with what he calls “some of the brightest students at DU” through personal interaction while he returns to the classroom and continues teaching.

According to Potts, the Honors program takes a holistic approach to admission, rather than basing it solely upon academics, making the Honor’s pool a fascinating group to teach and interact with.

“There are many different kinds of smart, and with the Honors program, while we look primarily for academic credentials, we also look for deep-thinking, stimulating people who have done interesting things,” said Potts.

However, Potts argues that it’s not just Honors students who benefit from the Honors program.
“[Our] program provides a unique set of opportunities to a select group of students, but the goal is not to isolate Honors students from the rest of the student population, but to give them a chance to form their own identity,” said Potts.

Potts explained that because there is not a separate school for the honor’s program, the non-Honors students benefit from having Honors students in their classes for a diverse learning experience, while Honors students benefit from taking non-Honors classes instead of only Honors courses.
Potts notes that as the quality of DU students admitted gets higher and higher, so does the quality of Honors program students.

“While we try to maintain a constant number of Honors students, we encourage any students, particularly first-years, to apply to Honors,” said Potts.

Potts has been at the University of Denver for 36 years. He has held a number of positions, including teaching psychology classes and serving in various administrative positions. He was interim Dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences as well as Chair of the Marsico Committee that organized the current freshman seminar and writing sequence and Discoveries week and Chair of the Psychology department for 12 years.