Robert D. Clark Honors College
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| Type | Public |
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| Established | 1960 |
| Dean | Terry Hunt |
| Location | Eugene, Oregon, United States |
| Website | http://honors.uoregon.edu |
The Robert D. Clark Honors College is a liberal arts honors college within the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1960, it is the oldest honors college in the United States. Its namesake, Robert D. Clark, was a president of the university, 1969 - 1975, and a key contributor to the founding of the honors college. The college is located in Chapman Hall on the University of Oregon campus. For Fall 2015, 1,439 students applied and 240 students enrolled in the college.
In 1928, the university adopted a departmental honors program for juniors and seniors. The program was open to the top 30 percent of the class, and consisted of special readings under professors in students' major departments. In addition, the program concluded in the senior year with an honors thesis and examination. Frank Aydelotte, president of Swarthmore College, introduced such programs into the United States following his own undergraduate experience as an honors student at Oxford University.
In the 1950s, the University's Curricular Review Committee addressed again the honors program offerings. They created the Sophomore Honors Program, which eventually morphed into the Clark Honors College as it exists today. Robert D. Clark, the college's namesake, was a member of the Curricular Review Committee. Since university faculty were concerned that the new program would take away their best students, the committee developed a compromise: students would remain in their major departments, and take only selected general requirements in the Sophomore Honors Program.
Clark was troubled by the program's initial failure, and attributed it to the lack of unity in the university's sophomore and departmental honors programs. Inspired by Knight Dunlap's books on community, Clark created the Honors College during his tenure as university president.
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