The Director's Corner

March 31, 2026

Improving Honors Spaces

For this Director’s Corner, I would like to update the Auburn Honors community about actual corners: that is, the material spaces that we are fortunate to have dedicated to the Honors College. These of course include Cater Hall, which provides offices for most of our staff as well as a home base for our operations and planning, but there are also two spaces the university has set aside for Honors students: a study room in the RBD library and the student lounge in the basement of Broun Hall. We are in the midst of a series of improvements to all of these spaces—some still in the planning stages, and some almost complete—with the goal of providing more and better opportunities for our students to gather, study, socialize and rest.

Anyone walking through campus will know that Cater Hall, one of the university’s oldest and most beautiful buildings, has undergone a good deal of renovation this year, and it now has a new roof along with updates to other elements of the exterior. New columns and repairs to the juliet balcony over the front door will be added this summer, leaving the building fully protected from the elements while retaining its historic character. Following these updates to the exterior will be some modest internal renovations, which will maximize our office spaces and allow us to make more effective use of the building’s beautiful front rooms. Our parlor will become a small and gorgeous classroom for admissions presentations, book club classes and other meetings.

Later this month, the basement of Broun Hall, which campus housing traditionally has reserved for Honors students, will be formally named the Lee Christian Honors Student Lounge, in recognition of Mr. Lee Christian, one the Honors College’s most dedicated supporters. Over the following year, we will be adding new furnishings and decorations to upgrade a functional, practical setting into one that will be warmer, more comfortable and more welcoming to our students. While residents of Broun Hall use the basement lounge quite a bit, my hope is that all Honors students will enjoy making use of the Lee Christian Honors Student Lounge, which has card key access for all Honors students that is separate from the rest of the dormitory, as a place to study, have lunch, meet with friends or just take a break between classes.

The Honors Study room in the RBD library, located on the 2nd floor, also houses the college’s Collective Library, a growing assortment of books our staff have suggested for leisure reading, and it houses bound copies of all senior theses that Honors students have completed since the college’s founding. We have just ordered a new set of portable white boards and markers that will arrive in time for our students to use while they study for final exams, and over the summer we will be making some modest improvements such as adding some artwork to the wall.

In writing about the relationship between material spaces and human activities in any setting, it feels almost obligatory to quote Winston Churchill’s famous line in his speech to Parliament about rebuilding the House of Commons Chamber after it was destroyed during the Blitz: “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” That concept has informed how we have approached this aspect of the college’s strategic planning, thinking about what aspects of our physical settings contribute the most the fostering of community, belonging, opportunity and of course learning for all of our students. We hope that our students are happy with these upcoming improvements, but we also hope to hear from you as we move forward with our plans. Students, please reach out to me with any suggestions about additions to the RBD study room, the Lee Christian Honors Student Lounge or to Cater Hall. We would love to hear your thoughts about these spaces as we move forward, shaping them so that they can in turn shape your honors experience.

Laura Stevens, Ph.D

Honors College Director

Professor of Engilsh