Southern Illinois University Edwardsville University Honors Director Eric W. Ruckh, PhD, has named Ian J. Toberman as University Honors Program assistant director. Toberman currently serves as the academic advisor for SIUE honors students, guiding current students on their curricular, career and co-curricular plans.
The University Honors Program offers a small liberal arts experience to over 500 students within the SIUE’s comprehensive programs. A new honors general education curriculum began in 2016, and Toberman served as the inaugural advisor for students.
“As the honors program has grown, the needs of the program have developed,” said Ruckh. “This position is a response to those changing needs and challenges. It is funded by an innovation grant from the chancellor’s office in 2018. The assistant director will work to diversify the program and more intentionally integrate the curricular and co-curricular aspects of the program we have built.”
“In his time with honors, Ian has been exemplary,” Ruckh said. “He is able to be deeply engaged with students, while not losing sight of our larger vision, promoting the transformative possibilities of liberal education. His challenge now will be working to build equitable access to the honors program.”
“My goal in this new position is to create an atmosphere of support for students inside and outside of the classroom,” Toberman stated. “During the past four years, we have worked hard with University administration, faculty and students to shape the honors experience. We have a program that celebrates a student’s individuality, creates a welcoming community and supports the full range of a student’s collegiate experience. It is gratifying that one of my main responsibilities will be to work with underrepresented students to explore what honors has to offer.
“As a farm kid from a small town, I was lucky to have an honors experience that changed me and ultimately helped me find who I was—as a scholar, as a family member and as a member of a community,” Toberman continued. “In this new role, I hope to provide those same opportunities for students—a chance to not only critically engage their own experiences and affirm their lived experience, but also to challenge them to think beyond what is comfortable. It is the type of program Dr. Ruckh has guided, and I am excited to continue my support of those efforts.”
Toberman is a Nokomis native and graduated from the honors program at Millikin University with a bachelor’s in political science. He earned a master’s in higher education from Miami (Ohio) University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Illinois Springfield. In addition to this new position, Toberman will begin a term in July as president of the University Staff Senate for the 2019-20 academic year.
Prior to joining SIUE in 2011 as an academic advisor, he worked as an admission counselor, residence life director and conduct supervisor at colleges in Ohio, Alaska and Illinois.