November 8, 2021

By Yasmeen Saadi

Photo by Holden Green

Catherine Rymph began her new position as interim director of the Honors College on Aug. 1. Rymph arrived at MU in 2000, serving as chair of the history department and interim chair of the religious studies department in addition to teaching 20th century U.S. history and U.S. women’s history classes.

Rymph said her offer to become interim director after  J.D. Bowers stepped down, was “out of the blue” and not something she had previously considered. However, after learning more about the position, Rymph accepted in June.

“I was enjoying my job as chair of history, but I talked to some people about it and I think they persuaded me that this would be a really interesting challenge,” Rymph said. “There’s so many good things going on in the Honors College and it was going to be an opportunity to build on all the great things that the Honors College is doing.”

As history chair, Rymph said she enjoyed the planning aspect of the role and her ability to bring people together to carry out ideas and projects. As director, Rymph said she is able to continue working on similar projects. Currently, she is working on reviving a social sciences series for honors students. These structured sets of classes would expose students to the ways different social sciences approach a range of problems.

“These [projects] are the kinds of things that I like doing,” Rymph said. “If someone has a good idea, who do we need to bring in the room to talk to each other? Then it’s my job to figure out — how do we get the funding for it? Who is going to pay for the teaching?”

As director, Rymph works with advancement officers who communicate with donors and alumni. She also manages the budget and staff, oversees all of the Scholars & Fellows programs, builds relationships across campus, comes up with ideas to improve the college’s structure and teaches classes.

Although the position entails some new responsibilities, Rymph said many of the skills she learned as chair of the history department transfer to her new role as interim director. A new aspect of the job included meeting Honors College students. In August, before the start of classes, Rymph set up Donuts with the Director, an outside mingling event for Honors College students.

“It was really wonderful to have that outdoor gathering and have lots of people there in one place,” Rymph said. “Last year, we canceled all of the things that we normally do to welcome students back to campus, so that part of it was really great.”

While adjusting to the transition, Rymph said being around the Honors College faculty was helpful because they were always there to point her in the right direction.

“[The people in the Honors College] are phenomenal,” Rymph said. “They are so hard working, they care so much and they just go so many extra miles for the Honors College and for students.”

Rachel Harper, the associate director of the Honors College, helped keep things running between the time Rymph accepted her position in June and the time she started in August. Harper said Rymph was a natural addition to the honors faculty.

“The Honors College has a lot of moving parts, so she was getting up to speed really quickly on all of it,” Harper said. “She’s just great.”

During her term as interim director, Rymph plans to integrate more honors opportunities for majors and colleges that currently are less represented in the Honors College. She said one of her plans is to meet with students to find out which honors courses should be introduced and meet with the deans to determine how to add new courses.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what we’re able to accomplish,” Rymph said. “You know, on the one hand, we’re trying to do longer term plans, but there’s some very specific things we’re hoping to have in place already by next year. I’m excited to see how that works out.”

Edited by Emmet Jamieson | ejamieson@themaneater.com