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Chris Kukk has been named as the new dean of Longwood’s honors college.

Kukk, the professor of political science and social science and founding director of the Center for Compassion, Creativity and Innovation at Western Connecticut State University has many ideas about the possibilities for Longwood’s Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars.

The Cormier Honors College for Citizen Scholars is a group of high-achieving Longwood students who live and learn together while completing honors courses spanning multiple disciplines, maintaining rigorous academic standards, and completing a study abroad experience before graduation.

Named for Longwood’s 24th president, Patricia Cormier, the college received a $2 million endowment gift in 2015 by Marc and Wilma Sharp and has become known as the home to academic innovation on campus.

“An honors college is best when it’s an experimental educational laboratory,” Kukk says. “We have a place here where new ideas can be tried out, and I love that. That’s how education actually works. The real world is about trying something new and seeing if it works. We’ve got this incredibly strong foundation that already allows students and professors to wander into different areas and find new ideas and ask new questions, and that’s so powerful. Questions make the engine of civil society rocket forward. I couldn’t be more excited to have the opportunity to help answer them.”