KU’s Mount Oread Scholars, a program that aims to advise and develop high-ability freshmen, is ending after this academic year, the Daily Kansan reports today.

It will be folded into the KU Honors Program, the Kansan story says.

A KU release in August said 257 freshmen were taking part this year in the Mount Oread Scholars program, which is perhaps most visible at the beginning of each fall semester when members trek up Mount Oread as a symbolic promise to graduate (and walk back down the hill at commencement). The program’s been around for 16 years.

Just this year, the Mount Oread program branched into new learning communities, in which students live near one another in the same residence hall while also studying a common subject together. I wrote last week about the semester-long project for one of those communities: to produce a film together.

I’m hoping to take a deeper look at the end of the program soon. But in the meantime, if you’re an alumna/alumnus of the Mount Oread Scholars and would like to share your thoughts, I’d love to hear from you.

Send your messages, and all your other KU news tips, to merickson@ljworld.com.