Honors Colloquia. . . Weekly colloquia are an integral part of the program. Honors students meet for an informal class discussion and special guest speakers once each week. This course is listed as Honors Colloquia in the class schedule.
Honors Service Project . . . Working with the Honors Program Director, students can do their service project at any time, but it must be completed within one semester, usually during the junior or senior year.
Honors Senior Seminar . . . The seminar is conducted within the student's major as independent study, concluding in the creation of an approved senior thesis or project.
Graduation . . .
All Honors Program graduates recieve Honors Distinction, with special notation on their transcripts and recognition at graduation.
The Honors Program is open and looking for talented and motivated students like you!
See your academic advisor or contact the Honors Office, MCK 180A, ext. 3605
University Honors Program Course Substitution Policy . . .
This is an action of last resort and is designed only for those who have attempted first to fill their Honors requirements from the pool of designated Honors courses. If you reach your senior level and need one additional Honors course, you may discuss with the director possibilities for a course substitution.
One form of substitution entails incorporating an Honors component into a regular course. The following action is required of the student seeking the substitution:
Discuss feasibility with the Honors Director
Seek verbal consent of the course professor
Write proposal which describes the honors component and details your responsibilities
Obtain signatures of the course professor, yourself and Honors Director
Distribute copies of the signed proposal to the professor and director and keep one for yourself
A second form of substitution entails a self-designed course using one of the Honors Program's Master Teacher lecture series (video). Particulars for this substitution approach will be worked out between the student and the Honors Director.
What is a senior project . . .
Your senior project should be a culminationg effort that reflects your finest intellectual and creative abilities and is presentation worthy. It should be started and completed during your senior year and be guided by a faculty mentor selected (usually) from the Honors faculty. Integrating your senior project with your service effort has rich potential and is always encouraged.
Following are several possibilities for your senior project.
1. Expanded Senior Thesis
For those of you in majors requiring a senior thesis, you may expand the thesis, giving to it additional depth and/or breadth. Your proposal must outline the specific ways your thesis will be enhanced by its Honors component and must include the approval signature of your major thesis advisor. Members of the Honors faculty and senior Honors students should be invited to the papers presentation.
2. New Angle/Senior Thesis or Previous Paper
You may draw upon the research done for a previous paper, such as your senior thesis, to develop a new angle on the same subject (20-40 pages). Your proposal must detail how the paper will utilize previous effort and then how it will go beyond to explore/establish a new premise. Your proposal must include the approval signature of your selected advisor, which may or may not be the professor with whom the original paper was written.
3. Original Research Paper
This option allows you to research and write about a subject of considerable interest to you, within or beyond your chosen field of study but one on which you have done no previous work. You may approach this in the traditional research/bibliography way or as a fieldwork project, or a mixture of the two. Your final paper should be approximately 20-30 pages.
4. Creative Project
The creative project option is intended particularly (but not exclusively) for those of you in the Fine Arts area. Design a project that in some way differs from or exceeds (yet of course draws upon) your previous expirences. Include in your proposal the approval signature of your advisor selected from the area related to your artistic/creative endeavor.
5. Personal Narrative
Here is an opportunity to write a personal narrative in which you trace your own intellectual journey, the life of one mind-- yours. Consider key learning experiences and challenges, people, books, culture (classical, popular, ethnic), all that went into the kind of thinker and learner you are today. Integrate specific titles of art, literature, music, history, pholosophy (etc.) and their creators into your essay, as well as a number of quotations. Contemplate your future. Your final work should fall somewhere between 15-30 pages. Write first for yourself, but write also for an audience of intelligent, interested people, some who know you, some who do not. Edit and proofread relentlessly.
If you select the narrative as your senior academic project, the Honors Director will be your primary advisor and reader. You should select one additional faculty member to read and approve the final draft. The signature of that individual should be included in your proposal.
6. Other/Your design
Proposal Guidelines for Senior Honors Project. . .
Submit a proposal in which you indclude:
Project Description:Indicate whether your project has an academic or creative focus. If academic, include the thesis question/supporting questions you will seek to answer. If creative, include your guiding objective(s).
Reason for selecting project
Intended audience
Usefull purpose project will serve
Types of sources/materials to be used
Projected date of draft completion*
Projected date for project completion*
Venue for public presentation or display
Signature lines for you, your faculty advisor, and Honors director (submit to the director with student and faculty signatures)
* June Graduation: Polished Draft no later than May 1, Final Draft no later than June 1
* December Graduation: Polished Draft no later than Nov. 1, Final Draft no later than Dec. 1
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