The faculty advisor assists students in the development of meaningful educational plans. The faculty advisor will work with the student to help define the student’s educational goals, design an appropriate path for achieving them, and help coordinate upper division honors courses (including undergraduate research, Honors thesis and internship) with degree or major requirements. During the second semester of the sophomore year or first semester of the student’s junior year, the student and faculty advisor will work together to develop an Honors Academic Plan for the student.

Honors Academic Plan

• Students with sophomore standing or higher will work with their faculty advisor to develop an academic plan that leads to graduation with Honors. Students with fewer than thirty credit hours completed since graduation from high school are not required to have an academic plan until their second year in the Program.
• Guidelines for Honors Academic Plans for Upper-Division Students: The student, working with the Departmental Liaison, faculty mentor, or another appropriate faculty member in his or her department will be responsible for choosing a set of courses that will meet both the requirements for the major and the student’s goals. This plan will be a non-binding “contract” called the Honors Academic Plan, open to renegotiation. The Honors Academic Plan will articulate a clear set of professional goals and include proposed coursework and activities to help the student achieve those goals. All Honors Academic Plans and renegotiated Plans must be approved by the Program Director and will be kept on file in the Honors Office.
• Depending on the major(s) and goals of the student, the Honors Academic Plan might include additional honors work in established courses, enrollment in graduate courses, participation in a faculty member’s research project or laboratory, an independent research project, a service learning project, and/or an internship, job, or co-op experience. If appropriate, students will also be encouraged to attend professional meetings. For each upper-division honors student, the Program Director is responsible for keeping a record of each student’s Honors Academic Plan, monitoring the student’s progress and intervening when appropriate.
• Honors Program Academic Plan Form

Honors Contract Courses

Although honors education means much more than simply completing additional or more difficult work, the experienced honors teacher and the exceptionally motivated student may contractually agree to supplement an existing catalog course in creative and substantive ways that allow the student to count the course as honors. The Honors Contract Course compromises the community of an honors course, but it permits both students and faculty to pursue the creativity, uniqueness, independence, and academically enhanced standards of honors in a special setting.

Guidelines

• Students are limited to one Honors Contract Course selection of no more than four credit hours out of the four honors courses needed to complete the requirements for the lower division honors program. The number of Honors Contract Courses that may be included as part of the upper division honors program is determined on a department by department basis.
  
• Students must initiate the petition in writing by consulting with the advisor and faculty member, proposing a course of study, identifying appropriate outcomes or experiences, and specifying criteria for evaluation. A form is provided to help students and instructors formalize the Honors Contract Course. The petition for Honors Contract Course should be submitted at the time of pre-registration, with final proposal due prior to the end of the semester before the term in which the Honors Contract Course will be taken.
• The faculty member must be a qualified honors teacher.
• The advisor, instructor, and director of honors must approve the Honors Contract Course.
• Upon completion of the student’s Honors Contract Course, the faculty member will notify the director in writing that the student has successfully met the particular challenges of honors in the course and that the student’s record may reflect honors credit for the course.

An Honors Contract Course is used to allow an honors student to receive honors credit for a non-honors course. It generally involves replacing a learning activity in the non-honors course with one that represents the challenge of the Honors Program but can also involve additional work of an independent nature.

The Honors Contract Course contract is written by the student and the faculty member. It should provide answers to questions such as the following:

• How does the honors part of the course extend or deepen the honors student’s learning experience in the non-honors course?
• What outcomes are expected in the course? How will the outcomes enrich the student’s honors learning?
• How will the honors work be assessed?
  

The student and the faculty member should collaboratively complete and sign the Honors Contract Course form. On the form, the student and faculty member should agree on the issues described in the questions listed above.

This three-part scheme is meant to be a set of guidelines, not a rigid formula, so anyone writing an Honors Contract Course should feel free to adjust them as appropriate.

Please contact the Honors Program Office at 216-687-5559 for more details.

As approved: University Curriculum Committee, April 19, 2005
Note: With additional signatures as required for College of Business, January 13, 2006

Other Important Information

• Honors Upper Division Program Information
• Graduate Course Application
• NOCHE - Student Cross Registration Form
• Honors Program Student Handbook
• Current Semester Course Information
• Honors Program Academic Plan Form
• NOCHE - Student Cross Registration Form