What is an Honors Contract?
The Honors Contract (see course forms) is an agreement between a professor, a department, the Honors College, and the student. It specifies the ways in which the student will make the course a University Honors experience, moving beyond the standard course requirements to engage with course materials and themes in a measurably deeper or more complex manner, and indicates the criteria upon which the student’s performance will be evaluated. The Honors Contract may be in the student's major, minor, or as elective. The course may not be contracted if it is offered as a current Honors course.
Students must have approval of the Associate Vice Provost for the Honors College to apply more than two Honors Contract courses towards their University Honors requirements.
All contracts must be completed (including signatures) by the end of the first week of classes. The electronic form stipulates what work above and beyond the standard course requirements makes the course an Honors experience, and indicates the criteria upon which the student's performance of the work will be evaluated. Examples include:
- Reading and writing assignments which extend qualitatively (and probably quantitatively as well) beyond regular course expectations.
- Substantial faculty-student conference time outside the classroom.
- Opportunities for in-class student presentation of research performed independently under the professor's guidance.
- Library, laboratory, or computer work the faculty member considers Honors-level experience and which fosters greater student understanding of the course material.
- Involvement in special events such as travel, lectures, performances, or other creative activity for which the student will give formal account to the instructor.
Students must have a GPA of at least 3.0 before attempting a course with an Honors Contract (some departments may require a higher GPA). Contracts specify that the student must earn at least a B grade for the course to count for Honors credit (the student receives standard credit for grades of B- or below).
Honors contracts must be in courses that are 3000 level or higher. Contracts cannot be done in courses being taught by teaching assistants, part-time faculty, or those listed as Staff, without the prior approval of the department chair and the Associate Vice Provost for the Honors College.