Honors Contracts allow students to earn Honors credit in (almost) any course!
Honors Contracts allow our students to engage more deeply in your course material while earning credits they'll need to graduate from the Honors Program. We deeply appreciate the extra time and commitment you dedicate to Honors students, and we know your students are thankful as well!
Students should initiate Honors Contracts, but they are instructed to work with faculty to establish a suitable project for their contract. Faculty are encouraged to negotiate with students to come up with a manageable plan and are not required to take on Honors Contracts.
- Honors Contracts should add about 10% more work to the student's initial coursework.
- You can work together to decide if you want to add additional work, modify existing coursework to make it more in-depth or complicated, or substitute assignments in the course with more substantive work for the Honors student.
- The student is responsible for submitting the paperwork.
- After your student meets with you to discuss an Honors Contract, they will submit a proposal form to the Honors Program. You'll get a request on Microsoft Teams (and through your university email via Teams) to accept the Contract.
- Likewise, you'll get another request on Microsoft Teams to fill out a Contract Completion when the contracts are due.
- Please note that Contract Completion forms are due before finals week, so your student should not plan to do a project that serves as part of their final for the course.
- Students are required to choose three of our Student Learning Outcomes to work toward with their Honors Contract and explain how their work will help them reach those outcomes.
- We encourage creativity
- Honors Contracts really help students explore things that inspire them, and we trust faculty to ensure students are doing great work. Faculty sign off on the student's work to award the student their Honors Credit.
- We are open to more typical academic assignments like essays and presentations, but we also encourage students to make art, help with community events, or build something new!
- You're welcome to check out examples of past Honors Contracts by course if you want to see what past students have done:
- Honors Contracts can be beneficial to faculty as well as students!
- Students are encouraged to offer to assist faculty in their ongoing research, help with literature reviews, give presentations to the class, or other activities than can be beneficial to their professors.
- This experience can be extremely beneficial for students who are considering pursuing careers in research, academia, or going to graduate school. It gives them an often-elusive chance to see what the day-to-day experience of researchers and academics looks like.
- Check Out a Few Examples of Mutually Beneficial Contracts
- Students are encouraged to offer to assist faculty in their ongoing research, help with literature reviews, give presentations to the class, or other activities than can be beneficial to their professors.