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Honors Faculty Handbook

The role of the faculty in fulfilling the mission of the Honors College cannot be overstated. Whether you are teaching an Honors course, mentoring an Individual Honors Work project or portfolio, or directing a Senior Honors Thesis, your work is critical to our efforts to attract students to the program, to provide high expectations for academic excellence, and to provide an environment for student success. The faculty handbook is an electronic resource designed to assist you in working with the Honors College and our students.

Teaching Honors Courses

Honors courses at Â鶹ÊÓƵ differ from most regular courses in the expectations and abilities of the students, the role and involvement of the faculty, and the very nature of the courses themselves. While it is difficult to ascribe minimum requirements for Honors courses, there is agreement that these classes, purposefully kept small, ought to contain unique aspects which set them apart from other courses.

Teaching Freshman Honors Colloquium

You have been selected to teach the Freshman Honors Colloquium because of your proven record as an excellent teacher and because you model the intellectual curiosity expected of our students. Rather than creating a uniform syllabus for this course, the Honors College values your own intellectual passion and urges you to find a theme or cluster of ideas that will give your text selection and class activities cohesiveness over two semesters and thus a flavor and approach distinctly different from those of other course sections. 

Thesis Defense Committee Members

Accepting this assignment means reading the work carefully and formulating thoughtful questions for the defense. Your responsibility is to help guarantee the quality of the final product and to examine the student rigorously at the defense.

Faculty Thesis Advisors

Thank you for your willingness to work with our students. As the thesis advisor, you have a responsibility to help students understand what is involved in completing a rigorous independent research or creative project. Let the student know that you take the process very seriously, will be putting in a great deal of effort, and therefore expect a strong commitment of time and effort on the student’s part. Help the student be realistic about the nature of the work.

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