Saint Mary’s College Honors Program

Honors Contract Guidelines

Honors Contracts enable motivated students to develop, under the guidance of a professor, an enriched curriculum from an existing upper division course. Honors Contracts demand that students achieve “greater depth and rigor” than what is required of their classmates and might well be viewed as a primer for graduate study. To graduate from the Honors Program, students must complete two, upper division Honors Contracts, or one Honors Contract and an Honors Independent Study. Students may choose to develop an Honors Contract in major, required non-major, or elective courses.

“Greater depth and rigor” may be achieved by:

a)Integrating a more challenging and sophisticated content matter into the existing course curriculum.

Students seeking to engage with a more challenging and sophisticated content must, with the help of the professor, clearly explain how the sophistication is achieved, and then assessed.

b)Integrating an allied emphasis into the existing course curriculum.

Students seeking to integrate an allied (or secondary) emphasis into an established course curriculum must clearly articulate, in the Contract proposal, how they expect the integration to compliment their academic interests. Students who pursue allied or secondary emphases must seek guidance from faculty experts in both fields, but only the professor in whose class the student is enrolled will be responsible for judging student performance. (In many cases one faculty member will, based on past studies and experience, suffice to guide a student’s primary and allied emphasis.)

Example: A student enrolled in an upper division math course might develop a

Contract allowing her to study the history and development of the mathematic concepts described in the course.

c) Integrating a social justice emphasis into the existing course curriculum.

Rather than studying “social justice” as though it were a discipline separate and distinct from other academic pursuits, the Social Justice Emphasis encourages students to recognize how their defined academic interests might be of use in working for social justice and to the benefit of others. Key to successful completion of the Social Justice Emphasis is a product-based outcome designed to make use of and to share, in some concrete way, the student’s new knowledge or discovery.

Example 1: A student studying post-colonial theory might decide to do research to test her notion that some foreign aid programs, like “Oil For Food,” represent an evolving economic colonialism. While this study alone may merit honors credit, it does not warrant a social justice emphasis unless the student creates a product useful beyond his/her own education. In this instance the product might be a well-argued position piece she then sends to the appropriate Congressional committee. Successful products benefit others in some evident way, even if that benefit is to merely create awareness of an issue.

Example 2: After investigating the legal nuances of same sex marriage law in California in her American Families course, a student might create a website designed to offer objective, even handed analysis of the law as it changes over time.

Policies:

1)Honors Contracts might be constructed for any upper division course or for any course requiring at least two prerequisites. (For example: a student, having already taken Japanese 1 and 2, may create an honors contract for a Japanese 3 course).

2)Graduate courses may not be substituted for Honors Course credit. Contracts proposing to use a graduate level course to satisfy the Honors Program requirements will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

3)Benchmarks for achieving “greater depth and rigor” will be determined by the course professor and must be clearly articulated by the student in the Honors Contract proposal.

4)Before submitting a contract proposal, students must attend at least one Honors Contract Workshop (see Honors Semester Calendar) and complete a typed Contact Proposal Self-Assessment.

5)The student’s grade in the course in which s/he is enrolled remains independent of the Honors course distinction. If a student fails to meet the requirements of the Honors Contract, but succeeds in meeting the course requirements, s/he will not receive an Honors designation on her transcript but will still receive a letter grade based on class performance. Therefore, Honors Contract benchmarks must be separate from regular course outcomes; Honors Contract benchmarks should not affect course grade.

a)KEY:In the Contract Proposal students must clearly describe how the benchmarks they propose for their Honors Contracts are separate from the course requirements. Proposed benchmarks that suggest a student will simply add to a required, graded assignment will be not be accepted.

6)Professors will judge student performance and will award Honors course credit on a pass/fail basis at the end of the semester.

7)Successful contract proposals articulate a carefully chosen focus, substantial enough to explore in great depth over the course of one semester. Breadth is no substitute for depth.

8)In conversation with their professors, students will complete mid-term progress reports (provided by the director) to evaluate their progress.

Keys to Successful Proposals:

1)Speak to your professor early (preferably the semester before you are scheduled to take a course) and begin to focus, narrow and deepen the scope of your research.

2)Use the template provided to clearly articulate how you plan to achieve your desired objective.

3)Remember benchmarks describe what you will need to learn or master in order to succeed in your overall objective. These benchmarks should be assessable, but independent of the course requirements and should not negatively affect the your grade.

4)Create a timeline of deadlines to help you visualize your objective in terms of the time you have to complete it. This will allow you to track (and take comfort in) your incremental progress.

Honors Contract Development Timeline

After registration:

Before semester begins, politely solicit the help of the professor in the class in which you wish to create an Honors Contract. Be sure to educate your professor on the requirements and commitment of such an undertaking (which means you first need to educate yourself!). Begin brainstorming contract ideas.

First and Second week of the semester:

In collaboration with the professor, develop the contract, write and submit the proposal. Before you submit your proposal you must attend at least one Honors Contract Workshop (see Honors Semester Calendar) and complete a typed Contact Proposal Self-Assessment.

Third week of the semester:

Honors Program Academic Mentors and members of the Honors Advisory Board read each contract and determine if the objectives, benchmarks and methods necessary to achieve greater depth and rigor have been clearly articulated.

Fifthweek of the semester:

All contract course proposal revisions due in to the honors program director.

Mid-Term:

After consulting with her professor, the student submits a candid evaluation of her progress (form provided by Honors Program Coordinator) and decides to a) drop the Honors Contract, b) alter the contract, or c) continue as planned. Any revisions or modifications to the contract must be submitted for review to the Honors Director.

Semester:

If the Honors Contract requirements are met to the satisfaction of the professor, the student receives honors course credit on her transcripts.

Contract Ideas:

An English major with an Honors Contract in an upper division Shakespeare course might integrate performing arts into the same literature course by developing a production plan for one of Shakespeare’s plays, and a critical examination of her artistic choices.

A student enrolled in human sexuality might, with the professor’s blessing, decide to adopt a historian’s perspective, and research American sexual revolutions, beginning with the nineteenth century “Free Love” movement, in an attempt to describe how alternative lifestyles have been received and/or repressed in the United States.

A math major in a linear algebra class might choose to engage in a more rigorous treatment of the subject in one-hour weekly tutorials. The Honors student’s grade in the class would be judged by the same criteria as his/her peers. His/her honors work would be assessed with a separate test or project. Alternatively the student might decide to research a topic related to the course content.

After conferring with her English professor, an Honors student enrolled in post-colonial theory might decide to read Andre Brink’s Imaginings of Sand in addition to the required Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, in order to compare fictional accounts of the lingering effects of colonialism on different regions of the African continent. Her final paper might compare the Boers, who were both colonizer and colonized, with the experience of the Igbo. Her paper would necessarily include anthropological as well as literary theory.

Honors Contract Proposal

Student Information / Professor Information
Name: / Professor’s Name
Student ID#: / Department:
E-mail / E-mail
Telephone / Telephone
Course Title and Code: ______
Provide a description of the Honors Contract and your study plan.
Overall Objective: In one to two sentences, explain how you plan to achieve greater depth and rigor than the course demands and what you expect learn or be able to do as a result of your studies. Include a copy of the course syllabus with your support materials.
Benchmarks: Briefly describe 2-4 benchmarks you will reach in order to succeed in your overall objective. These benchmarks should be assessable, but independent of the course requirements and should not negatively affect the your course grade.
Key: benchmarks explain step-by-step, how you will learn what you need to learn in order to achieve your objective. (Your professor can help you with this! Don’t be afraid to ask.)
Assessment: Providing your receive a B in the course and achieve greater depth and rigor by achieving the benchmarks above to your professor’s satisfaction, you will receive honors credit for the course.
Curriculum Plan Summary and Schedule:
a)By what means to you hope to accomplish your goals? Explain the method by which you will accomplish your goals. Break down the semester into assessable chunks and set specific deadlines for specific parts of your contract so that you might be able to track (and take comfort in) your incremental progress.
b)How often will you consult your professor and describe the role your professor will play in the process.
c)What special qualifications, skills or clearances you will need (if any) in order to successfully complete the contract? i.e. CPR training certificates, an IRB clearance etc.

Signature of professor Date Signature of student Date Signature of Director Date

______

*PLEASE RETAIN A COPY OF THIS CONTRACT PROPOSAL FOR YOUR RECORDS*