EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
HONORS COLLEGE
Honors-in-Discipline Programs
The primary mission of the Honors College is to recognize and foster excellence in student achievement at East Tennessee State University by
· recruiting academically talented and highly motivated students,
· nurturing the intellectual growth of scholars by providing challenging curricula,
· encouraging commitment to life-long learning, leadership and community service,
· instilling the desire to advance knowledge,
· promoting student access to continued studies in graduate and professional schools, and
· offering faculty the opportunity for innovative and unique teaching experiences.
The philosophy of Honors programs at ETSU is to provide challenge and innovation for students with superior academic potential. Thus, these programs are primarily intended to promote advanced work rather than simply reward past performance. The following guidelines are provided to assist academic units in the formation and maintenance of Honors-in-Discipline programs at East Tennessee State University and are in accordance with policies established by the Tennessee Board of Regents.
The Honors College Director of Honors-in-Discipline Programs provides management, oversight, and coordination among the various Honors-in-Discipline programs. The Director is responsible for student records maintenance, awarding and processing of all out-of-state and in-state scholarships, in addition to providing oversight for all Honors-in-Discipline student admission and retention requirements. All Honors-in-Discipline program Coordinators report to the Director of Honors-in-Discipline Programs, as well as the Department Chair and/or College Dean.
The Honors Council is composed of Honors-in-Discipline Coordinators and is chaired by the Director of Honors-in-Discipline Programs. The Council facilitates interaction and problem solving among the various Honors-in-Discipline programs.
Benefits from an Honors program are numerous for all participants. By attracting students with strong academic potential to their classes, colleges and departments may enhance the learning environment provided for all students. For faculty strongly committed to teaching, Honors students provide challenge and satisfaction while Honors classes provide an environment for creative teaching formats and methods. For faculty strongly committed to other scholarly activities, mentoring Honors students in research activities stimulates and expands both investigation and productivity. Honors students receive not only recognition and possible financial support, but also the promise of challenge, individual attention, and special opportunities for learning and forwarding their own personal and career goals.
PROPOSALS TO ESTABLISH AN HONORS-IN-DISCIPLINE PROGRAM
PROGRAM APPROVAL
Proposals for Honors-in-Discipline programs emerging from departments and colleges require review and approval by the Honors Executive Committee followed by final approval from Academic Council. Proposals will be reviewed relative to compliance with Honors-in-Discipline program criteria. The Honors-in-Discipline Program Proposal Cover Sheet (http://www.etsu.edu/honors/university/discipline/proposals.asp) should be used to summarize program characteristics. Honors-in-Discipline programs do not require Curriculum Committee approval, although individual new courses must be approved through the typical curriculum process.
COMPONENTS OF THE PROPOSAL
All Department/College proposals should include consideration of the following:
I. Academic program of study
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II. Student admission, retention and graduation requirements
III. Program coordination and student advisement
IV. Recruitment and program enrichment activities
V. Additional resources needed
I. Academic Program of Study:
A. Number of credit hours required
Honors-in-Discipline programs must offer at least 12 hours of course work plus a capstone course of 6 credit hours or 15 hours of course work plus a capstone of 3 hours. Thus, a minimum of 18 credit hours of Honors courses must be available to participants. This minimum meets standards set by the National Collegiate Honors Council.
B. Types of courses
An Honors-in-Discipline program proposal should indicate which courses are included in the program along with their type (as described below). Honors sections of existing courses should indicate potential differences from existing courses. Honors-enriched courses should provide a brief description of the enrichment options that will be available to Honors students. Honors sections or Honors-enriched courses do not need separate curriculum review/approval. New courses designed exclusively for Honors should include the proposed course number, title, and catalog description. These courses may be offered initially on an experimental basis, but must be submitted for review and approval according to standard College and University review procedures. Any new courses should be incorporated in prerequisite lists for higher level courses, especially if the Honors courses replace other required major courses.
1. Honors sections of existing courses
These are existing courses with a special section in which only Honors students or prospective Honors students (with the Honors-in-Discipline coordinator’s permission) may register. They often represent smaller, more intense sections of lower division courses. These sections should have a reduced maximum enrollment, usually less than 25. The Honors section should cover the same material as other sections, but carry a significantly higher expectation of student understanding and learning. Ordinarily, exams and evaluations should be more difficult than those in other sections. New Honors-in-Discipline programs may not be large enough to offer such sections. An example in the current curriculum is Honors Calculus. Such course sections are designated -088 for Fall & Spring semesters (-008 for Summer, -SA8 for ETSU Study Abroad). The Registrar will place “Honors” on the transcript course title for students enrolled in these sections. Honors students enroll in section -088/-008/-SA8 by permit (i.e., closed section with enrollment = 0, which students add by permit only).
2. Honors-enriched courses
These are existing courses, typically upper division level, in which Honors students are registered along with other students. Honors students complete appropriate enrichment experiences in addition to or in replacement of regular course requirements. The enrichment experience may vary from an independent laboratory project to analysis of a current research paper or one-on-one discussion sections with faculty. Sample experience(s) to be used must be included in course descriptions provided in the proposal for Honors-in-Discipline program approval. In general, the demand on the Honors student should be the same as on the non-Honors students in the same class, with the exception of the honors enrichment experience. In order to track Honors students in these courses, an additional section numbered -088 (-008 for Summer; -SA8 for ETSU Study Abroad) to be offered at the same time as regular sections should be scheduled. Honors students should enroll in sections -088/-008/-SA8 by permit.
3. Honors Designated Courses
These are courses that, because of content or mode of delivery, are replacements for existing core, major, or minor requirements or are designed as additional courses for an Honors program students only. Enrollment is limited to honors scholars, but may include students from any honors program. Typically, the Honors course format may be distinct from traditional courses, but always should emphasize active learning and scholarly activities. These include such formats as seminars, journal clubs, supervised teaching opportunities, service-learning components, or interdisciplinary instruction. Examples of such courses include Honors Orientation, Honors Research Orientation, and Honors Seminar. Enrollment in these courses usually is restricted to students coded as Honors. These courses must be numbered with last digit ‘8’ (e.g., HIST xxx8), and the title must include “Honors.” Coordinators should enroll Honors students in these courses by permit.
4. Capstone course---Senior Honors thesis
Honors-in-Discipline programs require completion of an Honors thesis as their capstone course (with course number 4018). Other options for capstone experiences may be approved; complete details should be included in the proposal for review by HAC. A faculty member in the discipline directs the Honors thesis, and two faculty members (one from within the department and one from outside the department) should be appointed to an advisory committee who act as readers of the thesis and attend the oral presentation.
The thesis project should be at least a year-long endeavor begun no later than the first semester of the senior year and completed during the second semester. In some disciplines, students are encouraged to begin earlier than the senior year, so thesis enrollment for juniors is acceptable. Students may be granted up to 6 hours credit for senior thesis (i.e., 3 credits, Fall and Spring). In order to graduate with Honors-in Discipline designation, a student must make a grade of B or higher on the honors thesis.
The thesis must be presented publicly, with the thesis mentor present. All students must submit their thesis to the eThesis repository (http://honors.epub.etsu.edu/); full access may be embargoed for up to 2 years. In addition, one bound (spiral) copy of the thesis with original signed cover page must be submitted to the Honors College for archival purposes. Students are encouraged to make copies available to their professor, and department or college. Guidelines for Honors students and Honors thesis professors are available online (link).
University Honors Scholars, Midway Scholars, or Arts Scholars who participate in an Honors-in-Discipline program are required to do only one 6-hour thesis to fulfill expectations of both programs. However, students participating in two Honors-in-Discipline programs simultaneously are expected to plan for an interdisciplinary thesis project, with co-directors from each program and thesis enrollment divided (3 credits in one program followed by 3 credits next semester in the 2nd program. Exceptions may be granted, but require approval of the HID Coordinators in both programs and Director of HID programs.
C. Course and Section Numbering
1. The senior Honors thesis courses are similar to independent studies or graduate thesis courses. A campus-wide course number (xxxx 4018) and title, "Senior Honors Thesis” has been designated for these courses. For each department, the course number 4018 with the specific prefix of the discipline will be used (e.g., MATH 4018). Section numbers are determined in a manner similar to that used for Independent Studies (-001, -002, etc.)---each combination of faculty member and enrollment hours initiates a new section. Students may enroll for 3 hours each semester, for a maximum of 6 hours.
2. All courses designed exclusively for Honors students must have a course number that ends with the digit 8 and have “Honors” as the first word in the title. Because these courses are small and restricted in enrollment, one section (-001) should be sufficient.
3. Honors-enriched courses and Honors sections of existing courses will carry the same course number as the "non-enriched" sections of the same course, but should be assigned section number -088 during fall and spring semesters (section -008 for Summer or –SA8 for ETSU Study Abroad). This system allows tracking of students through their Honors curriculum. In addition, the Registrar’s Office will add the transcript designation of “Honors” to all courses with -088/-008/-SA8 section numbers.
II. Student Admission, Retention & Graduation Requirements:
The following are ETSU minimum requirements defining a “bona fide” honors program as per Tennessee Board of Regents provisions concerning Honors programs admission and retention criteria. Honors-in-Discipline programs may raise these minimum criteria. However, for students to be recognized as members of an ETSU Honors program, these standards may not be lowered.
A. Entering freshmen: Freshmen admitted to Honors-in-Discipline programs must have a minimum high school GPA of 3.2 overall on a 4.0 scale or a minimum ACT composite score of 25 (excluding writing) or SAT of 1130 (reading and math only; writing excluded).
B. Students entering programs after their first semester freshman year at ETSU: Admission of this group of students into Honors programs will be based on their academic performance at ETSU. To be admitted into Honors-in-Discipline programs students must have a minimum overall GPA of 3.2 or a minimum GPA of 3.5 in department/college courses.
C. Transfer students: Admission of this group of students into Honors programs will be based on their academic performance at their previous college, university or community college. To be admitted into Honors-in-Discipline programs students must have a minimum overall GPA of 3.2.
Application & Admissions procedures: An application form should be developed for each Honors-in-Discipline Program. Application forms should be made available to students through departmental or college offices and online. They should include the information in the draft application form available from the Director of Honors-in-Discipline Programs. Disciplines may modify the application text, but changes in the ETSU Honors logo must be approved by both the Honors College and University Relations. As of September 2013, the ETSU logo is under review; we will update HID programs of any changes required. Each discipline is free to add criteria for admission to its program, but any additional criteria must be specified in the program proposal. Each program is responsible for processing applications and adhering to admission criteria specified.
Honors Program Retention requirements: To remain in good standing in an Honors program, students must be making satisfactory progress towards completing all required Honors-in-Discipline classes. Requirements for GPA may vary, but incoming freshmen are typically held to the following minima: semester GPA of 2.75 for their first 30 attempted hours, 3.0 for 31--45 hours, 3.15 for 46--60 hours, and 3.25 for the remainder of their academic careers at ETSU. Note that these GPA requirements are evaluated on a semester basis. Honors College policies relating to probationary periods, failed courses, misconduct, etc. (http://www.etsu.edu/honors/Policies.asp) must be followed by all HID programs. Again, departments or colleges may levy higher requirements, but not lesser. Any differences from College policies should be included in the program proposal. Typically, students who fail to meet program standards are allowed one probationary semester before they are suspended from an Honors program and out-of-state tuition waivers or Honors-in-Discipline scholarships are withdrawn. Coordinators must inform the Director as soon as any student is put on probation.
Honors-in-Discipline Scholarship Award (in-state or out-of-state) and Retention requirements: In order to minimally qualify for an in-state or out-of-state Honors-in-Discipline scholarship, an incoming freshman ETSU student must have an ACT score of 25 or higher and a high school GPA of 3.5 or higher. A student receiving an Honors-in-Discipline scholarship must enroll in at least 15 credit hours per semester. An exception is the capstone semester when scholarship recipients may register for only 12 hours. All scholarship recipients must maintain a cumulative grade point average consistent with program standards. Typically, students who fail to meet program standards are allowed one probationary semester before their in-state or out-of-state scholarships are revoked. Questions regarding retention of Honors-in-Discipline scholarships should be directed to the Director of Honors-in-Discipline Programs.