The Honors Program Mission

The central mission of the Arts and Sciences Honors Program can be summarized in a single sentence: to provide special education opportunities for academically prepared, highly motivated undergraduate students. The Program does far more, however, than offer advanced subject matter to bright students. The intensity of interpersonal contact in these small courses and co-seminars provides students the opportunity to "learn-by-doing" the scholarship of discussion, debate and the exchange of ideas. Students and faculty alike are pushed to examine first principles and the fundamental assumptions upon which strongly-held beliefs are based. More perhaps than in any other program, Honors courses nurture a profound respect for the alternative points of view that define the human experience. The Honors Program aspires to provide no less than the best education possible for the moral and ethical leaders of the future.

The Honors Program Curriculum

Honors courses are special for many reasons. Most importantly:

• We limit our class size to just 15 students.
• We recruit the most talented, committed and innovative professors on campus to teach our courses.
• Honors courses are seminar-based, designed to maximize student involvement. In an Honors class, you can expect to have more discussion, write more papers, have more influence on the syllabus and reading list, do more research and be counted upon by the class for your input. This is different from the typical lecture and objective exam pattern found in many larger university courses.

The Honors Program offers around 40 Honors courses per semester from the introductory 1000 level to the advanced 4000 level. These courses reflect a wide array of disciplines and majors. Some courses are only available through the Honors Program while others are Honors sections of regular required classes.

Past and current Honors courses include: The Mythic Novel, Introduction to the Bible, Introductory Astronomy, Ethics of Ambition, African Music, Introduction to Women's Literature, Folklore, Human Origin, Science and the Ancient World, Music in the Rock Era, Introduction to Geology, Introduction to Humanities, The American Presidency, Introduction to Discrete Mathematics, Heroines in Heroic Tradition, Sustainable Energy and International Behavior.

The majority of Honors courses fulfill Arts and Sciences core requirements and some fulfill major requirements. Course offerings change a bit each semester as we try to offer the courses and instruction that our students like the best and need the most. Students typically take one Honors course per semester.