Departmental Honors
Each department may award “Departmental Honors” to graduating majors at commencement who have fulfilled the criteria for such distinction. A student’s demonstrated capacity to produce independent scholarly or artistic work of the highest measure consonant with his or her training and experience is the primary criterion for awarding departmental honors.
Students may enter this program by the invitation of a department or by application to and acceptance by a department. Departments shall make available to interested students their specific criteria for honors. Normally, students must have a grade point average of 3.50 or greater in their major department as well as an overall grade point average of 3.00 or greater. Interested students should apply for admittance to the program through the chair of their major department no later than one year prior to their expected date of graduation. Departmental honors may be taken for either 3 or 4 credit hours, and only be taken once during a student’s college career.
Upon approval of a student’s application by the department faculty, the student’s advisor shall be responsible for forming a committee to approve the honors project, evaluate it upon completion, and determine if the work deserves honors distinction. The committee shall consist of a minimum of three faculty members including the advisor and one member from outside the department. Honors projects, though supervised, are to be done independently by the student.
Departmental honors shall be awarded only to those students who complete written works or creative projects that demonstrate high levels of competence in the use of specific skills central to the discipline and in general exhibit the highest standards of scholarly excellence. Students will not automatically receive honors distinction for completing an honors project.
Departments may determine the specific occasion or forum, but the project, thesis, or report must be presented and defended at an open meeting attended by the committee as well as a member or members of the student’s major department, or at a meeting of a professional society no later than one month prior to graduation. The grade for an honors project and whether it merits honors distinction shall be determined by the committee and reported to the registrar by the faculty advisor.