Commonwealth Honors Program

Taking a Regular Course for Honors Credit

1. Find options for qualifying; you only need one to qualify. Check the Guidelines below.
2. Select a course that you are currently enrolled in and ask the professor if he or she will work with you on an Honors contract in the course.
3. Decide with your professor what the project will be – a research paper (minimum of ten pages plus documentation) or service learning, art, or music applied some way to course content or a lab experiment, etc. All Honors work has a written research component. The length will be determined in the response to the student’s Honors Contract proposal. The project cannot be an enlargement on a class assignment, and it must be directly related to the course’s content. The grade on the project is not averaged into the course grade; the project, if it is a B or higher and the course grade a B or higher, will give you Honors on your transcript for the course.
4. Fill out the Contract Form and submit a hard copy, signed by you and your professor, to Kate Martin, North 207, or Cindy Pavlos, North 204. 

Guidelines for Honors Contracts in Regular Courses

• The student and the instructor should collaboratively develop the Honors contract proposal.
• Complete the Contract Form
• Turn in a typed, signed copy of the contract to the Honors Program Coordinator.
• The Honors Coordinator and the academic Vice President will review all submitted contracts and suggest any changes or modifications needed to maintain the standards and integrity of Honors recognition.
• All accepted students shall have access to the Honors Center for the purposes of reading, researching, and organizing their projects as well as working with other Honors students.
• If a student fails to progress, the instructor has the right to drop the Honors contract option. If the option is dropped, please notify by e-mail the Honors Program Coordinator: kmartin@storesoo.com.
• If a student wishes to drop an Honors option, please notify the course instructor and the Honors Program Coordinator: kmartin@storesoo.com.
• To achieve Honors recognition, you must earn a grade of B or higher on both the course grade and the Honors contract project.

Note: The Honors Contract work is not considered when determining the student's final grade in the course; rather, it provides the course with honors status.

Responsibilities for Instructors and Students

• Instructors work with the students on the contracts for a project in a regular course. Before the instructor signs the contract, make certain that it is written incomplete sentences and that it is free of errors.
• Submit the contract by the due date.
• Instructors and students should expect to collaborate on a regular basis, an average of once every two weeks.
• The student submits the abstract for the program for the Honors Reception by the due date for the given semester.
• The student picks up a poster board by the due date. (Posters are virtual for Fall 2020)
• The student must present his or her poster board at the semester Honors reception. (Fall 2020 reception will be virtual.)
• In order for the Honors designation to appear on the student’s transcript, a clean, revised, graded copy of the Honors project must be on file in the Honors Permanent File.
• Students and instructors must honor the published schedule.
• Students are encouraged to use the Honors Center. Honors work provides students the opportunity to learn independently and present their work to an audience in a scholarly manner. Faculty mentors guide students in their individual search for excellence in scholarship.