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Honors Petition

Petition Form

Description

Students in the University Honors Program must complete nine hours (three courses) of upper-division Honors courses in their major field of study.

Failure to complete a petition will result in the loss of the Honors scholarship for that semester or the following semester.

Petitioning means that a student must complete an extra project for their class in order for it to be classified as an Honors course, and the student and professor must agree—in writing—as to what type of project would constitute Honors credit. Also, the student’s project must be at least “B” quality work for the student to receive Honors credit.

The project should involve some type of creative problem solving or higher-order critical thinking on the part of the Honors student (i.e., application, analysis, synthesis or evaluation). Normally, the project should involve writing as well as a speaking component, meaning some type of paper as well as an oral presentation. Lengths of papers should range somewhere between 5-10 pages, and topics may be either research-based or creative in nature. The written component should be an independent project and not simply extra pages added to an existing paper that the rest of the class is already doing.

Ideally, the petition project should, in some way, contribute to the student’s Senior Honors Thesis, which is normally less than one year away for the student. Any type of preliminary research toward the thesis would certainly be most beneficial to the Honors student.

Students will identify a 3-credit, 300-400 level residential* course in their major (or on their DCP) to petition. (2-credit EDUC courses for education majors are also acceptable).  Students must complete an Honors petition successfully each semester of their junior year and the first semester of their senior year. Failure to do so will result in a loss of their Honors scholarship.

*Online courses may only be petitioned with the prior written approval of the Honors Director

  1. Students must request the petition of the professor.
  2. Students complete the online petition form and receive approvals from the professor, department chair, and Honors Director.

Potential Honors Petitions include:

  • Attendance and/or participation at a local or regional lecture or conference
  • Assistance in course instruction (tutoring, researching, guest lecturing and/or designing visual aides or PowerPoint presentations)
  • Participation in a field trip related to course content
  • Completion of essay examinations rather than objective tests (i.e., multiple choice)
  • Contribution to a research project in which a professor is currently involved
  • Compilation of an annotated bibliography of primary or secondary sources
  • Comprehension of assigned reading not normally given at the undergraduate level
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