Honors Program
The Texas Lutheran University Honors Program provides educational challenges and responsibilities for highly gifted and motivated students. Recognizing that honors students are broadly and intensely curious, adventuresome, and creative, the university provides unique honors courses populated only by honors students and taught by professors who relish the pedagogical challenges raised by these dynamic students. In addition to an honors curriculum that provides both traditional and non-traditional mechanisms for learning, the Honors Program offers special features designed to enhance the education of honors students.
BASIC FEATURES OF THE HONORS PROGRAM
- Degree Requirements for graduating as an Honors Program participant
Being an Honors Student does not entail taking a larger number of courses. The University’s minimum requirements of 124-credit-hours for graduation, and the associated 30 upper-division-hour requirement, apply to all students. Essential differences in the Honors Program curriculum are as follows: - Foundations of Liberal Education Requirements: No significant change for honors student. As is the case with the general student, the honors student must complete ENG 131 and 132, GEC 134, three hours MATH, or be exempt from them by advanced placement examination. Entering freshmen honors appointees are required to take the honors section of GEC 134 (GEC 134 HON). Honors students who are appointed after their freshman year need to take GEC 134, but receive a waiver from the HON section of the course.
- Major: Honors students meet the same major requirements as other students except that six major hours must be for honors credit.
- Supporting courses: No change for honors students
- Dimension of Liberal Education requirements: Honors students meet the usual two-course requirement in the Theological Dimension. In each of the other dimensions, honors students need to take only three hours. The Natural Science Dimension must include a laboratory course.
- Electives: Honors students ordinarily have more options for electives, due to the smaller number of courses required in the subject areas.
- Honors Courses: Honors students must enroll in 18 hours of specially designed courses identified with the designator HON. These eighteen hours are not additional hours; they substitute for hours required of general students. (For details, see “Curriculum Requirements for Honors Program Students” below.)
- Additional Benefits for Honors Program participants
- Individualized Curriculum Plan. Instead of the regular degree requirements noted above, an honors student may propose to the Honors Program Advisory Committee a customized degree plan which is particularly crafted to meet the intellectual and/or career interests of the individual honors student.
- Study Grants: Honors students may apply for funds to support special research and study efforts while they are enrolled at TLU.
- Cultural Event Reimbursement: Honors students who attend area cultural events may receive reimbursement for part of the ticket price.
- Important information about courses, conferences, graduate scholarship opportunities, cultural event opportunities in the area, and on-campus events etc. are shared with honors students by e-mail correspondence from the Honors Program Office.
- Restricted Enrollment courses: The eighteen hours of Honors Program courses are restricted to honors students.
- Special Academic Advising: Honors students formulate their degree plans in consultation with faculty advisors in their majors, and the Honors Program Director provides supplemental advising as well.
- Social Opportunities: The Honors Program Center provides a campus location for honors students and their friends to gather. Social events and field trips are scheduled each semester.
APPOINTMENT TO THE HONORS PROGRAM
Appointments are generally made at two junctures: (1) some highly qualified entering first-year students are offered appointment, and (2) some first-year students who have demonstrated academic excellence in TLU courses during their first semester at TLU by earning good grades in academically challenging classes are invited to apply for appointment after the first semester of their freshmen year. Details about appointment criteria are available from the Honors Program Director.
CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS FOR HONORS PROGRAM STUDENTS
Members of the TLU Honors Program must fulfill Honors Program course requirements of eighteen credit hours. Only Honors Program students may enroll in honors courses. Honors courses fall into two categories.
- Honors Program Courses (12 hours of interdisciplinary courses)
Twelve of the required eighteen hours are earned by taking the following four interdisciplinary Honors Program Courses:
GEC 134 (HON) Exploring the Arts and Sciences (3:3:0)
A special honors section of GEC 134 designed to meet the orientation needs of entering first-year honors students as well as to fulfill the core course requirement. Offered each fall term. (Non-freshmen appointees receive a waiver from the honors section of this course, but need to take GEC 134 for graduation.)
HON 331: Directed Readings in the Subject Areas (3:X:0)
An interdisciplinary readings course. Honors students select four books from a list submitted by faculty members. At least three of the books selected by each student must be from different subject areas, and each student must read with at least three different faculty members. During the term, students and faculty meet and discuss the books, and students submit a paper for each book they have read. This course should be taken during the sophomore year. Offered every fall term.
HON 332: Interdisciplinary Team-taught Seminar (3:3:0)
Team-taught by two professors from two different disciplines. Drawing on their academic disciplines and personal interests, the two instructors determine the topic for the course. This course is offered each spring term and should be taken during the sophomore or junior year.
HON 431: Senior Honors Capstone Seminar (3:3:0)
A capstone interdisciplinary course for honors students during their senior year. Honors students from various disciplinary specialties research and examine a topic determined by the instructor. Pre-registered honors students, in consultation with the instructor, select texts and determine assignments for the course. Offered each fall and spring term.
- Departmental Honors Courses (six hours)
Six of the required 18 hours for honors program students are earned by taking special honors-designated courses in the students’ major fields of study. This six hour requirement emphasizes the importance of honors students’ attainment of superior skill in their major disciplines. All six of these hours must be in upperdivision courses in the major. A general principle is that courses must, in some notable and obvious way, individualize the learning experience to address the interests and needs of honors students. (Honors students with more than one major must take all six hours in one major.)
MECHANISMS FOR HONORS PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS TO EARN HONORS CREDITS IN THEIR MAJORS
Departments, utilizing one or more of the three mechanisms explained below, have formulated plans for their honors students to meet the six-hour requirement.
COURSE MECHANISMS - Catalogue Courses with Honors as a course designator
These courses have “Honors” in their course designators. They may be used by any department.
731. Honors Thesis Research (3:X:X)
Research for the senior honors thesis, generally conducted during the fall semester of the senior year and directed by a faculty advisor.
732. Honors Thesis (3:X:X)
Preparation of the senior honors thesis, generally conducted during the spring semester of the senior year and directed by a faculty advisor.
Option for students in performance fields:
733. Honors Performance Project Research (3:X:X)
734. Honors Performance Project (3:X:X)
There is no paperwork connected with registration for these 7XX Honors courses. However, these courses need to be approved by the department chairperson.
- Department Courses at the 300 or 400 level.
These may be utilized for honors credit if an honors student has filed an Honors Program Contract Agreement with the Registration and Records Office, academic department, instructor of the course, and the Honors Program Office. Each student, in consultation with the course instructor, must complete a contract, obtain the necessary signatures, and distribute copies to the persons/offices designated on the contract. The Honors Program Advisory Committee reviews all contracts to determine their suitability.
The Honors Program Contract Agreement form is available from the Honors Program Office. This form must be completed and submitted to the Registration and Records Office before the beginning of the term in which the course will be taken. Honors students register for the course during the regular early registration period, but official designation of the honors credit is not complete until contracts are filed with the Registration and Records Office.
Please note: 379 Special Topic is a convenient and available option in most departments. It may be utilized for HON credit when accompanied by an Honors Program Contract Agreement.
- Independent Study, Directed Study, or Internship courses at 300 or 400 level.
By their very nature, Independent Study, Directed Study, and Internship courses entail individualization of the course, and thus do not require Honors Program Contract Agreements to guarantee individualization. Additionally, the approval of the Honors Program Advisory Committee is not required for these courses. Required forms for these courses are provided by the Registration and Records Office. The only difference for honors students as compared to general students using these forms is that honors or HON or H must be clearly stated as part of the course description in order to secure honors credit.
Please note: Some departments have their own departmental internships listed in their departmental offerings. For example, BA department has a BA 419, 429, 439 Internship course; Biology department also has this arrangement. However, in all cases and for all departments, whether they have an internship listing or not in their catalogue offerings, an Internship Agreement form, available in the Registration and Records Office, must be completed and filed with the Registration and Records Office.
Additional information about the TLU Honors Program is available by contacting the Honors Program Director, Dr. Deborah Hettinger, at 830-372-6030, or by email at
dhettinger@tlu.edu.
