TLU - Texas Lutheran University

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. Students must maintain a 3.25 cumulative grade point average to remain in the Honors Program. Essential differences in the Honors Program curriculum are as follows:

A. Foundations of Liberal Education Requirements: No significant change for honors student. As is the case with the general student, the honors student must complete COMP 131 and 132, FREX 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 FREX 134 (FREX 134 HON). Honors students who are appointed after their freshman year need to take FREX 134, but receive a waiver from the HONR Courses of Study 79 section of the course.

B. Major: Honors students meet the same major requirements as other students except that six major hours must be for honors credit.

C. Supporting courses: No change for honors students.

D. Dimension of Liberal Education requirements: Honors students meet the two-course requirement in the Theological Dimension by completing Introduction to Theology Honors (THEO 133-Honors) and a second Theology course of their choosing. In each of the other dimensions, honors students need to take only three hours; the natural science dimension must include a laboratory course.

E. Electives: Honors students ordinarily have more options for electives, due to the smaller number of courses required in the subject areas.

F. Honors Courses: Honors students must enroll in 21 hours of specially designed courses identified with the designator HONR. These twenty-one hours are not additional hours; they substitute for hours required of general students. (For details, see “Curriculum Requirements for Honors Program Students”.)

A. 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.

B. Study Grants: Honors students may apply for funds to support special research and study efforts while they are enrolled at TLU.

C. Cultural Event Reimbursement: Honors students who attend area cultural events may receive reimbursement for part of the ticket price.

D. 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.

E. Restricted Enrollment courses: The twenty-one hours of Honors Program courses are restricted to honors students.

F. 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.

G. 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.

Twelve of the required twenty-one hours are earned by taking the following four interdisciplinary Honors Program Courses:

A special honors section of FREX 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 FREX 134 for graduation.) Offered every fall term. Prerequisite:

First-year Honors student.

An interdisciplinary readings course. From a list submitted by faculty members, honors students select a book from each of the liberal education dimensions: humanities/arts,

social science/cross-cultural, natural science, and personal well being/theology. During the term, students and faculty meet in small groups to discuss the books, identifying

discipline-specific societal or cultural issues. Students submit a paper for each book they have read. This course should be taken during the sophomore year. Offered every fall

term. Prerequisite: FREX 134H.

Team-taught by two tenure-track professors from two different disciplines. Drawing on their academic disciplines and personal interests, the two instructors determine

the topic for the course. Students will study the topic as a group and, after identifying major issues, each student will construct his/her own project in which a course-related

issue is examined from the students’ disciplinary perspective. In consultation with the instructors, students will develop a research plan for the project, which will include

examination of the subject from multiple perspectives, identification of conflicting arguments within the discipline, and analysis of credible data. Students will present

their final evaluation of the issue as both a formal paper and a class presentation. This course is offered each spring term and should be taken during the junior or senior year.

Prerequisite: Junior standing.

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 resources and determine assignments for the course. Subsequent to studying the agreed-upon resources, students will work in small groups, each comprised of representatives from multiple academic disciplines, to identify an issues based problem and to strategize, research, evaluate, and suggest solutions. The results of the project will be presented both orally and in written form and will include suggestions for a community-based service project, which would help to ameliorate the problem. Offered each fall and spring term. Prerequisite: Senior standing.

An examination of basic affirmations of the Christian faith. Attention is given to the origin and development of key theological concepts. Emphasis is placed upon the contemporary significance of theological reflection. offered every spring term. Enrollment is limited to members of the TLU Honors Program.

Six of the required 21 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 upper division 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.)

Departments, utilizing one or more of the three mechanisms explained below, have formulated plans for their honors students to meet the six-hour requirement.

I. Catalogue Courses with Honors as a course designator 
These courses have “Honors” in their course designators. They may be used by any department.

Research for the senior honors thesis, generally conducted during the fall semester of the senior year and directed by a faculty advisor.

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:

There is no paperwork connected with registration for these 7XX Honors courses. However, these courses need to be approved by the department chairperson.

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 HONR credit when accompanied by an Honors Program Contract Agreement.

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 HONR 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, BUSI department has a BUSI 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.