Honors contracts enable students who have difficulty scheduling upper-division GE Honors courses to complete the requirements for the GE Honors Certificate. A GE Honors Contract allows a GE Honors student to receive GE Honors credit for a non-honors GE course by completing work above and beyond what is required of non-GE Honors students in the course.
Students may substitute ONE upper-division GE course for a GE Honors course using a GE Honors Contract. To receive GE Honors credit for a contracted course, a student must receive a grade of B or better in the course and satisfactorily complete the contracted work in addition to the regular course requirements. Please note that only face-to-face classes are eligible for Honors Contracts; you cannot complete an Honors Contract for online courses.
GE Honors Contract work consists of two required elements:
- A substantial paper or project (10-15 page research paper OR a project of equivalent time/effort/substance); and
- Regular contact with the faculty member outside of class to discuss the student’s progress and answer questions regarding the paper/project.
Students must contact the faculty member before the end of the first week of classes to request a GE Honors Contract. Once the faculty member has agreed, the student must notify the GE Honors Director that the student is working on a contract application. The nature of the paper or project will be determined by the professor. Students’ projects need to relate (in some way) to the material covered in the course itself. The faculty member and the student will develop a mutually convenient schedule of regular meetings (e.g. once a week or once every two weeks) during the semester to discuss the development of the student's project. The faculty member will also determine whether the student has satisfactorily completed each component of the contract. The student should indicate how he/she will satisfy the contract elements (listed above) before submitting the application to the professor for a final signature. Students must attach a syllabus for the course to the application. If the student decides he/she is not interested in completing the contract work, the student must notify the faculty member and cancel the contract with the GE Honors Director before the last day of classes. The student will simply not receive GE Honors credit for that course.
Contract applications must be submitted to the GE Honors Director within the first two weeks of the semester to be considered. The GE Honors Director must review and accept the contract before the student begins work on the contract project. Students can expect to hear about the status of their application within 10 days after its submission.
You can download the GE Honors Contract (.pdf) here.
You can find sample proposals here: