Honors Program Web Page

The information contained in the present edition of the Handbook is meant to give direction to students in the UWA Honors Program, their advisors, and the UWA faculty at large.  For clarification of details, please call the Director of the program at 205-652-3707.

It is imperative that students who become participants in the Honors Program read and periodically review the material contained within.  They are responsible for being aware of this information and for complying with the regulations.

Lesa Corrigan
Associate Director
Wallace Hall 307F
205-652-3633

Richard Schellhammer
Associate Director
Wallace Hall 307E
205-652-3632

  
Honors Program

The Honors Program, a part of the curriculum of The University of West Alabama, exists to give honors students an enhanced academic experience during their time as undergraduates.  The program consists primarily of a series of rigorous general courses together with a more specialized senior thesis in the student’s major field of study.  The honors education also includes participation in a variety of extracurricular cultural and intellectual activities.  Being an honors student means regular exposure to ideas that stimulate, strengthen, and broaden the mind, through classes, organized activities, and friendships with other intellectually curious and highly motivated students.

Admission

            Students can enter the Honors Program in a number of ways.  Entering freshmen are eligible for admission to the program by virtue of their ACT scores, which must be at least 22 composite with at least a 24 in one of the following areas:  English, reading, or science reasoning, or 23 in mathematics with appropriate math placement test scores.

            UWA students not eligible to enter the Honors Program as freshmen may apply for entry when they have accumulated between 32 and 63 hours at The University of West Alabama:  such students must have achieved a cumulative GPA of at least 3.25 in non-elective hours.

            Transfer students interested in participating in the Honors Program must apply to the program Director.  They must transfer a cumulative 3.0 GPA and have a minimum 22 ACT/1030 SAT composite score.

Retention

All honors students must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0.  Any student who falls below a 3.0 based on hours attempted will be placed on probation during the next semester during which he or she takes courses.  If an honors student remains on probation for two consecutive semesters, he or she will be dismissed from the program.

Additionally, in order to remain a member in good standing of the Honors Program, a participant must engage each semester in a minimum number of extracurricular activities.  Failure to participate will result in dismissal from the program.

Readmission to the Honors Program

            Honors Program participants whose cumulative grade point average falls below a 3.00 for two consecutive semesters and who are consequently dismissed from the program may petition the Director of the Honors Program for readmission if the following conditions are met:

1. The student’s cumulative grade point average rises to a 3.2.

2. The student maintains the cumulative 3.2 average for a semester.

3. The student has sufficient time prior to the anticipated graduation date to complete required honors courses missed during absence from the program.

4. The student has sufficient time prior to the anticipated graduation date to complete other required honors courses.

Requirements

            All honors students must meet the following conditions in order to graduate from the Honors Program at The University of West Alabama:

*1.  Successfully complete at least one freshman-level honors course or Precalculus Trigonometry, MH 114, or a higher level math class.

*2.  Successfully complete the Honors Forum during the Fall Semester of their freshman year.

*3.  Successfully complete the Honors Special Topics:  Interdisciplinary course.

4.   Successfully produce and defend an honors thesis or project during their senior year.

5.   Maintain a minimum overall GPA of at least 3.0.

6.   Participate in the minimum number of required Honors Program activities during each semester of enrollment in the program.

7.   Establish an electronic mail account within one month of entering the program.  This account can be acquired at Information Systems in room 125 Webb Hall.

Honors Courses

            The various honors courses are intended for academically motivated students willing to make a sincere commitment to learning and scholarship.  Classes are small, so students can actively learn through class participation that involves both students and teachers in joint exploration.  These courses develop scholarly habits and analytical, research, and communication skills.

            The program offers introductory, freshman-level courses in English composition, history and biology.  Every entering student must take at least one of these freshman courses or Precalculus Trigonometry, MH 114.  Enrollment in each of these classes is determined by the student’s ACT area scores or, in the case of Precalculus Trigonometry, appropriate math placement test scores.

A special feature of the Honors Program is extended to entering freshman participants with an ACT Composite score of 28 or higher and ACT area scores of 28 or higher in reading or English.  These students can earn 6 hours of credit in history and/or English composition by successfully completing the second course in the history and/or English composition honors sequence.

All freshman honors students are also required to take the Honors Forum—a one-credit hour course based upon a series of cultural activities—during the Fall Semester of their freshman year.

  
Honors Thesis

In order to help our students develop the skills in research, critical thinking, and writing important in graduate school and the professions, and to demonstrate that they have developed the skills necessary for cogent, sustained, and independent thought, the Honors Program requires of each candidate for graduation from the Honors Program a senior honors thesis.  Because in the thesis students draw upon skills that they have developed in all of the various courses that they will have taken in the Honors Program, the project is a fitting culmination of their honors education.  For those going to graduate school, the thesis will serve as a means of exploring in some depth topics that they might wish to pursue at greater length on the master’s or doctoral level.  It will also serve as journeyman’s work in the craft of research and sustained argument, and it will introduce students to the process of writing and defending a thesis.  Finally, for those who decide after graduation to work in the corporate world, the experience of the thesis will serve as an introduction to the idea and disciplines of the professional project.

The honors thesis must be an original, sustained, and well-researched argument in the candidate’s major field of study or, if appropriate to the field, an original creative project of a respectable length and sophistication.  In most cases, the thesis will take the form of a paper of a length appropriate to the discipline (generally no less than 25 pages of text) together with an appropriate list of works cited.  The thesis should be cast in a style (e.g., APA or MLA) standard to the discipline of the project.

Procedure

The project begins in the candidate’s junior year; generally, three semesters are projected for its completion.  Typically, the thesis is approved and the oral defense passed the semester before graduation.

During the semester prior to enrollment in HR 307, Honors Mentored Studies, a candidate will

• obtain from the Director a copy of the “Suggested Timetable for Completing Honors Thesis”;

• research possible topics in his or her major field of study;

• decide on a topic and write a short thesis proposal;

• present the thesis proposal to an approved faculty member and obtain his or her agreement to act as a mentor on the project;

• submit required paperwork to the Director for approval to enroll in HR 307, Honors Mentored Studies.

At some point during the first semester of HR 307, the candidate will form a committee of three faculty members consisting in every case of the Director of the Honors Program (or the Director’s proxy), the mentor, and another approved faculty member, whether in the student’s major or not.

In most cases, the candidate will present and defend the thesis by the end of the penultimate week of classes during the second term in which he or she is enrolled for HR 407, Honors Thesis.  All three members of the committee must sign the title page of the thesis in order for the project to be accepted by the Honors Program.  The mentor will assign the thesis a final grade.

Upon acceptance of the thesis, each candidate will submit two bound copies, one to the Honors Office and another to the Learning Resources Center to serve as a public record of the candidate’s achievement and as a model for the projects of future students.

            For students interested in submitting their thesis for possible publication in an undergraduate journal, there is now available on the Internet a web site that contains an Undergraduate Publications Directory (UPD).  At this site, one can find journal names and addresses.

            The freshman-level honors English composition, honors biology, and honors history classes, as well as the sophomore-level honors literature courses, are offered as options in the basic curriculum of each College.  However, the four Colleges of The University of West Alabama accommodate University Honors Courses (HR 100, 200, 307, and 407) in different ways.  The following tables show where these courses substitute for others in the curriculum of the various Colleges.

  
Recognition

            Newly admitted students to the program who successfully complete their first year as honors students are recognized during the Honors Day ceremonies Spring Semester.

            All students graduating from the Honors Program are recognized during the Honors Day ceremony and at Commencement.  They are eligible to wear the purple tassel and will have the seal of the program affixed to their diploma.  Additionally, the designation Honors Scholar is placed on their official transcripts by the Registrar.

            The Honors Council oversees student activities and participation in national, regional, and state honors councils.  It is chaired by the Director of the Honors Program and includes the President of the University, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, the honors faculty, and an Honors Program student representative from the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes, with the Provost as an ex-officio member.

            Honors students are afforded a number of opportunities, in both formal and informal settings, to meet and talk with a state or a local leader in education, business, or politics.

            Entering freshman Honors Program participants may choose to live in Honors Housing located in Reed Hall.  Students who remain in good standing as members of the Honors Program are eligible to apply for sophomore-year housing in Stickney Hall.