What is an Honors contract?

Once Honors students enter upper-division coursework in their majors, they begin Departmental Honors. Unlike Honors in University Studies, in which students take classes reserved for Honors students only, Departmental Honors students take the regular upper-division courses required for their majors. These students then earn Honors credit by doing extra projects, or contracts, outside the regular coursework for their majors.

Before beginning Departmental Honors, students pick up a Departmental Honors Plan of Study form from the Honors office and complete it with their Departmental Honors Advisor. Once the Honors office has a student's Departmental Honors Plan of Study signed and on file, a student may begin doing contracts.

Here's how a semester on contract will play out:

• Within the first 1-2 weeks of the semester, you will come into the Honors office to pick up a contract form. You will then meet with the instructor you would like to work with and together agree upon an appropriate project for you to work on.
• You should approach your instructor with an idea that springs from the course content. Your contract work, however, is entirely separate from the coursework.
• As you plan your contract each semester, also keep in mind that the end result of each contract should be the formation of the kind of relationship with your instructor that will lead to positive, detailed letters of recommendation in the future.
• You will return the signed contract to Honors by the fourth week of classes and begin work on the agreed-upon contract project.
• You will then meet at least twice per month with your instructor throughout the semester to discuss the contract project.
• Your contract must be completed by the last day of classes each semester.
• At the end of the semester, Honors sends the contract form to your instructor. If you have completed the agreed-upon project, your instructor signs the contract and sends it back to Honors.
• Also at the end of the semester, you will receive an email from the Honors office, asking you to complete a Contract Completion Record (in which you report the work you did on your contract), and submit either your project, if it is something tangible, or a two page reflection paper.
• Honors then posts an "H" next to the course for which you've completed a contract.

The student-professor mentorship I've received in Honors has opened up opportunities to me which I would have otherwise overlooked. After completing my first Honors contract, for example, my professor nominated me to read my paper at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference at Weber State. This turned out to be an excellent opportunity, where I met other undergraduate writers and professional authors and listened to their work.
Erin Hepner, English Education, Fall 2007

Please note the following Honors contract guidelines:

• Each contract should include a total of 15-30 hours of work for the student--not so much work that the student has completed an extra credit's worth of work, but enough that the student's work is significant.
• The general guideline is that an Honors contract in a 3 credit class should take 20-30 hours of work throughout the semester; 10-20 hours for a 2 credit class; and 5-10 hours for a 1 credit class.
• Each contract should result in something that you can be proud of, not just, for example, extra problems in your chemistry class. Contracts should contribute to advancing a common theme across courses in your major, which is, in turn, related to your future specialization.
• Honors contracts often lead students to the topic for their Honors senior thesis/project.
• Contracts are not graded, and should not influence a student's grade in the course.

Need contract ideas? You might consider:

• working in an apprentice-like role on your professor's research project;
• additional reading, discussion, and synthesis on a topic of mutual interest to you and your instructor;
• researching a topic and writing a research or policy paper;
• a service or leadership initiative or internship related to the course focus;
• curriculum development projects like assisting your professor with a new teaching tool or adapting course material for use in pre-college classes (especially appropriate for future teachers).

For more detailed suggestions, you may view a list of exemplary contracts from past semesters.