HONORS ENRICHMENT CONTRACTS IN THE HDSHC
Purpose:
“The primary purpose of the Honors Enrichment Contract is to give students and faculty the opportunity to interact about challenging academic issues. Students and faculty should feel free to design an agreement in addition to general course expectations that is tailored to the specifics of their interaction, the expected work, and the course. Both faculty and students should be able to benefit from the honors enrichment contract work.” (see Barrett Honors College website)
Enrichment Contract Advisor Criteria:
Honors Enrichment Contracts may only be supervised by HDSHC Faculty. An Honors Enrichment Contract may only be negotiated with approved Honors Faculty in the Hugh Downs School. Graduate students and staff may not supervise a contract.
General Guidelines for an Honors Contract:
1. Enrichment Contracts should provide students with learning experiences beyond the general course requirements.
○ Do not simply provide an “extra assignment” for the student.
○ Rather, ensure that the learning experience challenges the student to grow.
2. Meet with the student to negotiate the ideas for a project or activity that will earn honors contract credit. Some examples of successful contracts in the past have included:
○ Conducting a small exploratory study of a special topic
○ Supervised readings (books, journal articles, literature) of texts relevant to the student’s interests in the subject area of the class
○ Preparing a performance that is shared with the class or an outside audience
○ Volunteer work and critical reflection as relevant to the class
○ Case study analysis and final paper integrating readings beyond the course material
*Group work to earn honors contract credit is encouraged. Multiple students can collaborate on a group project (e.g., reading groups, group service project, group performance)
3. The contract should be related to the class content and should reflect that the student is learning how to do independent work of a scholarly nature, be it service, research, creative activity, practicum, etc.
4. The faculty member should schedule meetings with the student as needed to discuss progress, questions, concerns, etc.
5. After discussion with their faculty instructors, students need to set up a contract, complete a form online and obtain online signature approval from their instructor. There is no need to fill additional hardcopy/paperwork for the school.