The Honors Program operates under adequate but limited annual renewable resources and should seek to expand its support from both internal and external sources.
Objective
External Funding Sources For Student Scholarships
Recognizing the continuing need to supplement the financial support available to students, as well as to enhance program resources, the Honors Program will continue to seek extra-budget funding.
Indicator
Enhancing Scholarship Support For Honors Students
The Honors Program will consider organizing a fundraising campaign that will supplement the scholarship support available through existing sources.
Criterion
External Fundraising Initiative
The Let's Talk event in 2008 was a significant new source of funding. The program should continue the event and seek to at least equal the amount of funding generated in 2008.
Finding
Funding Raised By 2009 "Let's Talk"
The 2009 "Let's Talk" event raised a total of $57,000. Less expenses, the net amount was $32,000. This is less than projected, so the criterion is not fully met, though the outcome was still a good one.
Action
Let's Talk 2009
In April 2009, a post-event assessment and evaluation meeting was held by the "Let's Talk" planning committee. Based on that meeting, various strategies were formulated for improving the 2010 event (both the general quality of the event itself and of the net amount taken in). Those ideas are outlined in the attached supporting documents, but chief among them are (1) increasing involvement from the deans and faculty, (2) expanding outreach to honors parents, and (3) increasing the number of sponsors (especially targeting the $2,500 level). As a first step, a idea-exchange luncheon was held in June for the committee and all the college deans.
Goal
Attracting And Retaining Excellent Students
The Honors Program should continuously examine its approaches to attracting and retaining high-quality students.
Objective
Enhance The Honors Experience For Select Honors Students
The honors program should develop specific supports that would enhance the honors experience for the top students in the program.
Indicator
New Support And Recognition For Top Students
The Honors Program will seek to provide specific support, monetary and otherwise, for students identified as among the top in the program.
Criterion
Financial Support
The top 5% to 10% of Honors students should receive recognition and support beyond that of the other honors students.
Finding
Over 5% Of Outstanding Students Receive Support
In 2008-09, the Program received additional support to provide stipends, uniform jackets, and travel for 16 Honors Ambassadors (representing 4.5% of the honors population). The program sent five outstanding students to the National Collegiate Honors Council meeting and also provided support for an Undergraduate Research Symposium. More than 5% of outstanding students received support and special recognition in 2008-09.
Action
Expanding Support, With Cautions
There is every reason to continue the initiative to reward and recognize top honors students. We will continue providing conference travel support, stipends, awards, and program recognition for our top students. However, we have been made aware of the danger that too much focus and attention could be going to too few students, at the risk of disengaging the majority of honors students, who are themselves laudable, as well. We are studying models of "special classification" in other national honors programs.
Goal
Improved Recruitment And Retention
The Honors Program seeks to increase its numbers without altering the acceptance criteria and to increase it retention/graduation of students currently in the program
Objective
Improved On-going Advising And Contact
The Honors Program seeks to improve in both contact hours and quality of contact the advice and support that in-program students receive.
Indicator
Increased Retention And Graduation Rates
Stronger in-program advising should result in higher rates of students who complete Honors requirements and not just graduate but graduate with honors.
Criterion
Increase Graduation-with-Honors Rate
The Honors Program should continue the measures put in place last year with the expectation of holding last year's record honors graduation rate steady.
Finding
Increased Honors Graduation Rate
To address the high numbers of students who did not receive academic advising, the Honors Program instituted a series of group-advising sessions, facilitated by program staff and senior honors students. These sessions were in addition to individual advising. In addition, the program instituted additional close monitoring procedures for graduating seniors. These measures resulted in improved advising support for graduates and undergraduates. In 2008-09, 47 students graduated with honors and a record nine completed honors theses. The completion rate is on a par with the rate established last year, but the overall retention percentage is higher. The group advising needs streamlining, but it proved to be a productive addition to the advising process. The retention initiatives are working and will be continued into the future.
Indicator
Honors Contracts Completed
Honors contracts are a critical element of Honors student coursework. Last year, the program began an initiative to more closely monitor and support contracts and to increase the amount of information made available to students. In 2008-09, new initiatives were put in place to expand student knowledge of contract requirements and to increase communication with instructors.
Criterion
Direct Monitoring Of Honors Contracts
The 17% improvement in contract completion experienced last year was a positive result, but certain lingering problems were identified. With improved measures in place, we anticipate another 10% increase.
Finding
Contract Completion Goals Met
In 2008-09 the rise in completion rate continued, with a result of 81.2%, which is less than the 10% objective but still a good outcome. In fact, it may be that this is as high a completion rate as we are likely to see in any case. However, the closer monitoring of contracts and increased communication with instructors likely improved the quality of the contracts for the spring semester (and the institution of a "Best Contract" contest--with formal submissions, including letters of support from the faculty certainly contributed positively). Our chief problem with contracts now, in fact, is not completion rate but rather ensured quality. The quality of honors contracts is still too uneven, so next year we will institute measures to improve the contract performance at the bottom end.
Action
Positive Effect On Retention, With Reservations
Increased retention and completion rates prove that we have somewhat reversed a pattern of students dropping out of honors due to not having been advised (or urged) to complete requirements timely. The group advising sessions worked well in this regard, but it did provide some students who needed individual advising with a means of avoiding it. The director's close monitoring of graduation requirements for graduating seniors worked very well (saving at least five students from falling short of honors graduation) and will be continued with minor modifications. The hands-on oversight of honors contracts resulted in a higher completion rate (which must result in higher retention), but the best outcome, perhaps, was increased communication with instructors. These initiatives need tweaking, but otherwise they will be continued in 2009-10.
Goal
Maintain A Balanced, Comprehensive Honors Academic Program
The Honors Program should regularly examine and assess the Honors curriculum to determine if it reflects adequate quality, depth, range, and balance.
Objective
Assessment Of Course Offerings
The Honors Program should regularly evaluate the range and sufficiency of honors courses.
Indicator
Determining The Adequacy Of Current Course Offerings
The program should reassess enrollments in the freshman courses and seminars and consider whether fundamental curricular modifications are in order.
Criterion
Reassessing Honors Seminars
The average enrollment in honors seminars in 2007-08 rose to 23.5. This is an unacceptably high enrollment for a seminar, which ideally, according to National Collegiate Honors Council guidelines, should be 15-18. When class size approaches 25, it can no longer function as a true seminar. It is critical that efforts be made to bring the average seminar size to near or below twenty students per class.
Finding
Honors Seminar Enrollments
The honors program was unable to address the problem of high enrollments in seminars. In 2008-09, the average seminar size was even slightly higher than the previous years. With the exception of the science seminar (HON 131) the spring courses were too large to properly be called seminars. A main program objective for 2009-10 is the addition of new seminars.
Action
Addition Of New Honors Seminar
Formal request for the addition of a fourth honors seminar for the fall 2009 semester and another fourth seminar for the spring 2010 semester has been made.
Goal
Enhance The Overall Honors Educational Experience
The honors program should strive to provide avenues for academic and scholarly fulfillment both within and beyond the honors curriculum
Objective
Provide Academic Opportunities Beyond Coursework
In addition to maintaining the honors curriculum, the program should provide specific support for scholarly and academic activities beyond those available in the regular honors curriculum.
Indicator
Provide Support For Undergraduate Research For Honors Students
In addition to maintaining the honors curriculum, the program should provide specific support for undergraduate research by honors students.
Criterion
Program Support
The Honors Program will continue initiatives begun in 2007-08. The objective is to increase the number of honors students applying for the LURE program and significantly increasing the number of students and faculty participating in the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Finding
Support For Honors Ambassadors
The LURE program (a national initiative to promote undergraduate research in mathematics) saw an increase in honors student participation from one to four. This is a much desired result. However, the Undergraduate Research Symposium suffered from low participation and low attendance (both from students and faculty).
Action
Revisioning The Honors Role In Undergraduate Research
The Honors Program is gratified to have the partnership of academic departments (Biology and Chemistry in undergraduate poster competition and Mathematics in the LURE program), but our aim of becoming a leader in undergraduate research is not materializing quite as fully as we would like. The Undergraduate Research Symposium, despite proactive measures to increase participation, languished--despite excellent structures and good promotion. We have begun trouble-shooting meetings with next year's organizers in hopes of overcoming the problems (mainly low participation from students and faculty) that have beset the Symposium in its first two years. It is still worth the effort, but we need to revision the whole enterprise.