Departmental Honors

Departmental Honors offers students the opportunity to undertake an independent research, critical, or creative project on a topic of the student’s choice and directed by a professor of the student’s choice. Normally, the project begins in the senior year, although it may commence earlier, and carries six to eight hours of independent study credit over two semesters. Students may participate in Departmental Honors whether or not they have completed General Education Honors or taken Honors 351.

A Departmental Honors project is completed in the department of the student’s major. The student must apply formally to the appropriate departmental honors committee, which is responsible for accepting the student’s proposal for an honors project, for evaluating the completed project, and for awarding the Departmental Honors designation, which will appear on the student’s transcript. If the student’s project involves work with persons or animals, the project must also be approved by the Committee on Human Participants in Research or the Committee on Animal Care and Use. Individual departments may also require that the student take specific upper-level courses in addition to or as part of the honors project. Undergraduate research/creativity grants are available to support honors projects.

If there is no honors program in the student’s major or if the student wishes to undertake an interdisciplinary project that cannot be accommodated in the major, the student may apply to the director of honors to appoint an appropriate faculty committee to review the student’s proposal and to oversee the project. In such cases, the student’s transcript will reflect completion of an Honors Independent Project rather than Departmental Honors. Such students will still be eligible to receive the College Honors designation on their transcripts.

Students seeking Departmental Honors must have a minimum overall grade point average (GPA) of at least 3.00 and a minimum GPA in the major of at least 3.25. Some departments require higher minimum GPAs. Students should consult the respective departmental honors committees for details. A student whose project is denied honors may appeal that decision through the normal college appeal process.

Departmental Honors programs are offered in accounting, Africana studies, anthropology, art, art education, art history, biology, chemistry, communication, computer information systems, computer science, dance performance, early childhood education, economics, elementary education, English, film studies, finance, gender and women’s studies, geography, history, justice studies, management, marketing, mathematics, modern languages, music, music education, nursing, philosophy, physics, political science, psychology, secondary education, social work, sociology, special education, and theatre.