University Honors Scholars

University Honors Scholars

University Honors Scholars (UHS) offers students opportunities to become campus leaders and enrich their college experience with academic, service, and cultural work beyond the standard curriculum. Honors scholars are able to work closely with faculty in General Education courses, as well as within their chosen majors, to deepen their knowledge in courses of their choosing. Honors scholars work together to plan service projects within the LMU and wider community, organize academic and cultural trips, and travel to regional and national conferences to present their research.     

Mission Statement

The University Honors Scholars exists to promote undergraduate scholarship and encourage intellectual dialogue among students. It deepens values through an approach of critical reading and writing in courses reinforced with service learning and increased social and cultural collaboration. The LMU UHS is marked by its interdisciplinary nature and course objectives that focus on analysis, integration, and application. A service ethic is reinforced by activities and responsibilities throughout the program where Honors students reach out to fellow students and to the broader community.

University Honors Scholars Admission

Incoming freshman students with a minimum 3.5 high school GPA may apply to be members of the UHS. Transfer and current students may apply to be members of the UHS with a minimum cumulative college GPA of 3.2. Admissions will be based on successful completion of all elements of the application and a successful interview as determined by a grading rubric. Applications are reviewed by an admissions committee within Honors Council, a committee of faculty from across the University, and elected honors student-officers. Final admission decisions are made by the Honors Council. Unsuccessful students with at least three remaining semesters may reapply after completion of two semesters at LMU.

Program Design and Benefits

This program is intended to function like a “minor” and will include special regalia and recognition at commencement, as well as corresponding designations on the student’s diploma and transcript. Students commit to engage in special coursework, service work, and cultural activities to enrich their regular learning, as well as enhance their resumes and networking opportunities. Core courses with HNRS prefixes are listed below. Many non-HNRS courses can be taken as honors “contract courses” and will fulfill General Education or academic major requirements. Honors contract courses help fulfill the minimum required credit hours for recognition at graduation and allow students to work with faculty in classes of their choosing to do honors-level work.

Eligibility for the UHS scholarship is based on acceptance into the Program. However, Program admission does not guarantee that a student will receive the award, because scholarships are awarded on a competitive, first-come, first-admitted basis from a finite annual fund. When the fund is exhausted for the academic year, students who did not receive the scholarship will be placed on a waiting list.    

Requirements for 4-year Honors Students

Honors students who enter the Program in their freshman year and/or complete at least 23 honors course credits, including the Honors Capstone Project, will receive recognition as University Honors Scholars. For 4-year honors students, the required honors courses are: 

Requirements for Transfer or Current LMU Students

Transfer students and current LMU students who have at least two years (or 60 credits) of degree-work remaining are eligible to apply for the Program if they have a minimum cumulative college GPA of 3.0. Students completing at least 18 honors course credits, including the Honors Capstone Project, will receive recognition as Honors Scholars on their transcript. Transfer students who have completed all or part of the requirements of an honors program at another academic institution may have some of these requirements waived with the approval of the Honors Council. 

For transfer or current LMU students, the required honors courses are:

Contract Courses

All honors scholars will earn the remaining honors course credits required for recognition as a University Honors Scholar or Honors Scholar by selecting contract courses (CCs) that allow them to engage in scholarship under the mentorship of a faculty member. At the beginning of each semester, honors scholars may choose no more than three (3) of their regular courses to designate as CCs. Students must request a contract with the instructor to do honors-level work in that course during the first weeks of the semester. The honors-level work to be completed is agreed upon in writing between the student and instructor with the finalized ‘UHS Contract Course Application’ form found on the Honors Scholar Canvas site. Scholars must submit all CCs, signed by the instructors and themselves, to the Canvas site by the due date listed on the application form. The form is then routed for authorization by department chairs, college deans, and the Honors Council. All aspects of the contract must be fulfilled within the semester of the contract course.

Course Contracts are official academic agreements that change a regular course to HNRS and are permanently recorded on the transcript. Scholars should carefully consider their courseload before committing to a CC, because canceling them without good cause reflects poorly on one’s professionalism and creates additional administrative work. If during the semester, the honors scholar or faculty member would like to terminate the contract for whatever reason, they are required to fill out the ‘Contract Course Termination’ form found on the Honors Scholar Canvas site and submit it to the Honors Director no later than the registrar’s published date for “Last day to drop course without ‘F’”. If an honors scholar fails to officially terminate the CC, they will be required to meet with the Professionalism Committee of the Honors Council. If a scholar officially terminates two CCs throughout their time, they will be required to meet with the Professionalism Committee. The Professionalism Committee will make recommendations to the Honors Council related to the honors scholar’s membership status. Decisions by the committee and Honors Council are final. If the faculty member terminates the CC, there will be no consequence to the student, and it will not count towards one of their two terminations. At the end of the semester, the Honors Director and Office of Academic Affairs verify that the work was completed, and that all contract terms are met. Upon successful completion of the CC, the registrar designates the course as HNRS on the student's permanent transcript.

Honors Capstone and HNRS-prefix courses

All honors students complete a capstone project as a program requirement. The majority of required HNRS courses are therefore designed to allow the honors student to build critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills as they work toward a capstone experience as scholars: the completion and presentation of an Honors Capstone Project. The project can take various forms (e.g. research experiment, creative work, etc.) but all must include a written component and PowerPoint presentation.

Freshmen Honors students will be introduced to the culture and expectations of the Honors program, strategies for college success, and the nature of scholarship in HNRS 100. The student will develop and hone research skills and consider the processes of research by examining multi-disciplinary approaches to community problem-solving in HNRS 200. In HNRS 300, the student will develop advanced research skills and begin work on the Honors Capstone; in this course, they will choose their topic, form their faculty capstone committee, and write a proposal for submission to and approval by the Honors Council. The student must present a written proposal for the project to, and receive approval from, the Honors Council before commencing work on the project. HNRS 400 affords the student time to work independently on research and with their committee members as they complete the capstone project. Because the project functions as a capstone experience, the student will publicly present and defend their project in HNRS 497. This course will also serve as the place for completing an institutional assessment of the program.

The honors seminars (HNRS 203 and 303) are taught by faculty from across campus on an array of topics that introduce students to multi- and interdisciplinary research. All faculty are invited to propose and teach seminar topics in their areas of expertise.

HNRS 333 is the Honors Laboratory, a course held every semester in which honors students meet to read and discuss common texts, plan service projects and cultural excursions, write reflectively, and conduct committee work vital to Program success. HNRS 333 is a required course that students must take for credit at least once per academic year. It may be taken for zero credit with no writing requirement. Students are encouraged to enroll every semester, as this course is our primary means of fostering camaraderie and benefiting from a multiplicity of perspectives.

Optional Honors Courses: LNCN 110 and CIVX 310

As part of the General Education (GE) requirements at LMU, all students must take LNCN 100 Lincoln’s Life and Legacy and CIVX 300 American Civics. Honors versions of these courses have been created to replace the aforementioned courses and include honors-level activities and academic skills-building for scholars who wish to earn HNRS credit for them. LNCN 110 Honors Lincoln’s Life and Legacy, will replace LNCN 100 and CIVX 310 American Civics, Honors will replace CIVX 300. LNCN 110 is designed in the style of a seminar: interactive and discussion based. Students will read a scholarly biography of Lincoln and focus on current, real-world issues and problem-solving related to Lincoln’s legacy. Additionally, students in LNCN 110 will learn about research methods in the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum and digitally explore Lincoln travel sites. CIVX 310 equips junior and senior-level students with essential working knowledge of United States citizenship and American political systems, while also providing a hands-on learning environment with the surrounding communities of the LMU Campus. Students will read advanced texts in American political culture and engage directly in group-based project learning with local governments and stakeholder organizations in the Appalachian region that LMU serves.

The credit(s) earned for either or both courses will count toward the required HNRS credit totals of 23 or 18, and the courses are designated HNRS on the transcript. Because of the advanced opportunities these courses offer, UHS students are highly encouraged to take LNCN 110 in the spring of their freshman year and CIVX 310 in the fall of their junior year.

UHS Participation and e-Portfolios

All honors students create and maintain an e-Portfolio to document their participation in the three pillars of the UHS: academic, service, and cultural experiences. Containing students’ photographs and brief reflections, these personal websites have been shown to be important links on resumes and graduate school applications, as they provide viewers with visual evidence of student engagement and success. Academic experiences include attendance or presentations at conferences, attendance at lectures, workshops, and award ceremonies, research opportunities, study abroad, etc. Students must record at least two academic posts per semester. As campus leaders, honors students are expected to help design and participate in at least one UHS-sponsored service project per semester. Students must also record attendance in at least one cultural event per semester, such as a play, concert, museum, etc. Each e-Portfolio should be updated throughout the semester, with final updates due on the last day of classes. The e-Portfolios are director- and peer-reviewed and scored according to a rubric.      

Program Leadership: Honors Director and Honors Council

The Honors Director and Honors Council have oversight responsibility for this academic program. The Director reports directly to the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and meets regularly with the Council to present operational matters for discussion and voting. The Honors Council is composed of representative faculty members from every undergraduate School and student-elected representative honors students. The Director makes recommendations to the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs regarding criteria for honors courses and specific honors courses that have been approved by the Council.

General Criteria for Honors Courses:

• Analysis

• Synthesis

• Critical reading

• Critical writing

• Documentation and attribution excellence for source materials

• Relevant and current application of knowledge and analysis

• Evidence of learning approach(es) such as debate, presentations, instructional travel

• Service/experiential learning

Note: Each course is expected to meet many of the above objectives but not every item above. Courses are expected to be designed appropriately for the academic level.

General Criteria for Faculty teaching honors courses:

• Proven ability to provide intellectual leadership and mentoring of students in and out of the classroom

• Support for the overall mission and objectives of the University Honors Scholars

• Understanding of the differential educational approach of honors courses

• Exceptional teaching skills that include fostering inclusive discussion, thoughtful learning activities, selection of relevant and current readings, use of scholarly documentation and attribution, meaningful assessment instruments, and timely feedback to students

• Engagement of peer evaluation process of classroom observation, feedback, and reflection

Probation and Dismissal from University Honors Scholars

If an honors scholar fails to achieve a cumulative 3.2 GPA in any given semester, they will receive an academic warning and be placed on probation. The student will be expected to raise the GPA within two semesters. If after the second semester the GPA is still below 3.2, the student will be dismissed from University Honors Scholars.

If an honors scholar receives a final grade below a C- in any course, they will be dismissed from University Honors Scholars. If an honors scholar withdraws from a course during the withdrawal period to receive a WD for the course, there is no consequence. However, if an honors scholar withdraws after the ‘Last day to drop course without F’ date as determined by the registrar, the course grade received is an F and the policy for dismissal will be enforced.

The e-Portfolio (eP) is an important indicator of University Honors Scholars’ participation. Scholars’ ePs must demonstrate active engagement every semester with all three UHS pillars: Academics, Service, and Culture. If an honors scholar fails to maintain the e-Portfolio by the stated deadline, or if the scored rubric indicates insufficient participation/content, the student will be placed on probation. If the e-Portfolio is not updated by the next stated deadline or does not indicate acceptable participation, then the student will be dismissed from University Honors Scholars. An honors scholar who fails to update the e-Portfolio by the stated deadline during his/her last semester will not graduate with honors.

Students placed on academic warning, probation, or suspension are ineligible for the UHS scholarship. Because the scholarship is awarded on a competitive basis, there is no guarantee that it will be restored even after the warning/probation/suspension period has ended.

Any violation of the University’s academic integrity policy or codes of conduct will result in immediate dismissal from University Honors Scholars.

An honors scholar who is dismissed from University Honors Scholars may appeal his/her dismissal to the Honors Council for review by the Professionalism Committee by completing an appeals form found on the Honors Scholar Canvas site.