Honors Contracts

Honors Contracts give students and faculty the opportunity to engage in innovative and interesting course assignments for honors credit. The Honors Contract option is an opportunity to be creative about learning and teaching, and a way to tailor the curriculum to meet student interests.

This arrangement is formalized via contract in which the student and faculty renegotiate the course requirements. As with all honors courses, only courses taught by regularly appointed faculty members or by distinguished visitors are eligible to carry the Honors Contract designation. Contracts should be explicit and fully detail the expectations for both the quantity and quality of work.

The student will initiate the Honors Contract process. The deadline for spring contracts was Wednesday, February 13th. (Late contracts are not accepted and the student does not earn honors credit for the course).

All work for Honors Contract credit must be completed during the semester in which the student has registered for the course. Fulfillment of the agreement is documented by a completion form, sent to the instructor by the honors college and returned by him/her no later than one month after the last day of class for that semester.

Suggested enrichment activities:
- Conduct an individual research project or assist with faculty research
- Create, test, and evaluate a software program
- Prepare and present a class lecture
- Facilitate weekly meetings with faculty outside of class
- Complete a small group project with other honors students
- Produce a research paper
- Attend break out sessions with faculty and other honors students
- Appropriate enrichment activities vary by discipline; the following represent suggested strategies for developing honors experiences:

All honors work should involve significant critical thinking in reading, writing, and discussion.
Honors activities should offer students the opportunity to work closely with the instructor, either in small group sessions or in individual conferences.
Honors Contract courses represent a qualitatively different experience for the student; this does not necessarily imply a qualitative difference in the work required.
When possible, enrichment activities should be complementary to the course requirements.
These activities may: (A) introduce students to the major issues or developments in the discipline; (B) link other disciplines to the subject; (C) involve prospective topics for future and independent investigation; or, (D) entail current/ongoing research projects.
Students should be active participants, not passive learners, and should have varied opportunities for such exercise (i.e., assuming responsibility for teaching one or more classes; serving as resource persons on predetermined topics; serving as junior members of active research groups).
When Honors Contract enrichment activities supplement ordinary course requirements, the contract should affect only the decision to award or withhold the honors designation. When these activities are integrated with or replace standard course requirements, the agreement may be reflected as well in the final earned grade for the course. This decision should be made explicit in the original contract.
Honors Contracts are the most varied of the honors experiences at ASU. They are individual contracts made between the professor teaching a course and an Honors student in the course. These contracts are intended to build relationships between students and faculty, as well as to challenge and engage honors students beyond the requirements of the course.

Student Guide for Making Honors Contracts:
1. Approach your professor during the first 2 weeks of class to see if he or she is willing to develop an enriched experience for the target course. It may include extra meetings with the professor, extra reading, and/or extra writing or speaking.
2. Make sure you agree with the plan before verbally agreeing. Remember, this is a collaborative effort that you approve, as well.
3. Fill out the online contract through the Honors website at http://honors.asu.edu.
4. Check with the Honors Advising office to ensure accuracy after filling out your online contract.
5. Do not fill out another contract if information is incorrect. Contact the Honors Advising office to make the changes to the original contract.
6. Check with your professor to ensure that he/she received the electronic contract and felt the information represented your oral agreement.
7. Meet regularly with your professor during the semester; if he/she does not request frequent discussions, take the initiative to check with him/her for an update on your progress.
8. If you feel the need to drop the contract mid-semester, speak with your professor for advice before making a final decision. Contact the Honors Advising office so we can update your records. 9. Turn in your project by the final deadline date.
10. Verify with the Honors Advising office that the confirmation e-mail was sent by the professor and updated in the Barrett database.

***Note that all official transcripts will be updated by the Registrar's office 2-3 months after the end of the semester you complete the footnote project.