OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
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OSU tenured/tenure-track, senior instructor, and emeritus faculty members are invited to submit Honors College colloquium proposals for the 2024-25 academic year. Other faculty who would like to apply should contact Susan Rodgers, Honors College associate dean. The Honors College will also offer several course development grants of $500-$3000 for new or revised honors courses that include substantial experiential learning opportunities.
In addition to collaborating with units across OSU to create a breadth of honors Baccalaureate Core and elective courses, we are looking for a broad variety of HC colloquia, especially those that incorporate experiential learning or other innovative and high-impact pedagogical approaches. We are open to online as well as on-campus formats. The honors teaching experience features interactions with OSU's most accomplished and dedicated group of undergraduates, and faculty report that teaching in the Honors College is both rewarding and energizing.
The honors curriculum hosts both new and established courses. Any course in the OSU General Catalog can be offered as an honors course using the departmental designator with an “H” suffix (e.g., GEO 300H). The HC designator is also available, along with departmental topics numbers at all levels (x99H). Each honors course is classified into one of three types: honors sections of Baccalaureate Core courses (BCC), honors colloquia (one or two credits), and honors electives.
The Honors College curriculum requires students to complete 6 credits of honors sections of BCC, and courses from all disciplines are welcome. These courses are honors versions of existing OSU BCC courses, will carry an H suffix (e.g., MTH 251H), and are tailored to Honors College students. Courses will be selected to offer both horizontal (disciplinary) and vertical (100-400 level) breadth. We encourage flexible approaches in this category (e.g., offering honors laboratory or recitation sections of courses in which a separate honors lecture section might not be feasible. In this case the student would receive honors credit only for the honors component). Honors sections of BCC courses are coordinated between the Honors College and OSU academic units. Faculty interested in offering an honors section of an existing OSU BCC class should contact their unit leader and/or HC Associate Dean Susan Rodgers.
Honors College students are required to complete 6 credits of colloquia (colloquia are one or two-credit seminar-style HC 407 classes). A colloquium can serve student needs in many ways, either as an opportunity to explore a subject lying outside their academic comfort zone, or as an introduction to a potential area for research and scholarship. Honors colloquia are selected annually via the HC Colloquium Proposal form. Please contact Susan Rodgers at [email protected] if you have questions or would like to discuss a colloquium idea before submitting your proposal.
Honors College students must complete at least 12 credits of additional electives in Honors College courses, representing a broad range of interests and fields. Generally these are upper-division disciplinary courses but an array of options is available. These courses are honors versions of existing OSU courses, will carry an H suffix (e.g., BA 211H), and are tailored to Honors College students. We seek innovative and stimulating courses, and in particular encourage interdisciplinary approaches. Honors sections of these OSU courses are coordinated between the Honors College and OSU academic units. Faculty interested in offering an honors section of an existing OSU class should contact their unit leader and/or HC Associate Dean Susan Rodgers.
We will notify proposers of their colloquium proposal's status around the end of winter term. Honors colloquia selected as a result of submitted proposals are “one-time-only” agreements with no automatic renewal. General guidelines and criteria for honors courses and colloquia are as follows:
OSU faculty members of professorial or senior instructor rank are eligible to teach in the Honors College. Faculty selected to teach in the Honors College are noted on the list of Honors College Faculty and Mentors.
Faculty holding other types of positions (excluding teaching assistants) may also petition to teach for the Honors College. Anyone interested in initiating a petition should fill out the webform here. The petition process involves a review of the petitioner's experience and qualifications by honors faculty in related disciplines as well as confirmation from the petitioner's supervisor that this responsibility would be an appropriate addition to their workload.
The Honors College will transfer funds for honors teaching at the end of the term in which the course is taught. The funds will be transferred to the unit, and Financial Strategic Services (formerly the Business Centers) determine which index will be used in each case. The unit leader is responsible for deciding how to distribute and use these funds.
Honors colloquia (small 1-2 credit HC 407 seminars), are in service to the Honors College and OSU, and regulated under the constructive receipt policy (Fiscal Policy Rule 03-150-114). At the end of the term in which a colloquium is taught, the Honors College will transfer $2500/credit (colloquia are either 1 or 2 credits) to the unit the faculty member is associated with. If there are multiple instructors for a colloquium, the funds will be split evenly between the units of the instructors. Financial Strategic Services (formerly the Business Centers) determine which index will be used in each case, and then the unit leader decides how to distribute these funds.
Faculty who teach honors colloquia (small 1-2 credit HC 407 seminars) but are not currently employed at or affiliated with OSU will be hired on the HC instructor pool at an adjusted rate. Faculty who have questions about the Honors College instructor pool or the rates associated with the Honors College instructor pool, should contact Brittany Sundberg (HC Admissions and Curriculum Coordinator) at [email protected].
Scheduling of all honors courses and colloquia is carried out by the Honors College in collaboration with participating departments/units. For those courses listed under a departmental designator, all student credit hours will be registered to the home department. Variable credit and special topic numbers (e.g. x99H) can be used as appropriate.
The Honors College adheres to National Collegiate Honors Council guidelines for providing “enriched learning environments.” Lower-division Honors College courses are typically capped between 20 and 24 students; upper-division at 12-15. The HC does not allow capacity overrides for any honors course.
Once priority registration is complete, students who are not enrolled in the Honors College but have a cumulative OSU GPA of at least 3.25 are eligible to enroll in Honors College courses for which they have the necessary prerequisites on a space-available basis with the consent of the Honors College. Interested students should submit the Request for a Non-Honors Student to Enroll in an Honors Course.
Assessment of student learning should be cognizant of differences among students and diversity of learning styles. Proposals should indicate methods of assessment. Honors College classes should not be graded more stringently than any other course and workloads should be congruent with typical workloads.
In addition to OSU SLEs, students submit Honors College course and instructor evaluations via Qualtrics. This instrument is designed to address the unique challenges and opportunities of honors instruction and has been approved by OSU legal counsel and by Academic Affairs.
Proposers are encouraged to contact Susan Rodgers at [email protected] to discuss ideas for new coursework.