About the Honors Handbook
This handbook is intended to acquaint you with the Millennium III Honors Program. In the following pages you will learn about its admissions requirement, course offerings, and guidelines that will help you navigate through the program as you complete your studies at Western New Mexico University.
Program Requirements
Admission to the Program
Admission to the Honors Program is “rolling.” This means that we will make decisions concerning acceptance into the Honors Program as applications are received. The earlier you apply, the better your chance of acceptance into the program. You will be notified when a decision has been made concerning your application. We must receive written confirmation from you that you intend to participate in the program within thirty days of notification of acceptance into the program.
Specific enrollment requirements are:
1. Incoming Freshmen qualify for admission to the program with a highschool GPA of 3.0, or an ACT score of 21 or SAT score of 1080 or higher. After freshman year, students must maintain a college GPA of 3.5.
2. Applicant must apply and be accepted as a WNMU student.
3. Applicant must complete an Honors Program Application form.
Staying in the Program
1. Freshmen must maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. All other students must maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5. A student whose cumulative GPA falls below the required level will be placed on probation. Failure to achieve the requisite cumulative GPA within that year will result in termination from the program. A student who is terminated from the program may appeal the termination by filing a written appeal with the Honors Program Director. The Honors Program Committee hears such appeals and may allow a student to remain in the program upon a showing that there is a reasonable likelihood that the student can achieve at least a 3.5 GPA prior to graduation.
2. Students must complete at least two honors courses, seminars or colloquiums each academic year during their first two years in the Honors Program. Failure to do so will result in termination from the program. The Honors Program Director may make exception to this rule if extenuating circumstances exist. The decision of the Director that extenuating circumstances do not exist may be appealed to the Honors Program Committee by filing a written appeal with the Honors Program Director.
3. Students must maintain their full-time student status, ie. complete at least twelve credit hours of coursework each semester.
4. Students are required to participate in an initial “in-gathering” event at the beginning of each academic year and other occasional designated Honors activities.
Student Guidelines
Program of Study
To graduate through the Millennium III Honors Program, students must complete twenty-four credit hours of honors courses. Of these twenty-four credit hours, program participants must also take three credits of ACAD 198 Seminar and ACAD 398 Colloquium. There are four basic types of classes offered in this program:
1. Honors sections of General Education classes
2. HNRS 1210, or ACAD 398 seminars and colloquiums
3. Contract Courses
4. upper-level classes.
This curriculum is designed to satisfy both the student’s baccalaureate and honors degree programs, and provide opportunities for experiential learning outside the classroom. It is advisable that students take at least 3 honors credited classes a semester, which would guarantee that when they graduate with a baccalaureate, that they would also have the ability to graduate easily through the Millennium III honors Program.
Honors Sections of General Education Classes
These courses, offered for Freshman and Sophomore students, can include Honors: Composition and Rhetoric, Honors: Computer Science, and Honors: General Psychology. These courses can either be designated solely for honors students or they might be cross-listed with a preexisting, non-honors class.
HNRS 1210 Seminar and ACAD 398 Colloquium
The philosophy behind these courses is to provide honors students with experiential forms of learning outside the classroom. The program of study requires students to take at least three of these classes, which are one-credit hour each. Students are encouraged to take more of such courses because in so doing they will have greater opportunities to travel through the American Southwest.
Contract Honors Courses
Honors students can make a preexisting class into an honors class. This involves signing a ‘contract’ between the student and an instructor willing to do the course. It should involve the honors student doing something slightly different than non-honors students. That is, the student should not have to do more work, but rather something that is academically uplifting, experiential, and uniquely tailored towards the student’s intellectual interests. Some ideas include: giving a lecture in class, leading discussion groups, reading a different set of books, doing a poster presentation, reading a paper at an academic conference, etc. Honors contract courses allow the student the most flexible means by which to graduate through the Millennium III Honors Program.
Upper-Level Honors Courses
These courses are offered to help students complete their 24 credits of honors classes, at the same time as they finish additional, upper-level coursework to finish their 128 credits hours for their baccalaureate degree.
Student Advisory Board
The purpose of the Student Advisory Board is to allow students in the Millennium III Honors Program to help determine the selection of classes and the organization of social activities. It is composed of two committees: Course Committee and Activities Committee. The chairs of each of these committees shall represent students in the Honors Program Committee.
Course Committee
This committee shall advise the Director and Honors Program Committee regarding faculty and types of classes that they wish to see offered.
Activities Committee
This committee shall advise the Director and Honors Program Committee regarding public events offered by the Millennium III Honors Program.
Appendix
Honors Program Committee–Senate
The Honors Program Committee will provide overall guidance of the program and approve all policies and procedures. The committee will assist in the development and approval of honors courses, serve as honors advisors/mentors, hear appeals from decisions of the Honors Program Director, and collaborate in supporting activities of the Honors Program. The committee will have up to seven faculty members appointed by the Faculty Senate to two-year renewable terms. (The two-year term limit applicable to Faculty Senate appointed committees does not apply to this committee.) The committee will have up to two staff members, and up to four honors program student members, selected by the committee. The Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Honors Program Director are ex-officio, non-voting members.
Faculty Teaching Honors Courses:
1. Whenever possible, Honors courses should:-be interdisciplinary. The ideal situation would be to have faculty from different disciplines teach the course together or have frequent visiting lectures.
-stress alternative pedagogies. Faculty should strive to minimize lectures and use pedagogies that promote active student involvement with the instructional material.
-incorporate strategies from the Writing Across the Curriculum Project.
2. Non-Honors students (NHS) may be accepted into Honors courses at the discretion of the course instructor. The following guidelines should be followed:
-Priority will be given to Honors students.
-the enrollment in a course should be no more than 20% NHS.-NHS must demonstrate a specific aptitude, interest, or skill in the content of the Honors course.
-NHS will be expected to maintain the same standards and be graded on the same criteria as Honors students.