Major Characteristics of Honors Seminars
UHP seminars are interdisciplinary and do not duplicate courses offered by other UNM departments. Here are some of the exciting, essential, and distinguishing differences that allow our Program to continually cultivate excellence:
1. Restricted Enrollment. Students who participate in Honors classes have met specific criteria. They must have achieved an 1860 composite SAT score, a 29 ACT score, or a minimum 3.5 cumulative grade point average in high school. In addition, they are generally in the top 10% of their graduating high school class and have distinguished themselves through their academic and co-curricular work.
2. Limited class size. The classes are limited to 16 students—17 or 18 under exceptional circumstances.
3. Student participation. While the format of the class is left to the discretion of the instructor, Honors classes typically involve much more student discussion and student-faculty interaction. The model, to some extent, is to approximate a graduate seminar for undergraduates. Students should be encouraged to “discover” knowledge through discussion, critical reading, writing, laboratory experience, and research.
4. Communication. Oral and written expression should be a major part of the Honors experience. We thus suggest that students be encouraged to collect their ideas, have good justification for what they are going to say, and then be given every opportunity to communicate those ideas. These can take the form of lively class exchanges, journals, papers, laboratory reports, and a variety of other techniques that teach organization and presentation skills.
5. Enrichment rather than extra work. Honors classes in high school often have the reputation of simply “piling on the work” rather than attempting anything creative or enriching. While more motivated students, such as one finds in an Honors class, can absorb material a little more readily, Honors classes should never be viewed as punitive—that is, involving substantial extra work when compared with a regular class or having a much more rigorous grade expectation. The emphasis in these classes should be on exploring the subject matter a little more thoroughly, and on dealing with the course material in a way that smaller numbers permit. The goal of an Honors education is greater breadth, more enrichment, and a somewhat faster-paced presentation.
6. Realistic grading. Honors students have met compared with the student body as whole, unusually high criteria for participating in the Program. Thus imposing a normal grade distribution curve makes little sense. Similarly, participating students are not in competition with each other, but rather grades should be assigned based on the instructor’s perception of content and skills mastery. Honors students may receive A, CR, or NC and a written qualitative and quantitative evaluation.
7. Involvement. Often, the enrichment mentioned previously relies on engaging the students more thoroughly in the course material. Besides the high degree of student participation mentioned above, this may include field experiences, exposure to sophisticated research equipment, or more “hands-on instruction.” We want to convey to the Honors student the excitement that first motivated each of the faculty to involve themselves in their discipline. We also want to draw the student as far as possible into the general field of study that is being pursued in the class.
8. Interaction. The small class format permits instructors to get to know the students better and to interact with them more closely. The nature of the interaction is left to the discretion of the instructor. Typically, however, Honors students have a closer relationship with their Honors instructors than with other professors, and look to them as role models, for above average amounts of evaluation, for more consultation, for a greater amount of insight into the professor’s research interests, and ultimately for enough interpersonal involvement so that letters of recommendation to graduate or professional school might ultimately be solicited from that professor.
9. Interdisciplinary work. To many of us, education has become too fragmented and too compartmentalized. Honors implicitly encourages drawing on a wide range of disciplines while presenting material within the professors own area of competency. Explicitly, Honors is a primary vehicle on campus for inaugurating courses that cross disciplinary lines for the purpose of giving students a broad and integrated perspective on human knowledge.
10. Instruction by regular, tenure track faculty with track records of successful classroom instruction. The objective is of course to put our more motivated student/scholar into close contact with our better instructor/scholars. Generally speaking, Honors classes should not be instructed by graduate teaching assistants.
Features of Legacy Seminars
The 100-level seminar in Honors serves as an introduction to the Honors Program. The seminars are based on legacies that have affected the culture and society of the United States. All UHP seminars are interdisciplinary, so Legacies must include the following:
- history
- literary works
- philosophy and/or political theory
- drama and/or poetry
- art, music, dance, and/or architecture
- science, math, and or technology
The Legacies deal with the development of ideas rather than definitive historical time. Additionally, Legacies will include primary sources important for understanding the theme or focus of the seminar. Students will get the optimum benefits if Legacies span several historical periods.
Popular thematic Legacy topics have included:
- Legacy of Power
- Legacy of Struggle
- Legacy of Exploration
- Legacy of Gender, Race, and Class
- Legacy of Technology
- Legacy of Gods and Humanity
- Legacy of Citizenship/Democracy/Freedom
Most importantly, Legacies count toward UNM's core Humanities credit.
Features of Seminars Beyond the Legacy
200 Level Seminars
- A cross-cultural examination of other legacies and world views: Women, Africa, the Far East, the Americas, Medieval Europe, and the origins of mathematics and science.
- Interdisciplinary explorations of specific topics with an emphasis on developing and strengthening skills important to success in Honors and undergraduate education, including oral and written communication skills, reading skills, critical and creative thinking, etc.
300 Level Seminars
- Interdisciplinary explorations of specific topics designed to demonstrate the interconnectedness of academic disciplines. Recent seminars have focused on the significance of gender in myth and literature, bio-medical ethics, the nature and politics of nuclear energy, the origins of prejudice, arts across cultures, the existential imagination, and cross-cultural communication.
400 Level Seminars
- Inquiry and investigation of intellectual currents. 400-level seminars will be explorations of topics that are more in-depth than that of lower-level seminars, and students will have greater roles and responsibilities. These seminars can afford the opportunity for enthusiastic and ambitious students to produce a publishable paper or a coordinate collaborative mini-conference.
