Negotiating an Honors Contract

Students wishing to negotiate an honors contract for a non-honors course must first receive permission to do so from the Coordinator or Director of the Redwine Honors Program.

Permission should be sought prior to the semester in which the honors contract would take place. We recommend students wishing to contract begin the negotiation process one (1) semester in advance, preferably after the mid-term release of the subsequent semester’s course listings. Permission will not be granted to students who propose an honors contract the week before classes begin or following the first day of classes during the semester in which the contract would take place.

Once a student has received permission from Honors Staff to proceed with negotiating an honors contract, the student should request permission from the course instructor to contract his or her class. Again, this request should be made well in advance of the semester during which the contract would take place so as to be respectful of the instructor’s time. Responsibility lies with the student to accurately inform the course instructor of the commitment an honors contract entails; we recommend the student refer the instructor to this webpage when requesting permission to contract his or her course for honors credit.

Should the student receive permission from the instructor to contract his or her class for honors credit, the instructor will need to submit the following materials to Honors Staff via the contract submission portal for the proposed contract to be considered for approval:

  • Explicit written agreement to oversee the student’s (full name) contract of his or her course (full course title with number and abbreviation) for honors credit
  • Course syllabus for the semester in which the contract would take place
  • Description of the honors project the student would complete, including what the student would do, what he or she would submit for grading purposes, and what percentage of his or her overall grade the project would constitute

A Note on Grading: An honors project must account for at least 10% of the honors student’s course grade. This value can be either integrated into the existing grade distribution by reducing the values of other assignments, projects, exams, etc., or it can be added to the existing grade distribution. For example, an instructor may choose to add an honors project worth 15% of the student’s course grade to the existing 100% distribution, expanding the distribution to 115% total.

These contracting materials may be sent to and are due no later than the week before classes begin for the semester in which the contract would occur.

All proposed honors contracts must be approved by the Director of the Redwine Honors Program before they can proceed. As mentioned previously, contracts proposed the week before classes begin or following the first day of classes during the semester in which the contract would take place will be rejected.

The Director of the Redwine Honors Program may request revisions to a proposed honors project before the contract can be approved. The program director ultimately reserves the right to reject contracts if they do not meet the standards of Honors education.

Should approval be granted by the program director, the honors contract can proceed as planned, and Honors Staff will reach out to the course instructor only at midterms and finals to request reports on the honors student’s performance in the class and progress through his or her honors project. The instructor may share specific scores or grading rubrics if he or she is comfortable, but updates addressing the above topics without providing specific details will suffice.

The student must pass the contracted course with a C or better to receive honors credit. Moreover, the student must earn a score of a C or better on his or her honors project in order to receive honors credit for the class.

A Final Note: A student wishing to complete an honors contract should consider it a binding agreement, meaning that he or she should prepare to complete the proposed project to the best of his or her ability within the timeline proposed. Failing to complete an honors contract jeopardizes faculty support for this initiative and could have profound consequences not just for current honors students but future ones as well. Please make strategic choices that recognize your own limitations when selecting a class to contract for honors credit. Honors Staff are available to advise students through the selection process.