University of Michigan - Flint

Honors Overview and Mission Statement

Overview of the Honors Program

Since its founding in 1979, the University of Michigan-Flint Honors Scholar Program has offered qualified students the opportunity to enhance their education in the challenging and rewarding atmosphere of small, enriched core classes with close faculty guidance and one-on-one learning and research partnerships with specialists.

Students
Each year, about sixty entering freshmen are selected to begin the program.

In their first two years, students take a sequence of four interdisciplinary honors courses along with regularly elected courses in the disciplines.
These core courses are not "extra" or "add-on" courses. They count towards general education requirements that all students must complete, including English 111, English 112, two courses in Humanities and two courses in Social Sciences.
Students participate in a one credit Honors 393 course each semester from the sophomore year onward in order to develop contacts for an Off-Campus study experience.
By the end of the sophomore year or the beginning of the junior year, each student choses an honors major. We have majors in all schools and departments.
In the junior or senior year, the student completes an off-campus study project with up to $3000 in support.
The student then completes a thesis which is presented to a faculty committee or presented at a conference.
The student also completes five honors elections (short independent study projects). One honors election may consist of 30 hours of service within the Honors Program.
The student also completes, or places out of, a foreign language including 111, 112, and either 205 (1 credit) or 211 (3 credits).
The student must maintain an overall grade point average of 3.5 or higher.
A student who fails below the required GPA is allowed a probationary period to raise his or her GPA.

Student Success

Students who complete the program have an extraordinarily high rate of acceptance (100%) into the highest quality graduate and professional schools.
Students across the disciplines present numerous papers at conferences each year including the Meeting of the Minds, the Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters, the Purdue University Undergraduate Conference, and the University of Michigan-Flint Sigma Tau Delta conference, as well as numerous Honors Colloquia.

Administrative Structure

The Honors Program is organized administratively with a Director, who reports to the Provost, as well as a nine-person faculty Honors Council.

National Collegiate Honors Council Requirements for Excellence

The program meets fifteen of the sixteen Requirements for Excellence set forth by the National Collegiate Honors Council.

Assessment

The Honors Program has an effective, on-going assessment plan which has resulted in improvements in the program over the past ten years.

Mission Statement

I. The Honors Program is dedicated to the following goals:

to promote education across the disciplines in an environment that emphasizes a high degree of literacy, critical thinking and humanistic and scientific inquiry
to encourage a high level of academic achievement and scholarly research among our students
to foster a sensitive understanding of and respect for social, cultural and ethnic diversity
to help create informed, well-educated citizens and leaders who are positively and actively engaged in their immediate and wider social community
to promote recruitment and retention of students with a record af academic achievement

II. The Honors Program shares the objectives expressed in the Mission Statements of the University and the College of Arts and Sciences:

Teaching

to foster excellence in teaching and learning through its core courses and its work with participating departments, schools and programs
to promote learning partnerships with faculty as an integral part of the program

Research

to encourage faculty and students in undertaking applied and theoretical research and creative endeavors in their area of concentration

Service

to encourage service by students to the university and to society

III. The Honors Program is designed to foster cross-disciplinary perspectives and cooperation among various schools and programs throughout the university community. Together with participating members in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Management, the School of Education and Human Services, and the School of Health Professions and Studies, the Honors Program will:

promote the objectives expressed in the mission statements of individual schools and departments with recognition and respect for the diversity and complexity of the university community
encourage the building of bridges across the disciplines by integrating and implementing the objectives and procedures of schools, departments and programs participating in the program
provide opportunities for students and faculty to facilitate and strengthen cross-disciplinary objectives