Honors College Council

Voting members present: Hilary Boudet (remote), Michael Burand, David Cann, Demian Hommel, Kathryn McIntosh, Sandy Neubaum (remote), Sam Logan, Bo Sun (remote), Adam Gross, Marina Ketrenos, Jennifer Martin (remote), Sahana Shah
Voting members absent: Jessica Fujinaga
Ex-Officio members present: Toni Doolen
Guests present: Vincent Davis

Member Introductions

Designate a Volunteer to Take Meeting Minutes

• Marina Ketrenos volunteered to take minutes.

Discussion

• Allow students to count graduate-level classes towards their Honors degree (students in the Accelerated Masters Platform (AMP) could simultaneously earn 1) undergraduate credit, 2) Honors College credit, and 3) graduate-level credit)
  • When students join the Honors College (HC) there is currently three requirements for the baccalaureate degree.
    • Credit requirements
    • GPA requirement of 3.5
    • Creation and defense of a thesis
  • For credit requirements, HC electives make up the biggest portion of them.
  • For certain majors, it can be hard to find enough honors electives to meet the requirements.
  • We've occasionally allowed some students to take graduate courses to count toward Honors program, but there's no official policy currently in place.
  • Should we allow graduate course credits to count toward students' honors baccalaureate degree as part of the honors elective credits?
  • AMP is a program for undergraduate students in their junior and senior year who are taking graduate courses and it allows those credits to count toward both undergraduate baccalaureate degrees and a masters program.
  • It is possible to earn up to 22 graduate credits as an undergraduate student.
  • Allowing credits to count towards HC could lead to higher enrollment in graduate courses.
  • It is important we be consistent about which courses can count toward HC requirements.
• Is it true that this has been done before?
  • Historically, students have occasionally been approved to take graduate courses in lieu of honors electives to count toward their honors degree.
  • There is no official policy in place and there is no reference to it on the Honors College website. We need to decide one way or the other – either it is allowed or it is not.
    • From Jennifer Martin - I'm an Ecampus student but can come to Corvallis for in-person classes, and I've done so for graduate level courses in the past. I've requested to take those courses as an undergraduate and am in support of graduate credits counting toward honors requirements. If students were to continue into graduate school at OSU, will these credits count toward their graduate degree, even though they were taken in undergrad?
      • The accelerated masters program needs approval from the specific department offering the masters degree program in order to count the credits toward that program.
      • Graduate credits earned as an undergrad student cannot retroactively be applied to the graduate level from AMP.
        • If a student takes a 400-level course as an undergrad, they cannot then take the 500-level course as a graduate student and earn credit toward a masters program.
          • You don't need to be an AMP student for this policy to be an option for you.
            • Clarification from Jennifer – If I applied to OSU's psych program for grad school, the courses I took as an undergrad would not count toward that program?
              • That’s correct.
          • Toni noted that she wasn’t sure if there will be variability across programs at the university but that the Honors College advising team can help students navigate this policy, if put in place. It is possible this policy may not be equitable access across all programs.
• There are cases where students don't need graduate courses for their major but are still able to meet the honors requirements, so how much is counting accelerated masters platform credits really helping a student toward their degree?
  • Graduate courses offer discussions and engagement similar to what we would expect in an Honors College course, but the workload standards would be at the graduate level for graduate courses.
  • This policy opens the possibility for students to earn honors elective credits while taking graduate course.
  • Is the AMP application process as simple as just registering for a course?
    • Not all grad programs participate in AMP, so to apply, students must check if their grad program participates. The must apply in their junior year, must meet a GPA requirement, and must have a certain number of credits remaining for their degree.
    • We also require students to request an override to get into grad level classes.
      • Certain colleges don't have a critical mass of honors credits available across their majors.
      • For a lot of majors, this opportunity could be helpful in earning an honors degree
      • Will this force students to take grad courses if they're out of other options to meet honors degree requirements? will these courses be irrelevant to their major at that point?
        • We would not be reducing the number of honors courses offered, so students who could initially meet the requirements without grad courses still can and those who couldn't, would now have an opportunity to meet them by taking grad level courses.
      • Question from Jenniger – Will this be more beneficial for on-campus students? I haven't seen any graduate courses taught for Ecampus students.
        • That may be related to your major as we have many grad courses offered for online students.
        • Michael did not that there are not many graduate level courses offered for Chemistry through Ecampus.
• If a policy is passed, we should add the info to an FAQ page.
  • If you’re an Ecampus student and register for graduate level courses, you may need to pay the graduate tuition rate instead of undergraduate, which could impact a student’s financial need packets.
    • A potential policy will be discussed further at the December 4 meeting.
• Allow students to petition to apply to the Honors College without meeting the minimum requirements (3.75 high school GPA or 1300 SAT or 27 ACT)
  • During the pandemic, tests weren't offered as frequently and some high schools stopped giving out GPAs entirely. This policy was put in place so students could petition to join the Honors College without those requirements. We've had admission cycles already with students who've gone through this process and joined the Honors College at OSU. Should this temporary petition process go away, or should we keep it for students to utilize for honors applications without meeting the minimum requirements even though high school testing and GPAs have returned?
    • How often do students leave the Honors College because of GPA requirements?
      • Suspicion is less than 3%.
    • Toni indicated that, as dean, she can wave the GPA requirement at graduation, upon petition from a student who's working in conjunction with their advisor. She’s approved very few of these as it has been a small issue. After one term of earning an OSU GPA, students can apply to honors in their second term and then officially join in their third term.
    • Potential cons:
      • Students starting later often go on the associate track rather than the scholar track.
      • Students joining later won't have access to the honors living and learning community.
      • Other programs, like the honors pre-vet program, are structured to only be available to newly incoming students.
    • Admissions to honors is holistic — we review transcripts, consider the details in them, use the honors essay as a very important criteria, and review questions answered in application portals. We provide additional places in the petition form that asks students why they're interested in honors and choosing to join now. From the applicants Toni has reviewed, there are often outside circumstances that make success in high school difficult. In the last 3 years, maybe 20 students have applied through petition. In some ways, this form of application is no different from the normal application.
      • Can we provide information to prospective students to give them an idea of what they'd be getting into in the honors program?
        • We do not meet with prospective students at the Corvallis campus.
        • We meet with Ecampus students to ensure they will be able to complete an honors degree in their major.
  • We are looking into continuing this petition and reviewing it every year. Do we choose to discontinue this petition process or make it officially part of our structure?
    • Who reviews these petitions?
      • A committee

Discussion will continue December 4.

Other Business?

• None