You are being asked by an Honors student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to serve as an Honors project advisor. In order to help you understand your responsibility as a project advisor, the Agriculture and Life Sciences Honors Committee has developed the following guidelines.
- The Honors Project may serve either as a way for a student to do in-depth research or creative work in the area of their major discipline or it may be a means for the Honors student to learn more about a topic that is not in their major discipline.
- The project should be a substantial piece of quality work. It can be a part of a larger project, or it can stand on its own. It is expected to culminate in a paper or other significant creative work. Further, and most importantly, the project is expected to be of high academic quality demonstrating individual creativity. Some Honors project reports have been published in refereed journals. We urge you to consider this as you work with the student to set up project objectives, and to assist the student in publishing the paper if the work is publishable. Your role, as an expert in the field, is to aid the student in producing a project worthy of Honors designation. This may entail referrals to resources, editing and other directive tasks. Finally, when you approve the finished project, this approval is taken as your acceptance of the project.
- The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Honors Committee, composed of faculty and students, reviews each project proposal and may make suggestions as appropriate. However, we clearly are not experts in every field. Therefore, we rely on the faculty to monitor a project's quality. We intend to promote the project as an opportunity for the Honors student to challenge his/her intellectual and creative abilities. At the same time, we recognize that the project is being done in conjunction with other academic responsibilities and, therefore, the objective and scope of the project should be within the appropriate constraints.
We appreciate your willingness to work with our students and our program in this important undertaking. If you have any questions concerning the guidelines or the specific project proposed, please contact the chair of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Honors Committee.