The Butte College Honors Program offers curious and self-motivated students an active, challenging education experience. The Program focuses on primary texts, global thinking, encouraging student discussions and independent critical thinking.
The Honors Program offers an enriched academic experience for those students who demonstrate intellectual potential and personal commitment. As a result, successful Honors students are better prepared to continue their studies and bring their academic talents and abilities to the attention of prospective employers. Although Honors courses meet General Education requirements for transfer to the California State University and University of California systems, this program is not designed expressly for purposes of transfer, but rather to aid and inspire students in their other coursework at Butte College. Classes require analyzing primary original works in the area discipline, writing a minimum of 5,000 words in analytical papers and reading responses, and participating in seminar-type discussions. Additionally, classes emphasize critical and independent thinking, and original responses to the course material. The Honors Program Certificate officially recognizes students who successfully complete 19 interdisciplinary units from among the specially designated Honors courses within Butte College curriculum. Recognition, acknowledged on the successful student’s official record and transcripts, indicates a seriousness, dedication, and greater potential for success.
Promotional materials purchased with IEPI funds
We were able to promote the honors program at Butte events (such as the 50th Anniversary and Transfer Day). We were also able to promote the program by setting up a table outside of CAS. In addition to purchasing materials, these funds were also used to pay students to participate in these events. These were successful because students were drawn to the table for discussion in a way that would not be possible with just brochures. Next semester we will continue promoting the program on campus. We hope to also promote the program at high schools, but with limited honors faculty (all of whom are housed in other departments) and no support from our outreach departments, we may not be able to do this.
As part of our department meeting, we discussed the role of the English 2 prerequisite for the program. One of the SLOs for our program is "Employ advanced writing skills and critical, creative thinking in composing a minimum of 5,000 words in analytical papers and reading responses." The English prerequisite helps ensure students are able to do this. However, we recently removed this prerequisite because we were finding that these barriers were keeping students from registering for the program. Some faculty noticed a decline in performance, other did not. In a survey of honors program statewide, some had this prerequisite other did not. We will continue to monitor this SLO to determine if the prerequisite is needed.
The Honors Program is a small program with fluctuating enrollment. The main reason for this is that we have not yet reached a tipping point where student word-of-mouth is sufficient to maintain our numbers. While students who are in the program are passionate and do share this passion with others, the numbers are still too small for this to be sufficient.
The chair has attended the counseling department meeting and the counselors were enthusiastic about the program. Hopefully this is translating to encouragement of students during counseling sessions. The chair also built displays for the counseling, transfer center, and welcome center. These displays were either removed or discarded.
The advertising of this program rests solely on the faculty in the department; campus outreach groups are not advertising this program. This poses a challenge as there are very few faculty in the program and all of these individuals have another department as their main department. One example of how this poses challenges is with scheduling meeting times. Other departments have meetings during institute week, and our faculty attend those. The Honors Department does not have this time. And, the faculty schedules are varied enough that we are rarely able to find a time when a significant portion of the department can meet. This makes it difficult to coordinate complex activities like high school visits and broad-scale advertising.
One of the challenges for the program is that we only have two to three courses per semester. Since our students are from a wide variety of majors with varying schedules, it is difficult to find times that fit the student schedules. And, since we have few students and few classes, the Venn Diagram of students and classes has a very small area of overlap. This overlap may have been larger in the past because the students and classes were focused on literature and art. Diversifying student schedules and course offerings may be the issue. One supporting piece of evidence that the challenge may rest with course schedules is that the our one online honors class has filled to capacity every time it was offered.
We are unable to measure transfer rates because our students do not declare Honors as their major. They are counted under their major and take our classes to fulfil GE requirements.
Our number of certificates also fluctuates. We average approximately 2 per year. This number is expected as very few students are able to fit all of our classes into their schedule. All of the students I have mentored who are excited about the program and want to complete the certificate have had challenges with the course times. As mentioned above, this may be due to the diversity of our students. However, we will also investigate offering these classes at non-peak times to evaluate if this increases our enrollment.
The honors program is a cross-disciplinary program that supports students regardless of their major. We offer GE courses that develop students' critical thinking skills by requiring students to read and analyze primary sources. We develop students' writing skills by requiring students to synthesize information in analytical papers. And, we develop students' communication skills by requiring in-depth discussions.
These skills make students more successful after they transfer. Anecdotal evidence from students who have transfered to UCs indicates that these skills have served them well in their upper division courses.
1. The honors program is focused on academic achievement. These courses are designed to to include analysis and synthesis of primary literature; and students are asked to discuss complex current issues. Students who complete the program report being more successful after transfer. The honors lounge and small class size, students build a community of honors students.
2. The honors program also supports student and faculty success by encouraging the development of colleagial and inclusive class pathways.
3. We strive to continue supporting improvement of the college by providing one of the few programs that serves students who want to challenge themselves academically.
6. The honors program is focused on inclusion and equity. We removed barriers to welcome mroe students. We no longer require an application or the English 2 prerequisite. Our course design of smaller classes and discussion based learning helps welcome students from a variety of backgrounds.
1. Outreach to increase awareness of and enrollment in the Honors Program has been increased by having Honors students give presentations demystifying the program every semester in as many English 2 classes as possible. Until this year English 2 was the prerequisite for Honors, and it continues to be a good single course to recruit Honors students, since writing is a mainstay of the program. We were not able to conduct these presenations this semester. Instead, we attended campus events and set up a table in front of CAS.
2. Since the 2013 Program Review, several new Honors classes have been added to the schedule, and more are either in the Curriculum queue or under construction. Our PSY 1H course was approved by the curriculum committee last semester. However, due to state processes, we will not be able to teach this course for two more years.
3. The program remains in transition; however, assessment has been ongoing in the program's Unit Plans.
4. The Honors Program's budget remains at $500.
5. Collegiality between students and instructors has always been, and continues to be a major strength of the Honors Program.
6. Honors students continue to transfer to prestigious colleges and universities. Perhaps, now that Butte College has hired a full-time researcher, these transfers can begin to be tracked.
- Increase number of students in the program
- Increase the number of faculty participating in the program
- Develop advertising for the program
Strategy 1 - Create New Honors Courses
We will focus on developing Honors courses in GE areas not currently reflected in our course offerings. This will be accomplished by providing assistance and professional development to faculty considering building an Honors course. The chair has created and shared a guide to help new faculty navigate the changes needed in Curricunet. The chair has developed and conducted professional development activities which includes hands-on flex workshops where faculty can work with the chair to develop their course outlines.
In order for students to have the ability to complete the Honors Certificate, we need to have enough class options to fit in the students Ed Plan. There are two main challenges with our current list of course offerings.
First, because we have so few courses and because some of our courses overlap in GE areas, students have a difficult time taking enough honors courses to get the certificate without taking additional courses past their GE requirements. Because honors students are generally motivated to transfer and continue their education, they do not have the time to take additional classes. The goal of the Honors Program is to improve students' completion of their degrees by providing GE courses that challenge and engage them. Asking students to take additional courses is counter to this completion framework.
Second, we only offer three courses each semester. This makes it even more difficult for students to complete the certificate because classes in their major often conflict. And, because we do not have enough courses to offer a predictable schedule, this makes it especially difficult for the students to develop an Ed Plan.
The result of all this is that student take honors classes when they can and hope for the best. Adding more classes will allow us to develop a consistent cycle so students can plan for and complete the Honors Certificate.
Strategy 2 - Enhance Marketing for Program
We are currently working with campus partners to develop an effective marketing plan. This involves four main strategies.
1. IEPI funds allowed us to purchase marketing materials for recruitment. These materials will be used in the development of a marketing strategy.
2. We will continue to educate the campus community about the Honors Program. We have presented to a variety of stakeholders (such as counselors, departments, and students) and will continue to do so. For example, we are investigating the possibility of having a presence during orientation and other campus events. These presentations will hopefully be made by both honors faculty and honors students. Students presenting to other students has been a very effective strategy for advertising the program.
3. We will present to local high schools and investigate the possibility of holding events for interested high school students. These presentations are best paired with the current high school outreach. We will investigate the possibility of collaborating with our current outreach departments.
4. We will investigate the possibility of collaborating with other campus programs such as the Transfer Center and Phi Theta Kappa. Both of these programs support the same pool of students as those that would take honors classes.
The Honors Program is a small program and, as such, tends to be overlooked by both students and faculty.
The current nomination process involves faculty sending a list of names and students recieving a nomination letter in the mail. While this letter is an excellent recruitment tool, it takes time to reach the student. Therefore, the faculty may not see the student's gratitude and the student's recognition is delayed which may affect their likelihood of looking for honors courses for the next semester. The addition of the invitation makes the process more immediate which will hopefully encourage faculty to continue nominating students. Each faculty will receive these invitations in their mailbox to make the nomination process as streamlined as possible.
Staffing a table during orientation or other campus events is a good way to inform the campus community about the program. We will also hand out items with the Honors logo as a reminder for the future.
Presenting to high school students has two advantages. In addition to encouraging them to consider joining the Honors Program, it is also a recruitment tool for Butte College. Informing these students and their parents about the rigorous and engaging courses available at Butte College will encourage motivated students to consider the advantages to beginning at Butte and then transfering.
Strategy 3 - Lower Ped Caps to 25
The honors ped cap is set at 25 due to the added workload involved in these courses. However, some courses have an incorrect ped cap; we will work to fix this issue.
Teaching courses that allow students autonomy while maintaining rigor and designing lessons that focus on discussions and primary literaure requires class sizes that are small enough to allow the instructor to focus on students more individually.
The honors program needs help with marketing the program. Help from
Recruitment and Outreach is essential for developing a viable program.
The Honors Program has a budget of $500 annually from the district. This has always been augmented by the dean's budget because this amount is not enough to provide the basic needs of running this program.
We were granted $5000 from IEPI funding. This was a tremendous help in providing recruitment materials for the program.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Honors, LAMS | Personnel | $1,000.00 | $1,000.00 | ||
| Outreach - Butte | Student presentations to classes has been one of the most successful strategies for encouraging students to consider the honors program. These funds would be used to hire student assistants (who have taken honors courses) to present to classes and hand out brochures on campus. These students will also table at orientation and other events as well as present to faculty. The student voice is a powerful tool for encouraging other students and faculty. |
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| 2 | Honors, LAMS | Personnel | $2,000.00 | $2,000.00 | ||
| Outreach to High Schools | The Honors Program can be a recruitment tool for Butte College. Motivated students often do not realize that community college can be a place to challenge themselves academically. This fund would be used to hire a student assistant (who has taken an honors class) to travel to the different high schools and present about the program. Based on past experiences, having these presentation conducted by students is more effective than having it presented by faculty. Additionally, because honors students are eloquent and enthusiastic they make for exceptional presenters. We will also be applying for IEPI funds as this recruitment strategy is both for the Honors Program and for Butte College. Additionally, the Honors Program provides a peer group for the students. This is fostered in the classes via the discussions, through the use of the honors lounge, and through the groups (such as GCA) that honors students tend to joint together. This along with the engaging course designs will hopefully help students connect with other students and the college and make them more likely to complete their degree. |
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| 3 | Honors, LAMS | $800.00 | $800.00 | |||
| Outreach - Students and Faculty Events | These funds will be used to develop events that build community within the honors program as well as outreach to the campus community. |
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| 4 | Honors, LAMS, Instruction | $3,000.00 | $0.00 | |||
| Stipend for course development | One of the main challenges for the program has been the development of courses. Because the development of honors courses is outside the faculty department this is a significant addition to the workload. Paying faculty a stipend for the development of honors courses will significantly help the program support students in the completion of the certificate |
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| 5 | Honors, LAMS | Operating Expenses | $500.00 | $500.00 | ||
| Printing Costs - Brochures/Applications | Brochures are given to: counselors to give to students who might benefit from the program, students during in-class presentation, and faculty to inform them about the program. These are an essential way to inform and remind people about how this program benefits students. |
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| 6 | Honors, LAMS | Operating Expenses | $500.00 | $500.00 | ||
| Printing Costs - Nomination forms | Faculty nominations have been the most successful strategy for encouraging students to challenge themselves by taking honors classes for their GE. I often hear how proud students are that they were recognized by their instructors. Even when students don't take the courses, this recognition helps them see themselves as successful which can help them continue through their education. |
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| 7 | Honors, LAMS, Instruction | $800.00 | $800.00 | |||
| SLO, GELO, PLO Discussions & Professional Development | Honors faculty are all part of other departments which makes it difficult to find time to meet. For example, the department meeting during Institute Week is not one that our faculty can use. These funds would be used for stipends and food to reward faculty for the added work of belonging to two departments and developing additional courses outside their departmental requirement. These meetings will help the department develop a common vision and identify marketing strategies. We are currently using SLO funds for this work. |
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