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Faculty Resources

Becoming a Faculty Mentor

The Honors College welcomes all Faculty who would like to mentor Honors College students -  in any major or with any research or creative  practice interest. Honors College students are also afforded the opportunity to apply for a Competitive Thesis Grant (up to a maximum of $1000) that, if granted, is deposited into the mentor's department/lab fund for the purpose of their research/project.  

The Honors college hosts an annual informational "Mentor Luncheon" for all faculty who are currently mentoring or would like to mentor Honors College students.  The mentor process will be explained followed by a question/answer period.  If you are unable to attend the annual luncheon, please contact Dr. Graeme Harper for information.    [email protected]

September 19th 2024 Faculty Mentor Luncheon RSVP

Submitting a Course Proposal to teach for The Honors College

The Honors College invites Faculty to submit proposals for wonderful, innovative, engaging courses to be taught in the Summer, Fall and Winter semesters. Let your imaginations run wild! We seek courses in each of Oakland University's general education categories.  Deadlines and submission links are at the bottom of this webpage.  

Faculty Teaching Agreement

Prior to the submission of a Course Proposal, The Faculty Teaching Agreement (eform) must be completed by the Faculty member.  The purpose of this document is to ensure that those subject to overload pay are released from their load in order to teach for The Honors College.  Departments who release faculty from their loads, will received prorated funding.  You can find the HC Faculty Teaching Agreement in the Banner forms menu: https://www.oakland.edu/uts/forms/  The routing of this form is shown below.  Caution: make sure to ALWAYS select the "OK" button when exiting this e-form otherwise it will be stuck in limbo.

  • Faculty routes to their Department Chair
  • Department Chair routes to their Department Dean
  • Department Dean routes it to [email protected]  

Once Faculty has been cleared to teach for The Honors College, "The Course Proposal" google form must be completed and submitted. Please reference the "Course Development & Proposal Rubric" prior to submission.  Incomplete submissions will not be sent to the Selection Committee for consideration.

Honors College Course Development & Proposal Rubric

Course Title

Course title is limited to 30 characters (including spaces).

Course Description

A short outline of the course, including its purpose and why students will enjoy it.  If the course includes any (a) research component and/or (b) service component that would be a great thing to include in the description. If the course has one (or a small number of primary texts) these could be included in the course description. One tip is to have fun with the title, in the way students will have fun with the class.  Include any innovations, unique approaches to be taken, and any (short) background to the course that gives the proposal context.   Please note:  This description will be used (as submitted) for student registration purposes.  Maximum 250 words.

Aims and Objectives

Include a short outline of the Aims (why the course is being proposed); the overall goals of the course along with the Objectives (how the course will reach those goals); the "how it is going to happen". The Aims and Objectives section simply give the Course Selection Committee a chance to see the distinctiveness of the course. 200 words is ample.

Learning Outcomes

What is the knowledge students will gain from the course? This usually is easiest for folks on the Committee to grasp if there is a main or overarching learning aim, that is stated, and then any other aims are related to it, or embedded in it. 100 words is ample.

Bibliography / Other Sources

A brief list of some of the books or other materials that are likely to be used during the course. This does not have to be a complete list at the proposal stage - merely indicative. 2-5 items would be typical.

General Education Categories

To make it less burdensome for those proposing courses to decide on a General Education category for their course, The Honors College Course Selection Committee will use proposal descriptions and the content of proposals to confirm a Gen Ed category. On occasion, a course may be selected to be offered in more than one category. For descriptive purposes, The Honors College uses the published OU's General Education categories, and other Gen Ed course attributes widely available on OU's website and in the Course Catalog under General Education Requirements.

Syllabus Guidelines


Deadlines

Deadlines to submit course proposals are October 15th for the following summer semester and November 15th for the next academic year (fall/winter).  Once the deadline has passed, the submission link will no longer accept a proposal.  If the deadline for the proposal you wished to submit has passed, please contact Sheri Rourke: [email protected]

Summer 2025 Course Proposal Submission FormFall 2025 and Winter 2026 Course Proposal Submission Form

The Honors College

Oak View Hall, Room 210
509 Meadow Brook Road
Rochester, MI 48309-4452
(location map)
(248) 370-4450
Fax: (248) 370-4479