Program Overview

Introduction to the Honors Program

The Honors Program at the University of Tulsa invites students to join a centuries-old conversation about what makes for a meaningful and well-lived life. Through course readings and seminar discussions, Honors students work to articulate their own richly informed answers to those big questions at the heart of human existence.

Learning Objectives

Students who successfully complete their program in the Honors College will:

1. Be able to clearly and thoughtfully articulate their own understanding of what makes for a meaningful and well-lived life, expressing their ideas and questions by drawing on some of the foundational texts that inform, illuminate, provoke, or challenge their understanding of themselves and the world.
2. Become exceptional in the arts of communication, both oral and written. Students will not only develop excellent habits of mind; they will also develop excellent habits of interpersonal communication so that they can clearly express their ideas and values to others, especially those who may strongly disagree with them.
3. Examine, discuss, and write about foundational texts in a manner that reflects deep, sustained, and serious reflection upon them. Students will become more thoughtful, self-aware, and intellectually and ethically responsible about matters of existential import to humanity.

Honors Core (12 hours)

Honors students take one Honors seminar each semester for four semesters. The Honors courses are sequenced so that students read and assess past thinkers in their own right, as well as consider how subsequent thinkers use, abuse, enlist, and/or reject thinkers who came before them. The Honors Core includes:

• HON 2123 Three Ancient Cities: Athens, Rome, Jerusalem (3 credit hours, Block I)
• HON 2143 The Long Middle Ages (3 credit hours, Block II)
• HON 2223 The Birth of Modernity (3 credit hours, Block I)
• HON 2243 The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (3 credit hours, Block II)

Honors Courses (15 hours)

Honors students take an additional 15 credit hours of coursework approved by the Honors College. This coursework should deepen a student’s engagement with classic texts and/or serve to bridge what a student learns in Honors with the content and methods of another discipline. This requirement can be satisfied by one of three ways, singly or in combination:

1. Courses offered by the Honors College: Classic text seminars focusing on one subject area (e.g., history), theme (e.g., the good life), genre (e.g., tragedy), etc.
2. Courses offered by other colleges in collaboration with the Honors College: These courses will align with one or more elements of regular Honors, e.g., emphasizing discussion and inquiry, tackling key questions concerning the foundations of the subject matter of the course, and/or integrating classic texts.
3. Different, Honors-aligned requirements for individual students within a regular non-Honors course. This can be requested by the student and requires the approval of the course instructor and the Honors Dean’s Office.

Honors Senior Thesis (3 credit hours)

After completing the Honors Core, students must design and implement an Honors Senior Thesis. The Honors Senior Thesis is an opportunity to design independent work that will complement a student’s growing mastery in their major and/or enable them to explore questions and ideas that pique their interest. The Honors Senior Thesis requirement is satisfied by one or more courses amounting to three credit hours.

Total: 30 hours

The total credit hours required for the Honors Program is 30 hours, which includes the Honors Core, Honors Courses, and the Honors Senior Thesis.

Colleges

The University of Tulsa has several colleges, including:

• Arts & Sciences
• Business
• Engineering & Computer Science
• Health & Natural Sciences
• Graduate School
• Law