Significant changes in The University of Memphis honors programcurriculum are taking place in fall 2004, and an upcoming lectureseries will give U of M students a preview of one of thosechanges.
As part of the Visiting Scholar Program, the Marcus W. OrrCenter for the Humanities and The U of M honors program areco-sponsoring a three-part lecture series with globalization as itstheme, beginning Friday.
The purpose of the lecture series, which focuses on variousaspects of globalization, including music, internationalorganizations and philosophy, is to introduce "The GlobalChallenge," a new six- credit-hour course for incoming honorsstudents, said program director Melinda Jones.
"In fall 2004, the honors program will launch aninterdisciplinary, globally-oriented course sequence that will berequired of all first-year honors students," Jones said.
The first part of the course, UNHP 1101, is an investigation ofexisting global issues and will use different forms of socialexpression as avenues for exploration. UNHP 1102 will focus on thenature and causes of globalization, as well as its economic,political and cultural consequences, Jones said. The goal of thetwo classes is to help students become "global thinkers" whendealing with issues in today's society.
In addition to the requirement of globalization courses forstudents beginning in the honors program, the program has alsoadded another option for honors students to consider when puttingtogether their honors courses workload.
Currently, in order to graduate with U of M honors, all honorsstudents must have accumulated 24 hours of honors courses, thecombination of 21 credit hours of honors course work and an honorsthesis worth three credit hours. Effective fall 2004, incomingstudents enrolled in the honors program have two different optionsto choose from to complete the 24 credit hours requirement andgraduate with honors. While both options must include "The GlobalChallenge" course sequence, a minimum grade of a "B" in all honorscourses and a 3.25 grade point average, students have the option ofsubstituting one or two years of "experience" for the honorsthesis.
"(Honors) students can substitute an approved honors experience,such as an internship, study abroad program or research project,for the honors thesis (during their junior and senior years),"Jones said.
Honors students who want to do a thesis can fulfill just oneyear of honors experience and do the thesis during their senioryear.
Jones said the changes in the curriculum are to encourageparticipation in the honors program by being more flexible with thestudents.
