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.
The main planned improvement is to add more Honors classes into the schedule and to produce a consistent 2-year cycle. There are currently 10 honors classes that have been developed but staffing challenges have made it difficult to offer these in a consistent cycle. Furthermore, these are not enough courses to develop a full GE pathway for honors students which makes it difficult for them to complete the Honors Program without having to take additional courses past those needed for GE. There are 4 additional courses being designed but these will take some time to be available for the schedule. The ultimate plan is to create enough Honors sections of existing GE classes that students can finish their entire IGETC GE in Honors classes, thus better preparing them for their experience in 4-year schools when they transfer. Based on student success data, our SLO work centers around course development and marketing. The honors faculty met in August and built a 2 year cycle of courses, plans for adding new courses, and strategies for advertising. We have additional meetings planned to continue discussing how to develop the program.
Three new faculty have recently been added to the program, and three more are participating in department discussion while developing courses. This makes for an ideal time to discuss PLO assessment and have conversations about the program's philosophy of course design. The program's motto that underlines the program's mission: Honors students are self-motivated, genuinely curious, collaborative, and critical thinkers.
The faculty met in December to discuss PLO assessment and course design. It is currently too difficult to measure PLOs due to unpredictable course schedules. However, we would eventually like to build an ongoing assessment that students take as they move through the different classes. The program works with students from a variety of backgrounds to help them develop confidence and academic prowess. The faculty will be meeting to discuss how best to serve the needs of students who are dedicated but have a wide range of academic skills.
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Indicator |
Source |
College |
Program |
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2014-2015 |
Standard |
Six Year Goal |
Fall 2011 |
Fall 2012 |
Fall 2013 |
Fall 2014 |
Fall 2015 |
Standard |
Six Year Goal |
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Access |
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- Unduplicated Headcount |
PDR |
12,691 |
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58 |
71 |
22 |
45 |
38 |
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Course Success |
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- Overall |
PDR |
70.6% |
70.0% |
73.0% |
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- Transfer/GE |
PDR |
71.7% |
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73.0% |
79.4% |
77.8% |
59.1% |
80.0% |
77.4% |
70.0% |
80.0% |
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- CTE |
PDR |
75.3% |
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77.0% |
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- Basic Skills |
PDR |
51.7% |
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55.0% |
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- Distance Ed (all) |
PDR |
62.6% |
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64.0% |
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Persistence (Focused). Note: The Persistence (Focused) that is included in the PDR is a different indicator than the three-primary term persistence indicator, from the State Student Success Scorecard that is used to measure institutional persistence. The Focused Persistence indicator measures the percentage of students that took a second course in a discipline within one year. There is no relationship between the college and program standards in this area. |
PDR |
71.8% |
67.0% |
75.0% |
67.3% |
44.8% |
47.4% |
36.1% |
45.7% |
35.0% |
60.0% |
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(Three-Term) Scorecard |
(Three-Term) Scorecard |
(Three-Term) Scorecard |
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Degrees - annual |
PDR |
1,421 |
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1,475 |
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Certificate of Achievement (CA) - annual |
PDR |
814 |
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475 |
1 |
2 |
- |
1 |
6 |
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Local Certificate (CC) - annual |
PDR |
518 |
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7 |
3 |
3 |
- |
- |
2 |
7 |
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Developmental Strand Completion |
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- English |
State |
43.7% |
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45.0% |
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- Math |
State |
33.8% |
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35.0% |
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- ESL |
State |
42.9% |
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45.0% |
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Licensure Pass Rates |
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- Registered Nursing |
SC |
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- Licensed Vocational Nursing |
SC |
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- Respiratory Therapy |
SC |
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- Paramedic |
SC |
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- Cosmetology |
SC |
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- Welding |
SC |
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Job Placement Rates |
PIV |
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1. Enhancing a Culture of Completion and Academic Achievement. Honors classes encourage students to succeed by inspiring them to challenge themselves academically. Honors courses teach students how to be active partners in their educational success.
2. Supporting Student, Faculty, and Staff Success. Honors courses engage students in deep and meaningful academic engagement.
6. Enhancing a Culture of Inclusiveness. Honors courses have a global focus and ask students to "Analyze and synthesize significant global ideas" (SLO A). The Honors Program also supports the use of Free and Open Textbooks to help make college more affordable to students.
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.
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.
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.
The program has five main goals.
- Increase enrollment and completion by creating a robust, predictable schedule
- Increase awareness of the program by developing a successful marketing and recruitment strategy
- Work with the institutional researcher to track honors students after they graduate
- Increase the number of courses offered by providing professional development and assistance to faculty considering course development
- Continue meeting as a faculty team to discuss strategies for recruitment and to foster the equity mindset of our courses
- Investigate alternative scheduling options including more online honors courses
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. Additional professional development will include 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 three main strategies.
First, we will investigate which marketing materials are effective for recruitment. The current marketing materials used by the department is posters, letters to encourage faculty to nominate students, and bookmarks listing the courses offered next semester. The current format for the bookmarks is only useful for one semester, so we have replaced these with invitations that faculty can give their students. The hope is that providing faculty with a tactile means of nominating students will encourage them to do so. Additionally, the invitation is a way to recognize students in real time (the previous process resulted in a delay from the time of the nomination to the time the student was invited into the program). Additional marketing materials will include items (such as pens) with the Honors Program logo which will be given to faculty and students.
Second, 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. As mentioned above, students presenting to other students has been a very effective strategy.
Third, we will present to local high schools and investigate the possibility of holding events for interested high school students. Again, these presentations will ideally be conducted by honors students.
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.
None.
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.
| 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 | Operating Expenses | $600.00 | $600.00 | ||
| 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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| 2 | 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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| 3 | Honors, LAMS | Operating Expenses | $800.00 | $800.00 | ||
| Advertising - Pens; banners; posters | The honors program is still little known on campus. Making this program more visible will encourage faculty to consider if this will benefit their students and will encourage students to ask questions about the program. These pens would be given to all faculty who nominate a student and all students who join the program. We are currently using SLO funds to purchase some of these materials. |
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| 4 | Honors, LAMS | Personnel | $500.00 | $500.00 | ||
| 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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| 5 | Honors, LAMS | Personnel | $500.00 | $500.00 | ||
| 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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| 6 | Honors, LAMS | $300.00 | $300.00 | |||
| 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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| 7 | 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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| 8 | 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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