The Robert D. Clark Honors College: A Comprehensive Overview

The Robert D. Clark Honors College (CHC) at the University of Oregon (UO) offers a distinctive educational experience, blending the intimacy of a small liberal arts college with the resources of a major research university. Designed to foster intellectual growth and close student-faculty relationships, the CHC attracts high-achieving students from diverse academic backgrounds.

Mission and Values

The Glenda Chatham and Robert G. Clarke Honors College is designed to bring together high-achieving students and dedicated faculty in a small university environment. The CHC emphasizes interdisciplinary scholarship and independent research, creating a community of scholars that challenges, excites, and empowers students to explore their talents and academic passions. The Clark Honors College is a community rich with diverse perspectives and opinions, reflected in the make-up of faculty, staff, and students, and the content of curriculum and programming.

Academic Environment

The CHC provides motivated students who are serious about their intellectual growth a variety of special enhanced classes. One of the hallmarks of the CHC is its commitment to small class sizes, capped at 19 students, which facilitate discussion-based learning and close interaction with faculty members. These classes are geared towards humanities. Students usually take one or two CHC classes each term. This approach allows students to develop one-on-one relationships with faculty members and learn with CHC students from majors across the UO campus. Honors students also get priority registration.

Curriculum

The CHC curriculum is designed to fulfill all of the University of Oregon’s core education requirements. Honors college requirements must be taken for a letter grade, unless pass/no pass is the only option. The core curriculum integrates instruction and practice in fundamental rhetorical skills-writing, reading, speaking, and listening-with the subject matter of the courses. The honors college is committed to excellence in writing.

The curriculum includes:

Foundations in Liberal Arts Inquiry: HC 101H Liberal Arts: [Topic]
200-level Disciplinary Requirements:
- HC 221H Arts and Letters Inquiry: [Topic]
- HC 231H Social Science Inquiry: [Topic]
- HC 241H Scientific Inquiry: [Topic]
Research and Writing Requirement: HC 301H Research and Writing: [Topic]
Outside Course Requirements: Courses in quantitative reasoning or mathematics, science, social science, and arts and letters.
Cultural Literacy Requirements: Satisfying university cultural literacy requirements.
Colloquia Requirements: Honors College Arts and Letters Colloquium, Social Science Colloquium, and Science Colloquium.
Electives Requirement: Options A, B, or C.
Thesis Requirements: HC 277H Thesis Orientation, HC 477H Thesis Prospectus, and successful completion and defense of a thesis.

Degree Requirements

Honors college requirements, which replace university core-education requirements, represent roughly one-third of a student’s total four-year schedule. Before graduating, Clark Honors College students must also meet the requirements, listed elsewhere in this catalog, of their major department or professional school. They must maintain a 3.00 or better cumulative grade point average (GPA). To earn a BS degree, students must complete one year of college-level mathematics or the equivalent. Depending on test scores, students may use advanced placement or international baccalaureate credits as well as transfer credits from other higher education institutions toward honors college outside course requirements, second-language requirements, applicable major requirements, cultural literacy requirements, or university electives.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this program, students will be able to:

Critical Reasoning: Apply and demonstrate critical reasoning through the use of appropriate evidence and methods.
Communication Skills: Use effective communication skills, both written and oral, by constructing coherent, logical, and persuasive arguments.
Research Competence: Develop research competence through inquiry, project-based and active learning based on students’ own questions.
Intellectual Engagement: Show initiative, independence and intellectual engagement in the classroom and in assessments.
Disciplinary Methods: Identify and appropriately apply disciplinary methods in the humanities, social sciences and the natural sciences.
Interdisciplinary Inquiry: Engage in interdisciplinary inquiry by integrating insights from more than one research approach and by synthesizing diverse perspectives and modes of thinking.
Intercultural Competence: Demonstrate intercultural competence through linguistic diversity and awareness of and appreciation for diverse cultural backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

Thesis

A significant component of the CHC experience is the requirement to research, write, and orally defend an original undergraduate thesis. Course taken at least one term before intended graduation to formalize the thesis project.

Student Life and Opportunities

Students in the Robert D. Clark Honors College come from every school and college on campus. From art to business, neuroscience to political science, our classrooms are a fusion of ideas and perspectives. CHC students are insatiably curious, approach problem-solving from every angle, and are always on a quest to learn more. The Robert D. Clark Honors College offers a small, liberal arts college experience with the benefit of a major research university and its cutting-edge faculty and facilities.

Honors Student Ambassadors

Meet our Honors Student Ambassadors, exemplary students encompassing a variety of disciplines who are here to answer any questions you may have.

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Advising

We know college is not a journey you take alone. Everyone deserves the necessary support and guidance to reach their goals. Honors college faculty and professional advisors advise honors college students concerning these requirements and mentor them concerning their academic choices. Students retain full responsibility for understanding and shaping their study programs.

CHC ARC

CHC students are also encouraged to live in the CHC ARC that is housed in Global Scholars Hall, which is one of the more expensive dorms on campus.

Alumni and Friends

With more than 3,500 alumni, the CHC community is continually expanding. We encourage alumni, family, and friends to stay involved with the honors college. Connect with students through internships and mentoring opportunities, keep in touch with faculty and classmates, and stay up to date on CHC developments.

Challenges and Considerations

For some current and former CHC students, the answer to that question is simple. Between 2011 and 2014, an average of 60 percent of the freshmen who began in the honors college were still in CHC by fall of their senior year. Students who leave the honors college tend to cite CHC’s curriculum, issues related to their major and finances as the top reasons for leaving, according to retention data received from the UO Office of Public Records. UO is taking some response to the high dropout rate. “We’re still trying to figure out what leads them to leave,” Samantha Hopkins, one of the CHC’s associate deans, said.

Curriculum Concerns

Some science students say that the CHC’s liberal arts-heavy curriculum does not dovetail with the requirements of hard science majors such as biology or chemistry, which require strict three-term sequences. “The challenge is that natural scientists - unlike scholars in the humanities and social sciences - have a different research footprint,” Hopkins said.

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Financial Considerations

Turner found herself paying $4,194 on top of regular tuition. Turner said that after working hard in high school, it was frustrating to pay more to work harder. Avery is not alone. Many other students agree with her sentiments and highlight a number of concerns with CHC at the University of Oregon. An in-state CHC student pays $15,765 for tuition and fees for the 2017-18 year. An out-of-state student pays $38,805. “I think the issue is affordability with honors college differential, but also accessibility to the college, which ties I think directly with affordability,” Schenk said. Only 16 percent of CHC students in 2017 were Pell Grant eligible, or low income.

AP and IB Credits

But within CHC, AP and IB credits only apply toward certain requirements. “I took another year of English that I didn’t need to take.

Leadership

Dr. Prior to SU, Martino served as director of the University Honors Program and professor of English at Southern New Hampshire University. He earned his Ph.D. in comparative literature from Binghamton University (SUNY) in 2003. From the Dean"If you love a challenge, you'll feel right at home in the Honors College. We bring together high-achieving students, award-winning faculty, and dedicated staff to tackle some of the world's most complex issues. And together, we create solutions. Join us. We're the place for students who want to learn and lead."- Carol A.

Philanthropy

Much of what the CHC does would not be possible without the support of generous alumni, parents, and friends. Philanthropic investment from our community helps ensure the CHC experience is accessible to students of all backgrounds-scholarship dollars help us recruit and retain first-generation college students and transfer students who may require additional support with differential tuition and more. Philanthropy allows us to provide unique courses that take students outside of the classroom and to offer experiential learning opportunities, such as research assistantships and internships, that enhance career readiness.

Provides unrestricted support to respond to student needs and opportunitiesRobert D. The Glenda Chatham and Robert G. Clarke Honors College is designed to bring together high-achieving students and dedicated faculty in a small university environment.

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