The Strategic Plan of
The University of Alabama Honors College
A Vision for the Future of Honors Education
The University of Alabama Honors College is at a pivotal moment. As our campus expands, our students, faculty and staff continue to embody the core values of outstanding Honors education: curiosity, integrity, creativity, community and a belief in learning’s power to transform lives. Honors Forward builds on these themes and offers a clear vision for the future.
This plan goes beyond simply listing goals. It describes a shared vision of what an Honors College should be and what ours can become. Developed over months of careful collaboration across various programs and roles, Honors Forward provides a model of Honors education centered on three key skills: thinking, citizenship and leadership. These skills highlight our core values and define the abilities students will need in a world that demands mental flexibility, practical judgment and teamwork to solve complex problems.
Our focus on developing strong thinkers drives us to promote creative, critical and transdisciplinary approaches to learning. Our emphasis on citizenship acknowledges that Honors education extends beyond the classroom into broader community settings where students make meaningful contributions to shared goals and the public good. Our commitment to leadership underscores the importance of shared responsibility and of guiding teams and projects with clarity and purpose.
Honors Forward outlines the structures, teaching methods, faculty and staff development and experiential learning opportunities necessary to realize this vision. These include smaller class sizes in key areas, more chances for applied and community-based learning, improved assessment techniques, additional faculty expertise, a wider range of co-curricular experiences and clearer pathways for students to lead and serve. The plan also emphasizes that Honors education is most effective when it embraces varied perspectives, fosters collaboration and addresses the needs of both the University and the broader community.
The goals and action items outlined here show how we will improve academic excellence, serve the community and prepare students to think critically, act with integrity and lead confidently. This plan positions the UA Honors College not only to meet the needs of a changing world but also to define what a forward-looking, high-impact Honors education can be.
Honors Forward
Three Key Skills
THINKERS
Thinkers combine information, ideas and values to create innovative solutions for complex problems.
CITIZENS
Citizens are individuals who actively
participate in, contribute to and help
shape their communities by engaging ethically, responsibly and collaboratively in civic, social and intellectual activities.
LEADERS
Collaborative leadership occurs in an environment that promotes and supports teamwork: a type of teamwork where everyone emphasizes engagement, meaningful mutual dialogue and the development of collective wisdom and shared action.
"Honors education prepares students to think critically, act with integrity and lead with purpose."
THINKERS
Thinkers combine information, ideas and values to create innovative solutions for complex problems.
Goal 1.1: Develop a clear and shared understanding of what it means to be a thinker.
Action Item 1.1.1: Develop a definition of thinking that is applicable and relevant across various programs within the Honors College.
Action item 1.1.1.1: Include the definition of thinking in curricular and co-curricular programs throughout the Honors College.
Action Item 1.1.2: Enhance signposting by clearly outlining language and assignments in Honors courses and programs that emphasize critical and creative thinking skills.
Action Item 1.1.3: Revise Honors College Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) to explicitly highlight transdisciplinarity as a core element of the Honors experience. This emphasizes the importance of deep, creative and critical thinking across, between and through multiple disciplines in problem-solving.
Goal 1.2: Provide more opportunities for students to practice their thinking skills.
Action Item 1.2.1: Limit class sizes for service courses so that all sections have a maximum of 19 students. Smaller classes will allow instructors to develop assessment methods that better focus on critical and creative thinking skills.
Action Item 1.2.2: Broaden experiential learning opportunities to promote higher-order thinking, leading to more skilled critical and creative thinkers.
Action Item 1.2.2.1: Integrate BIG Ideas into the Honors College curriculum to create more interdisciplinary experiential learning opportunities for students in the classroom that demonstrate the types of problem-solving they'll encounter in their careers after college.
Action Item 1.2.3: Collaborate with campus partners to increase the number of departments offering capstone opportunities and enable Honors students to complete these capstones to fulfill the Honors Capstone requirement.
Goal 1.3: Improve assessment methods to track students' mastery of the Student Learning Outcomes related to creative and critical thinking skills.
Action Item 1.3.1: Review the Honors College curriculum to ensure courses reflect transdisciplinary principles and values.
Action Item 1.3.2: Review the question options in the Student Opinion of Instruction surveys to ensure we collect data that clearly assesses the student learning experience related to creative and critical thinking skills.
CITIZENS
Citizens are individuals who actively participate in, contribute to and help shape their communities by engaging ethically, responsibly and collaboratively in civic, social and intellectual activities.
Goal 2.1: Broaden access to and increase awareness of Student Learning Outcomes related to citizenship.
Action Item 2.1.1: Define and align the SLOs related to citizenship with each stage of the student's academic journey, from recruitment through graduation.
Action Item 2.1.1.1: Improve opportunities for students to explore the connection between transdisciplinarity and citizenship.
Action Item 2.1.2: Develop curricular opportunities that align with the citizen-focused standards in our SLOs, are promoted across all Honors programs, and connect with scaffolded curricular metrics tied to assignments.
Action Item 2.1.3: Expand co-curricular opportunities and link them to reflection assignments in community engagement and curricular programs. Use service courses (UH 103/100/110, UH 200/205, and UH 401) to attract students and facilitate their involvement in engaged scholarship and leadership activities.
Goal 2.2: Educate our students about citizenship as an active, rewarding and essential part of building thriving communities that foster a sense of belonging.
Action Item 2.2.1: Encourage the classroom to be a space where faculty and students work together to create knowledge, increasing students’ confidence in their ability to influence their own Honors academic experience by giving them real power to create, shape or change the classroom environment.
Action Item 2.2.2: Develop a continuous process where students repeatedly ask, “What does it mean to be a member of the Honors College community?”
Action Item 2.2.3: Develop a student-led multimedia platform that creates content on topics related to citizenship and belonging. It also offers a new cohort-based measurement opportunity to track our progress in promoting citizenship values within our community.
Goal 2.3: Incorporate meaningful experiential learning opportunities focused on citizenship across the Honors College curriculum.
Action Item 2.3.1: Increase the number of full-time, promotable faculty who are experts in ethics and citizenship, and reduce core class sizes to enhance high-impact teaching and learning in this area.
Action Item 2.3.2: Hire a coordinator with a master’s degree to develop and implement the vision for integrating meaningful experiential education opportunities related to citizenship across the Honors College curriculum.
Action Item 2.3.3: Expand community-based courses to cover a broad spectrum of transdisciplinary needs identified by the community that Honors students can actively address through their curriculum.
Action Item 2.3.4: Remove obstacles for students to earn academic credit through community-engaged scholarship.
Action Item 2.3.5: Assist faculty in developing community-based coursework.
Action Item 2.3.6: Provide a regularly available series of study away and study abroad programs during spring and summer semesters with various pricing options.
Action Item 2.3.7: Increase scholarships for Honors College study away and study abroad programs.
Action Item 2.3.8: Create a competitive Citizenship Scholars Program exclusively for Honors students that connects participants with transdisciplinary nonprofits and agencies for summer internships at local, national and international levels, covering living expenses and offering a stipend.
LEADERS
Collaborative leadership occurs in an environment that promotes and supports teamwork: a type of teamwork where everyone emphasizes engagement, meaningful mutual dialogue and the development of collective wisdom and shared action.
Goal 3.1: Expand opportunities for faculty to demonstrate and teach collaborative leadership that embodies the core principles of Honors education both within the institution and to external audiences.
Action Item 3.1.1: Promote faculty to respond to and support ideas from staff and students.
Action Item 3.1.2: Promote the development of co-research that advances “Honors as a discipline.”
Action Item 3.1.2.1: Create and implement at least three new transdisciplinary, team-oriented projects or courses within the Honors College that foster teamwork and collaborative problem-solving.
Action Item 3.1.3: Develop and add at least two specialized courses or workshops on team leadership principles, such as group decision-making and leading effective teams, to the Honors College curriculum.
Goal 3.2: Expand opportunities for staff to demonstrate and promote collaborative leadership that aligns with the core principles of Honors education both internally and externally.
Action Item 3.2.1: Form a partnership between staff and members of the Honors College Assembly to develop a system for documenting students' leadership experiences. This will help students with applications, scholarships, graduate school and jobs, while also providing actionable, reportable data for the Honors College. (What are our students doing as leaders? Where are the opportunities? How many students are participating?)
Action Item 3.2.2: Create a plan to increase visibility of leadership opportunities in the Honors College to promote greater student engagement across the College.
Action Item 3.2.3: Develop a structured program that promotes collaboration across departments, incorporating regular workshops, joint projects and cross-functional teams to tackle shared challenges and exchange best practices.
Action Item 3.2.4: Develop and deliver at least two comprehensive training sessions or workshops focused on team leadership principles, promoting effective teamwork and group decision-making, tailored specifically for staff.
Goal 3.3: Broaden opportunities for students to showcase and engage in collaborative leadership that reflects the core principles of Honors education both inside and outside the institution.
Action Item 3.3.1: Course Development:
• Action Item 3.3.1.1: Create two new elective courses focused on current real-world issues that require solutions.
• Action Item 3.3.1.2: Develop a course or program that addresses a local need for organizing a philanthropic event.
• Action Item 3.3.1.3: Create a course that highlights three leaders who embody our definition of a collaborative leader and explores the transformative issues they have addressed or improved.
Action Item 3.3.2: Curriculum Redesign:
• Action Item 3.3.2.1: Encourage students to participate in at least two team-based projects or initiatives each academic year that foster collaboration and problem-solving.
• Action Item 3.3.2.2: Require students to enroll in at least one specialized course or workshop on team leadership principles, such as group decision-making, leading effective teams and navigating team dynamics, during their time in the Honors College.
Action Item 3.3.3: Program Collaboration:
• Action Item 3.3.3.1: Initiate new research projects involving multiple programs (Randall, Witt, UHP, Achieve, McCollough, Blount).
• Action Item 3.3.3.2: Create Honors Impact Fellowships to support high-impact student projects that address issues and needs within Alabama.
