A tutorial is a course of study undertaken by an individual student or small group of students under the close supervision of a faculty member. According to arrangements specific to individual departments and interdisciplinary areas, students enrolling in tutorials explore in depth subjects of particular interest. Tutorial studies feature wide reading, individual experimentation, and oral and written reports, as well as regular conferences with the supervising faculty members. Tutorials, which must be titled, are an important supplement to regular course offerings, especially during the junior and senior years.
To illustrate the variety and scope of tutorial studies, many academic departments have listed a number of recent tutorial topics at the end of their departmental listings.
Independent study varies from discipline to discipline in its composition and in the relationship between the student and faculty member. However, certain criteria may be applied to all. At the outset, the student and faculty member should define a clear goal, one to which they both subscribe. A student is entitled to know a faculty member's expectations for independent study, and a faculty member is entitled to expect a student's diligent compliance with the procedures mutually agreed upon when the project began.
For independent study lasting more than one term, the student and faculty member should discuss and assess progress at the end of each term. If either party concludes that it would not be beneficial for the student to continue the project, the student may be assigned a grade for completed or additionally assigned work and not be required to enroll for the next term.
Independent study can also designate advanced work taken for credit
by a student who plans to submit an honors project.
ACADEMIC INTERNSHIPS
Lawrence recognizes that a student's education can be enhanced by the combination of academic and experience-based learning. Academic internships provide students an opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom and to bring back to the classroom an enriched perspective on their learning.
Where academic departments find that the interaction of academic pursuits and work experience is both appropriate to their relevant disciplines and feasible in terms of available work experiences, they normally offer academic internships. These internship courses are listed in this catalog under departmental offerings, and they are offered at differing levels of the curriculum. Where no departmental internship exists, student-designed internships may be proposed to the Committee on Instruction. Proposals must be submitted to the Committee on Instruction by the end of the fifth week of the term before the start of the internship.
Students may take a maximum of 12 units of academic internship in fulfillment of their major, minor, or graduation requirements. Academic internships require prior approval by the relevant academic department (in cases where a departmental internship is available) or by a faculty supervisor/academic department and the Committee on Instruction (in cases where a departmental internship is not available). Academic internships may be paid or unpaid.
Students enrolled in academic internships engage in work or service experiences with intentional learning objectives that promote reflection throughout the experience and that relate to their academic interests. Site and faculty supervisors work closely with the students and provide evaluations of the students' activities at the end of the internship.
The academic component of the internship includes readings related to the substance of the internship, discussions with the faculty supervisor, and a written report appropriate to the discipline. Course grades are based on this academic work.
Application forms for student-designed academic internships may be obtained from the offices of the provost and dean of the faculty, the dean of student academic services, and the registrar and from the Career Center and the Main Hall, Briggs Hall, conservatory, and art center faculty offices.
Go here for information on the Career Center and internships.
Honors projects are coherent programs
of independent work carried on by students, usually in their senior
year, on subjects or problems of more than ordinary difficulty in areas
that they have studied in considerable depth, usually in their majors or
closely related areas. Honors projects normally are supervised by
faculty members in appropriate departments and may culminate in written
theses based on extensive individual research or in pieces of original
work in the creative or performing arts accompanied by written
presentations.
All Lawrence faculty members may serve as supervisors of honors projects. If
the honors project supervisor is a non-voting member of the faculty, he or she
should enlist a voting member of the faculty to serve as a co-sponsor of the
proposed project and periodically consult with the co-sponsor as the project
develops.
An examining committee evaluates the results of each
project, conducts an oral examination of the honors candidate, and
considers what constitutes the appropriate level of honors in view of
the strengths and weaknesses of both the thesis and the oral defense.
The Committee on Honors reviews the reports of all such examining
committees and submits its recommendations for Honors in Independent
Study to the faculty for final approval.
Since honors projects frequently complement students' work in their majors, they should discuss the opportunities for independent study with faculty members in their fields of concentration as early as possible in order to begin laying appropriate foundations in courses, tutorial work, and summer reading. In some fields, tutorials or courses in research methods can lead to the formulation of suitable thesis topics and methods of attack, while in other fields topics may stem from unanswered problems in regular courses, from students' own interests, or from teachers' suggestions. Whatever the field, students ought to keep in mind the possibility of doing honors projects as they plan their programs, especially in the junior year, or earlier if they will be off-campus at that time.
Students who need time or faculty guidance to undertake an honors project may register for Independent Study, a course open to any senior with the consent of the department concerned. Although normally taken for one unit of credit during each of two or three consecutive terms, this course may be elected for a shorter or longer period, or for two units in a single term, if special circumstances require such flexibility. Students receive grades for their work in Independent Study from their faculty advisors whether or not that work results in a thesis submitted for honors. Students do not have to take this course, however, in order to submit an honors project.
Jointly written projects or theses undertaken jointly may be submitted for Honors in Independent Study. The work involved in such cases, however, must be equitably shared and demonstrate benefits clearly resulting from the merger of the authors' different skills and knowledge. Students considering joint projects or theses must obtain the consent of their faculty independent studies advisors and the Committee on Honors well in advance of such endeavors.
Procedures and Guidelines
To apply for Honors in
Independent Study, students must send to the Committee on Honors
statements of their intentions to submit a thesis in candidacy for
honors. These statements should include the Appleton addresses of the
students, the topics of independent study, and both students' signatures
and those of the faculty advisors. The final date for receipt of such
statements of intent is announced each fall in a notice to all seniors;
normally it falls in the first week of Term III. If students expect to
complete their projects during Terms I or II, they must submit their
statements of intent at least three weeks before the anticipated date
for submission of their theses. No thesis will be considered for honors
unless the committee has received such a statement of intent; however,
statements do not obligate such students to submit theses.
Sufficient copies of the completed thesis, one for each member of the examining committee, including the Committee on Honors representative, are to be submitted to the Committee on Honors at a place and by a date and hour designated each year, usually falling within the first few days of May. Students who find themselves unable to meet this deadline may petition the Committee on Honors for extensions, but they must do so well in advance of the deadline. The committee usually approves such petitions only when circumstances beyond the candidate's control have arisen.
At this point, the honors thesis advisor, in consultation with the student, arranges for an oral examination of the thesis. Results of the examination must be reported to the Committee on Honors prior to its last meeting.
Although the Committee on Honors tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible, the extreme diversity of projects submitted for honors makes necessary certain clarifications and interpretations of the basic guidelines. Some statements concerning special types of projects and further details about the committee's procedures are included here for reference by both faculty members and students.
The Honors Thesis
The thesis need not be of any special
form or length, provided that its form is appropriate to the discipline
to which it belongs. Students' advisors are responsible for providing
guidance in regard to format and the conventions of scholarly
documentation pertinent to their disciplines. Nevertheless, since all
accepted theses are permanently retained in the Lawrence University
library, their external form also is subject to a few standardized
regulations suggested by the librarians and endorsed by the Committee on
Honors. The chair of the committee may be consulted about these
regulations.
Even though the committee permits candidates for honors to correct typographical errors or to make such other minor corrections as their examiners may require, it emphasizes that theses must be in final form when they are submitted early in May. Candidates must assume responsibility for accurate proofreading and checking of all quotations and references. Frequent misspellings, faulty punctuation or syntax, omitted references, or stylistic incoherence will disqualify projects despite the intrinsic merit they may otherwise exhibit.
The Examining Committee
The advisor, in consultation
with the student and with the assent of the Committee on Honors,
appoints an examining committee consisting of at least three voting
faculty members, one of whom must be from outside the student's
department; the advisor, if a voting member of the faculty, acts as one of the
three voting members of the committee. If the advisor is a non-voting member
of the faculty, the co-sponsor acts as one of the three examining committee
members. The non-voting advisor attends the oral examination and participates
in all aspects of the committee's discussion of the project except voting on
whether to award honors and the level of honors to be awarded. In
addition, the Committee on Honors assigns a faculty representative to
act as the non-voting moderator during the examination. At the
discretion of the advisor, after consultation with the student, another
Lawrence faculty member or an outside expert who is uniquely qualified
to shed insight into the quality of the project may also attend the
examination. These individuals may not take part in the decision-making
process.
Projects in the Arts
Students interested in submitting an exhibition, performance, or work of art, music, theatre, or imaginative literature as an honors project must follow the normal procedures for honors work outlined above and must be willing to engage in a discussion of their work. A brief essay – as preface, foreword, introduction, afterword, postscript, or critical review – must accompany any such creative work. The essay should clarify and illuminate the work in a manner appropriate to genre, form, or medium and may include the aims of the project, its formal and stylistic precedents, its techniques, and the limitations and potential of the project. In the arts, the project itself clearly remains the most important component to be evaluated by the examining committee.
Projects Involving Testing of Hypotheses
One important
purpose of honors projects is to provide opportunities for professionals
to evaluate students' knowledge of an area, their skill in employing
that knowledge in experimentation, and their care and cleverness in
approaching the task of testing their hypotheses. Thus, if a project
allows these evaluations to be made, it should be considered for honors
despite the vicissitudes of fortune that may attend the project. In
particular, the failure to obtain significant positive results when
testing an hypothesis or a network of hypotheses ought not to disqualify
a candidate from achieving honors, provided that those professionally
competent in the area agree that this failure was not due to a lack of
care, to a lack of skill or knowledge in the field, or to a lack of
competence in techniques of experimental design.
Mere diligence, on the other hand, is not a sufficient ground for the awarding of honors. Students whose projects have not achieved their expected results should give the best accounts they can of the ways in which they probed for additional operative variables that were uncontrolled in their previous experiments, of the reasons why the failures could not have been anticipated by skillful experimenters in the crucial beginning stages, and of their careful attempts to locate the difficulties.
Professional Evaluations
The Committee on Honors avoids
substituting its opinion for that of professionals on matters requiring
professional competence for their evaluation. Nevertheless, the
committee is of the firm opinion that the evaluation of honors
candidates can and should be made independent of questions regarding
whether a respected professional journal would publish a particular
thesis. In other words, Honors in Independent Study is not limited to
students whose work would compete successfully with that of their
professors for publication in professional journals.
Criteria for Honors in Independent Study
The following
criteria are used in evaluating all Honors in Independent Study
projects:
Cum Laude — Honors with distinction
To achieve honors, the project must fulfill all of the following criteria:
a. Each of the three components of the project (the work, the written exposition, and the oral examination) demonstrates a substantial knowledge of, and facility with, previous work, underlying principles, and central concepts or theories in areas relevant to the project.
b. The paper must clearly show that the student has established an original thesis or hypothesis, an original interpretation or analysis, a substantial and original synthesis or innovative pedagogical exposition of a sophisticated body of established work or has created a new work of art. In other words, the student must demonstrate that the project does not merely replicate, review, paraphrase, or compile previous work by others.
c. The paper appropriately frames the original material in the project within the context of established work or relevant traditions in the discipline, provides documentation (e.g., bibliographic citations, tables and figures, illustrations) appropriate to the discipline, contains few and relatively minor grammatical or typographical flaws, is clear, well-organized, and stylistically sound.
d. The work itself is of very high quality. The project has been carried out competently, diligently, independently, and in a manner that fulfills the basic standards of the discipline.
e. The oral examination reaffirms the high quality of the work, the originality of the contribution, and the student's facility with relevant principles, concepts, and background material.
Magna Cum Laude — Honors with great distinction
In addition to fulfilling the criteria described above, the project must fulfill all of the following criteria:
a. Each of the three components of the project (the work, the written exposition, and the oral examination) demonstrates a level of mastery of, and facility with, relevant previous work, underlying principles, and central concepts or theories of which few undergraduates are capable, as well as a solid grasp of related but peripheral material.
b. The thesis, interpretation, analysis, synthesis, pedagogical exposition, or creative endeavor encompassed by the project demonstrates unusual and substantial creativity, conceptual innovation, or theoretical sophistication (i.e., an unusual degree of independence of thought) on the part of the student.
c. The framing of the original material in the project within the context of established work or relevant traditions is remarkably sophisticated, revealing a sensitive and advanced understanding of the relationship between the student's contribution and established traditions or theories. The paper contains almost no grammatical or typographical flaws and is particularly well-written, lucid, and compelling.
d. The work itself is of outstanding quality. The project has been carried out with a degree of technical competence, diligence, and independence of which few undergraduates are capable.
e. The oral examination reaffirms the outstanding quality of the work. The student is able to give complete, clear, well-organized, and satisfying responses to the examiners' questions without the need for much guidance or prompting from the examiners.
Summa Cum Laude — Honors with highest distinction
This level of honors is rarely achieved and is reserved for those instances in which all three components of the project (the work, the paper, and the oral examination) demonstrate a superlative level of excellence. In addition to fulfilling the criteria described above, the project must fulfill all of the following criteria:
a. Each of the components of the project (the work, the written exposition, and the oral examination) not only demonstrates an exceptional level of mastery of, and facility with, relevant previous work, underlying principles, and central concepts or theories but also a sophisticated and original critical perspective on this material (i.e., the student possesses informed opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of previous work, theories, and traditions in the area). The student not only intimately understands relevant background material but also has the ability to view this material critically in a wider intellectual context.
b. The thesis, interpretation, analysis, synthesis, pedagogical exposition, or creative endeavor encompassed by the project demonstrates a superlative level of creativity, conceptual innovation, or theoretical sophistication on the part of the student.
c. The framing of the original material in the project within the context of established work or relevant traditions is elegant and subtle, revealing a rare and exceedingly advanced understanding of how the student's project represents a significant contribution to established traditions or theories. The paper is not only technically flawless (or virtually flawless) but is exceedingly well-written, compelling, and engaging.
d. The work itself exceeds all expectations. The project has been carried out with a superlative level of technical competence, sophistication, diligence, and independence.
e. The oral examination reaffirms that the work is a rare achievement that makes an original and sophisticated contribution. The student is able to give extraordinarily complete and persuasive responses to the examiners' questions without the need for guidance or prompting from the examiners.
Special Instructions for Projects in the arts
The above criteria are used in evaluating all Honors in Independent Study projects with the exception of the brief paper written for a project in the arts. While the paper for a project in the arts must be clearly organized and well written, contain appropriate documentation when needed, and display a high quality of thought and presentation, it is considered to be supplementary to the work itself. In the arts, the criteria listed above should be used primarily to evaluate the project itself and the subsequent oral examination.
Supplementary Guidelines for Projects in the Arts
Students may write for credit (with permission of the instructor) in any course in the curriculum except tutorials, independent study, or Freshman Studies. They should consult the instructor for permission to write for credit; the instructor will then specify a program and schedule of reading, examinations, and papers.
To register, a student must supply the registrar with a memorandum containing the name of the course and the signatures of the student's advisor and the instructor of the course. The work must be completed in one year. Courses do not become part of a student's record until the instructor reports that the required work has been satisfactorily completed. The letter grade will be recorded for the term in which the grade is reported.
Students who have opted for billing by the course under the incremental fee plan will be charged for the credit earned by writing for credit and reported that term.
Students may design and execute their own courses in areas and subjects not normally part of the Lawrence curriculum but appropriate to a liberal arts education. A student-designed course should address a topic or topics in which students proposing the course have experience or expertise. The course may pursue, in depth, some topic that grows out of an existing course. It may link the perspectives of two or more disciplines in the solution of some problem. Or, it may satisfy students' intellectual interests in other ways.
Students must have attained at least sophomore standing to participate in a student-designed course. To initiate a course, at least three students submit a prospectus containing statements on the subject matter, format, reading list, and formal requirements (papers, reports, exams, etc.) to a faculty member who will either enroll in the course as an informal member or agree to act as an advisor for the course. Upon the faculty member's approval, the prospectus is submitted to the Curriculum Committee for its review and decision at least eight weeks before the end of the term prior to the term in which the course is to be offered.
The committee encourages early applications so that the sponsoring students will have an opportunity to adjust their proposal to any of the concerns and criticisms voiced by the committee upon its preliminary review. Grades are assigned by the participating faculty member or faculty advisor on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis.
In reviewing applications, the Curriculum Committee pays particular attention to:
Completed applications must be submitted to the dean of the faculty, who chairs the Curriculum Committee. Interested students may contact the dean of the faculty or dean of student academic services for information and guidance.
Student-designed majors provide an opportunity for students to develop areas of concentration outside established programs for interdisciplinary or departmental majors. Like all majors, those that are student-designed should meet the following objectives: greater knowledge of the field under study; increased methodological sophistication; and the integration of sometimes disparate, but related, areas of study that fall within the proposed major.
The procedure for establishing a student-designed major is relatively simple:
Application forms for student-designed majors may be obtained from the offices of the dean of the faculty, dean of student academic services, and the registrar and from the Main Hall, Briggs Hall, conservatory, and art center faculty offices.
STUDENT-DESIGNED INTERDISCIPLINARY AREAS
Student-designed interdisciplinary areas are initiated by an individual student or a small group of students with the advice of at least two faculty members. The initiator or initiators develop, with their advisors, a statement on the planned interdisciplinary area, which will indicate the objectives of the interdisciplinary area and the suggested and required courses.
The student-designed interdisciplinary area is subject to the approval of the Committee on Instruction, which will communicate its decision to the students, their advisors, and the registrar. The student-designed interdisciplinary area will be identified at the time of the student's selection of a major or any time thereafter, on the condition that the student will be able to fulfill the proposed area's course requirements. The student is still expected to complete a formal major.