This 18-hour minor will enable the best students in the College of Liberal Arts to take innovative and rigorous courses from the best faculty in the College.  There will be two types of courses that will be restricted to Liberal Arts Honors Program (LAHP) students.  The first will be 3000-4000 level co-taught theory or methodology courses, taught on a rotating basis by Liberal Arts faculty who will apply to teach these courses.  Students will be required to take two of these courses as soon as they can upon admission into the honors program.  The second type will be a zero credit cross-disciplinary Honors Seminar which LAHP students will take at the end of their undergraduate education.  In this seminar, LAHP students will, among other things, work on and discuss their honors projects or theses, which will be required of all LAHP students.  Students will receive course credit for this seminar by enrolling in independent studies (or independent research, or departmental honors) courses in their home departments, with their faculty mentors for the honors projects serving as instructors of record.

The remaining 9 hours of credit can come from a number of different sources.  Students will be able to select from an inventory of honors-designated courses with Liberal Arts.  These classes, vetted by the Liberal Arts Honors Program faculty committee, will meet at least five of the ten Honors Course Criteria established by this committee.  A list of these classes will be available on the LAHP website.  New proposals for honors-designated courses will be solicited once a year.  The list will also be reviewed once a year to eliminate courses offered by faculty who have left the university or who may, for whatever reason, no longer want to include their courses.  The list will be reviewed every three years to track enrollment in each course; courses that have zero enrollment over the previous three years will be reexamined for inclusion.  Students can also accrue LAHP course credit by taking courses taught by UTEP professors outside of El Paso, through credits earned through study abroad, and through credits earned through internships.  All of these options must receive prior approval of the LAHP faculty committee. Students may also form honors cohorts of three or more LAHP students and contract for honors credit in 3000-4000 level Liberal Arts courses not identified as honors-designated, if they receive the approval of the instructor of record for the course and the LAHP faculty committee.

This honors minor will not replace existing degree plan requirements for LAHP students.  Specifically, it will not take the place of a traditional minor housed in an academic department or program if one is required in the student's degree plan.  All courses in the LAHP honors minor will double fulfill wherever the courses would normally fit in the student's degree plan - in the student's major, minor, or block electives.  Thus the honors minor should require no additional coursework for students - only that they choose courses towards the honors minor that fit elsewhere into their degree plan.