Support a Green Sheet Proposal

A Green Sheet is a formal, student-initiated agreement that allows an Honors Program student to earn Honors credit when no Honors version of the course was available for students that term (i.e. no Honors Option and no Honors Only or Accelerated Honors sections of the course).

In collaboration with you, the instructor, and with approval by the L&S Honors Program, the student designs and completes an Honors project that enriches their experience in the class.

Like Honors Optional courses, Green Sheet projects can be incredibly valuable ways for students to engage in course-related content, make connections to personal interests, and apply learning outside of the classroom. Supporting this path to Honors supports curricular flexibility for students and departments.

*Note: If you would be open to regularly supporting students’ Honors projects or supporting multiple students with Honors projects in a given term, please consider talking to your curricular representative about setting up the course with an Honors Option on all sections. Setting up the Honors Option for student enrollment instead of using Green Sheets can streamline the process for you and your students plus reduce administrative work for the L&S Honors Program and L&S Academic Deans Services.

What can make for a meaningful “Green Sheet” experience?

• Increased student-faculty interaction without causing an undue burden on either side
• Emphasis on the application(s) of course content, potentially including a project that takes the student outside of a classroom
• Integrating knowledge and skills from the student’s other academic or personal interests with course content
• Connecting with appropriate primary and secondary literature and research questions that could not be prioritized in the regular syllabus
• Use of less traditional assignment formats, such as a creative writing piece, a performance, or a media project that applies course content or themes
• Structured interaction with and reflection about campus resources and events that supplement course goals

Green Sheet Best Practices

• Green Sheet projects should be initiated by the interested student(s).
  • Planning the Green Sheet project can be collaborative or student-driven with insights from the instructor(s).
• Establish specific check-in points to hear about the student’s progress/experience and offer guidance or feedback throughout the semester
  • Use office hours or other times that are convenient for you to check in with the student
• Projects do not require prior experience or skill in the subject area beyond the requisites for the course.
  • This guidance reflects the fact that the Honors in the Liberal Arts program requires students to take Honors coursework in areas that may be outside their primary areas of academic interest.

Green Sheet Project Ideas

• Read selections from journals or a novel that helps students dive deeper or make new connections to course themes. Faculty meet with students multiple times during the semester to discuss these readings
• Connect current topics in the news to course material. Students discuss their findings with faculty and/or share their reflections in the form of biweekly blog posts or podcast recordings
• Identify a research question or topic related to the course and write an 8-10 page research prospectus. (The research prospectus helps students develop research literacy without requiring all steps of a research project in one semester.)
• Assist in activities and/or community service projects related to course topics
• Attend lectures, films, or departmental colloquia on a topic relevant to the course and write reflections or propose their own hypothetical event/lecture/film
• Compare a theatrical or film production of a novel or play to the original story, or compare an interpretation of an event or person to reality
• Visit laboratories or clinics to observe ongoing research and interview local experts or alumni in the field
• Visit museums or sites and discuss what they learned about both the content and its presentation
• Identify a topic in the syllabus that is of particular interest and lead or co-lead a related class session

General Structure

The following points may be helpful to remember when a student approaches you about a Green Sheet:

• Student Eligibility: Must be in the L&S Honors Program and have already successfully completed an Honors course at UW-Madison. First-semester freshmen cannot earn Honors credit through a Green Sheet. Exceptions may be made in the case of students pursuing Honors in the Major (please encourage the student to email the Honors Program).
• Course Eligibility: The course was not set up with an Honors Option for students to enroll in, and there is no Honors Only or Accelerated Honors version of the course being offered that term.
• Instructor Consent: Faculty are encouraged to consider students’ requests to engage more deeply in a course via the Green Sheet process, but faculty are not obligated to accept a student’s request to propose a Green Sheet.
• L&S Honors Program Consent: Students must submit Green Sheet proposals to the L&S Honors Program by the mid-semester deadline and gain official approval from Honors in order to receive Honors credit.

Grading Policies

Guiding Principle

The Honors Program’s guiding principle for grading, affirmed by the Faculty Honors Committee, is that no student should be disadvantaged through having undertaken (or attempted) an Honors project.

In all cases, faculty are encouraged to clearly articulate grading policy and expectations with the student(s) pursuing Honors.

Assigning Grades

Honors credit is earned on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis and should not factor into the student’s final letter grade for the course.

Assigning the student a final letter grade for the course serves as confirmation that the student successfully completed the Honors project as approved through the Green Sheet proposal process.

If the student did not successfully complete the Honors project, follow the Q grade process below.

Q Grades

The temporary final grade of “Q” (for “Question”) should be assigned when there is a mismatch between a student’s Honors enrollment status and their Honors-specific work at the end of the semester. With Green Sheets, this occurs when the student received approval from both the instructor and the L&S Honors Program to pursue a proposed Green Sheet project, but did not complete the work in a satisfactory way.

Instructors will update the “Q” grade to the final letter grade once the Honors status discrepancy is resolved. Students cannot graduate with a temporary “Q” grade.

Steps after assigning a “Q” grade:

1. If you haven’t already, alert the student to the Q grade, why it has been assigned, and steps to add or drop Honors credit.
2. Student should go into their Student Center, generate a Course Change Request to remove Honors, and submit the PDF of that Course Change Request to L&S Academic Deans’ Service (no signatures required).
3. After their Honors status is updated, either the L&S Deans or the Honors Program will notify the instructor.
4. The instructor should then update the grade roster with the student’s earned letter grade.

B or Better Rule

Students must earn a final grade of B or higher in an Honors course in order for the course credit to count towards an L&S Honors degree requirement. This is true for all types of Honors courses and for all L&S Honors degree tracks.

If a student completes their Green Sheet project in a satisfactory manner but earns a final grade below a B, DARS will not count the course credit toward Honors-specific requirements for that student. The transcript will still show that the student was in an Honors version of the course.