Students who are members of the Shackouls Honors College at Mississippi State University will soon have more options for their academic schedules.
A new honors curriculum has been created.
Christopher Snyder, dean of the Shackouls Honors College, said the new curriculum is called The Cursus Honorum, which, loosely translated from Latin, means “The Path of Honors.”
Snyder said a main goal of this new curriculum is to make the honors program at MSU distinctive on the regional and national levels.
“Our honors students deserve that,” Snyder said. “To be in the honors college should mean something. We want to turn out the leaders at the university and beyond.”
The new curriculum stems from the original honors movement begun by Frank Aydelotte at Swarthmore College. The idea was to move away from big lecture halls and have one teacher for no more than about three students, Snyder said.
With this in mind, The Cursus Honorum will preserve the small class experience.
The new curriculum is an option and will not replace the curriculum that is currently available.
 
During the first year of the curriculum, students will take two seminar classes.
In their second year students will take two interdisciplinary courses. 
Snyder said all kinds of new, innovative, interesting topics will be offered for these classes, including a class he will soon teach on J.R.R. Tolkien.
For the third year, students will enroll in three discipline-specific courses. Students will also be required to participate in a study abroad experience or a related off-campus experience.
Finally, students will be required to write, present and defend an honors thesis.
Seth Oppenheimer, director of undergraduate research at the Shackouls Honors College, said students will be required to read whole books instead of small excerpts like most classes require.
“These are courses that are going to stretch students more than we’ve ever stretched them before,” Oppenheimer said. “Reading full texts is a necessary skill to be a full citizen and to be able to take advantage of the wisdom that is out there.”
Snyder said these new types of courses are standard among the honors programs the Shackouls Honors College is competing with.
 
By implementing this curriculum, Snyder said he wants to be able to provide a liberal arts college experience at a research institute.
Along with the new distinctive and rigorous curriculum, students will still need to uphold the 3.4 GPA requirement of the Shackouls Honors College.
Angi Bourgeois, chair of the University Committee on Courses and Curricula, said the new curriculum is designed to add a deeper level of understanding within a student’s major.
“It’s not just intense in your field, we already do that very well at Mississippi State,” Bourgeois said. “The thing that sets the honors curriculum apart is taking that discipline and adding the underlying concepts of a liberal education, which really focuses on linking a student to these areas of human creativity. This gives them a bit of a broader understanding of their discipline in the rest of the world.”
The honors college has students scheduled to test the new curriculum this fall.
Snyder said it will include a commitment to 27 hours of honors credit culminating in a successful thesis defense.
If this is accomplished, students will graduate with a new honors designation: Collegium Honorum.
During the first year of the curriculum, students will take two seminar classes. In their second year students will take two interdisciplinary courses. 
For the third year, students will enroll in three discipline-specific courses.
Students will also be required to participate in a study abroad experience or a related off-campus experience.
Finally, students will be required to write, present and defend an honors thesis.
Snyder said all kinds of new, innovative, interesting topics will be offered for these classes, including a class he will soon teach on J.R.R. Tolkien.
Seth Oppenheimer, director of undergraduate research at the Shackouls Honors College, said students will be required to read whole books instead of small excerpts like most classes require.
“These are courses that are going to stretch students more than we’ve ever stretched them before,” Oppenheimer said. “Reading full texts is a necessary skill to be a full citizen and to be able to take advantage of the wisdom that is out there.”
Snyder said these new types of courses are standard among the honors programs the Shackouls Honors College is competing with.
By implementing this curriculum, Snyder said he wants to be able to provide a liberal arts college experience at a research institute.
Along with the new distinctive and rigorous curriculum, students will still need to uphold the 3.4 GPA requirement of the Shackouls Honors College.
Angi Bourgeois, chair of the University Committee on Courses and Curricula, said the new curriculum is designed to add a deeper level of understanding within a student’s major.
“It’s not just intense in your field, we already do that very well at Mississippi State,” Bourgeois said. “The thing that sets the honors curriculum apart is taking that discipline and adding the underlying concepts of a liberal education, which really focuses on linking a student to these areas of human creativity. This gives them a bit of a broader understanding of their discipline in the rest of the world.”
The honors college has students scheduled to test the new curriculum this fall.