You can view your current department/major thesis requirements here. To submit or update a department/major thesis description, use this form. DHLs can email [email protected] for the form password.

In the first few weeks of each fall and spring semester, the Honors College emails the DHL on record a list of their Honors students. If you have questions about your current Honors students, please email us at [email protected].

Learn more about how coursework in the major supports Honors students here.

As a DHL, one of your central jobs is to connect Honors students in your program with potential faculty thesis mentors.

Departments know best how to connect students and mentors--and vary widely in how they do this. The following are some ideas:

• Periodic individual meetings with Honors students to get to know them and their interests, allowing the DHL to suggest specific faculty as potential mentors.
• Department events where potential mentors present their research program and undergraduate research opportunities to students.
• Referring students to the Office of Undergraduate Research's Research Opportunity Database to learn about faculty research programs and opportunities.
• Visiting classes to orient students to the Honors Thesis expectations and processes in your department.

Building communities among students promotes thesis completion because:

• it showcases the possibility of successful thesis work
• provides peer mentoring
• allows you to be more efficient in working with students because you can provide the right information and support at the right time.

To build a community, contact early career students in your major(s) to introduce yourself and provide a sense of the path for the thesis. This can be more efficiently done with group events, but departments do it both individually and in groups.

The vast majority of student-advisor relationships proceed reasonably well and result in successful theses, proud mentors, and happy graduating honors students.

However, when things go awry, you may be the first person to whom students or faculty advisors come with difficulties.

If you are comfortable mediating a conversation, feel free to do so. It is often helpful to have initial one-on-one conversations to help both parties explore what the problem is, what their ideal solution looks like, and what kind of openness they have to other possibilities, before bringing the parties together. It is critical to follow up on any conversation with an emailed recap of the content of the conversation and any agreements that were made.

If you are not comfortable with mediation or have a conflict of interest, your department may have some kind of committee/ombudsperson who can serve in this role. For example, in the Psychology department, there is a Director of Undergraduate Studies who can function as an ombudsman, and there is a Professional Issues and Ethics committee (PIE) that is charged with helping to mediate conflicts. For issues arising from the student side, department advisors and Honors program managers can be helpful and are experienced in having difficult conversations with students. For issues arising from the faculty side, the chair of your unit may be an important resource.

In our experience, many of the more garden-variety difficulties, such as an advisor having less time than the student needs, can be addressed relatively straightforwardly. Adding a co-advisor who can help fill the gaps, or having the student and advisor simply work out a clearer sense of what their mutual responsibilities and plans will be, often suffices. If the issues arise early in the process, it may be useful to explore an advisor change, or rethink the scope of the project with an eye to feasibility/advisor burden.

Other serious issues, such as sexual harassment or discrimination, must be reported. For sexual misconduct, you must report the incident to the Title IX Coordinator/OEO office (801-581-8365; [email protected]).

Student misconduct can be reported to the Dean of Students office.  Student academic misconduct, such as plagiarism, can be reported to the Dean of Faculty office (scroll down for student-related resources).

Serious student-related misconduct may be grounds for denying the student the possibility of completing the honors degree; it's worth having at least a working departmental policy about this type of issue. Serious faculty-related misconduct is out of the scope of the Honors College's authority, but in such a case, we urge you to work with us to help protect the students' opportunity to complete the degree in some way, if that is what the student wishes to do.

Let us know! [email protected]

You're in the right place! First, please make sure that the Honors College is aware that you are in this role. Email [email protected] to be added to the DHL listserv and so that we can update your department/major's thesis requirements with your name and contact information.

The Honors College holds orientation sessions for DHLs at the beginning of each academic year [orientation slide deck].

Please refer them to the Faculty Thesis Mentor webpage.