Faculty Compensation and Course Assessment in Honors Composition (Research About Honors‪)‬

When my National Collegiate Honors Council monograph Honors Composition: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Practices was in its dissertation stage, an early draft contained information about potential administrative problems in offering honors composition courses. The initial questionnaire did not include specific questions regarding administrative concerns, but I was prompted to include such questions in the follow-up interviews after receiving a somewhat troubling email message from a questionnaire respondent, an excerpt of which is included here: Contemplating possible paths of resistance, I decided to ask in the follow-up interviews not only if respondents had encountered resistance in general but also if faculty were compensated for honors coursework and in what fashion. I also wanted to determine whether positive outcomes of assessment of honors composition courses might have been used to overcome resistance.