Because Honors is designed to complement, rather than replace, the many other opportunities that comprise education at Villanova, students participate in the Program in different ways and to different degrees. Each seminar in itself makes possible important intellectual growth; coming to know other persons with similar interests makes possible the cultivation of close personal friendships. An undergraduate experience that is uniquely Honors, however, grows from participating fully both in the Program's diverse curriculum of studies and in its co-curricular activities.

The Honors Council & the Honors Curriculum Committee
The Honors Council and the Honors Curriculum Committee constitute the two policy-making bodies of the Program. Each committee is composed of an equal number of students and faculty, and students chair all subcommittees.

The Council determines matters of policy regarding all facets of the Program; the Curriculum Committee evaluates all proposals for courses to be taught in the Program.

The committees share responsibility with the Director, Associate Director, and Coordinator in determining the legitimate expectations appropriate for the Program and its members, and in ensuring that they are met.

The actual quality of each person's Honors experience itself determines the full meaning of "the life of the community." However, the formal possibility of the community that is Honors derives from its structure of governance and from the legitimate expectations of every member of the Program.

Taking an Interest in Others

Perhaps the most important expectation within the Program is that its members will take an interest in one another's interests. Although the degree of participation in the Program will vary from person to person and from time to time, a basic assumption within Honors is that each person takes an interest in the intellectual life of other persons. A second expectation is that each member of the community has an interest in exploring with others the broader range of experience that contributes toward a maturing self.

Commitment to principles of academic integrity, intellectual courage and emotional tolerance are foremost among the legitimate expectations of the Honors Program and are presupposed in extending invitations to both students and faculty. Equally important is the principle of mutual respect that each participant in Honors can legitimately expect others to observe in every dimension of their association. These principles in turn provide the basic conception in accordance with which the policies and activities of the Program are determined.