Join Provost Brand’s Food for Thought: AI Does My Homework. What’s the Problem?

Event Details: This event will take place on Friday, October 6 from 12 pm until 1 pm in the UHP Townhouse. This event requires an RSVP so please fill out this form to let us know you are coming!

Title: AI Does My Homework. What’s the Problem?

Description: With suitable prompting, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools such as Bard and ChatGPT can produce content that receives passing grades – even good grades – in some high school and college courses.  GAI tools raise many important questions, some of which we should be asking anyway.

Is it unethical for you to use GAI tools in ways your instructor or GW explicitly forbids?  Is it unfair to other students who choose to refrain from such prohibited uses?  Do prohibited uses somehow wrong your instructor or GW?  Do they make you complicit in questionable practices or systems?  How likely is it that you’ll be caught and sanctioned?  Assuming you get away with it, is it in your long-term self-interest to keep doing it?

These questions lead to deeper ones.  How will your college experience figure in your life after graduation?  What purposes does college serve?  Should college as we know it continue to exist?  What’s your responsibility to future generations?

UHP: How to Take Origins Like a Pro

By UHP Peer Advisor Grace Truslow

 

Walking into one of your first college courses as a seminar style class with demanding philosophical readings can at first be overwhelming. However, origins classes offer the opportunity for you to strengthen your abilities in analysis, writing, and public speaking. Strengthening these skills in your first semester will set you up for success for the rest of your college career. Here are a few steps to make sure you can get the most out of the course and feel more confident in your work and class contributions.

  1. Readings/Class Discussions

One of the best ways to ensure that you are prepared to excel in class is to thoughtfully engage in your class readings and subsequently class discussions. The readings are meant to challenge you and can understandably be initially overwhelming. To make new text more digestible, you can at first give yourself a fixed amount of time to read through materials to get more comfortable with the language and overall structure. You can also utilize online resources to supplement, but not replace, your understanding of course readings and expose yourself to different viewpoints. These steps will make reading in more depth and note taking much easier as you will have a stronger basis of understanding. Starting readings early in the week or getting ahead if you are able to will give you more time to think through materials and hopefully alleviate some stress.

Readings are the basis of class discussion. If you are less comfortable participating, you can utilize them as a way to prepare for your contributions in class. When taking notes, instead of solely summarizing, you can start to identify questions, critiques, or connections and can then enter class with a set of potential viewpoints to share. Participating in class discussions is a culmination of the work you already did by completing the readings. You can start with a goal of contributing once in class and then increase your participation as you get more comfortable with public speaking.

  1. Papers

Another major component of Origins courses are the written requirements. The good news is that by completing readings and attending class, you already have begun to analyze your course’s major ideas. Depending on the flexibility of your prompt, you can view written work as an opportunity to delve deeper into a class topic that particularly interests you. While your first college papers may seem like daunting tasks, you can break an essay down into smaller pieces of brainstorming, research, outlining, drafts, and editing. Getting your ideas on paper through research and drafting will put you in a better position when you are editing and perfecting your writing. It is also a good idea to set an earlier deadline for yourself to build in extra time for finalization. At any stage in this process you can attend office hours to work through ideas with your professor and ensure you are on the right track.

  1. Utilize Your Resources

Origins classes give you the opportunity early in your college career to work one-on-one with your professor. If you have specific concerns about class participation, office hours are a great time to find a solution that will work best for you. Some professors also count office hours engagement as a form of class participation. Whether you are confused about a reading or working through an essay, office hours are an excellent opportunity for you to develop greater understanding and to show your professor the efforts you are putting into your course.

You can also talk through questions or ideas with your peers so long as you are not misconstruing others’ work as your own. While your classmates may have differing levels of exposure to philosophy and confidence in public speaking, origins is a challenging course for everyone. Creating support systems with your peers in the UHP will help you grow together as you all experience origins and college for the first time. You can also utilize resources outside of your class such as the GW Writing Center and your peer advisors who have successfully made it through their origins themselves.

________

As an honors student you are more than capable of excelling in origins. Engaging in the reading materials and written assignments will help you expand your perspectives and strengthen your analytical abilities. Additionally, navigating origins provides you with the opportunity to develop relationships with your professor and peers and start to utilize the resources available to you at GWU. Over the course of the semester you will develop skill sets that will set you up for success for the rest of your educational career.

Breakfast with the Director (September 22, 2023)

Do you have any ideas or suggestions about the Honors Program that you’d like us to hear? Do you have any questions? Whether you’re a first-year student or nearing graduation, come join the UHP Director, Professor Kung, for a “Breakfast with the Director” event on Friday, September 22nd at 11 am in the Foggy Bottom townhouse Club Room. Please RSVP with the form below:

Fall 2023 Registration Guide

It’s almost time to register! To help prepare, check out these tips and reminders.

Early Registration Date: Friday, April 14th @ 9AM-11:59PM EST

Early registration is for your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th semesters!

Regular Registration Schedule

Priority Registration

Date Day Category Eligible
April 13 – Aug 23 All Degree-Seeking Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students:

April 17 Monday 90 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

April 18 Tuesday 70 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

April 19 Wednesday 50 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

April 20 Thursday 30 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

April 21 Friday 0 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

If you’re not sure when you register, you can check your earned credit hours in GWeb using the following path: Student Records & Registration Menu > Student Records Information Menu > Transcripts > View Unofficial Transcripts. Make sure you’re looking at overall hours earned for the accurate total!

Plan Ahead Tool

GW has launched the Plan Ahead Tool to that when used ‘ahead of time’ helps to speed up the registration process. The tool allows you to:

  • Building up to 5 different plans of classes for your upcoming registration period;
  • Using one of the plans to directly register for all of your classes when your registration window opens. Creating a plan does not guarantee that a seat in the course will be available at the time of your registration.
To access the Plan Ahead feature, follow the instructions:
  • Log into GWeb
  • Visit the Student Records and Registration Menu
  • Click on the Registration Menu
  • Select Plan Ahead
Also, check out this how-to video to learn how to use Plan Ahead. Note: the video is not closed-captioned, view transcript.
We’ve also created a guide for adding Honors courses via Planned Ahead, which you may view below:

Waitlists

The option to add yourself to the waitlist becomes available on April 24th when general registration opens. More on waitlists here.

Hold Information

Check your record via GWeb regarding holds prior to your scheduled registration time. Any hold on your account will prevent access to registration. You can view any holds on your account by looking at: Student Records & Registration Menu > Student Records Information Menu > View Administrative Holds.

Make sure to check now and again in the days leading up to registration. Check early, and check often! More on holds here.

Upper Level Honors courses

Remember that students must be registered in the HONR section in order to receive UHP credit.

Upper Level Course Substitution

If you are planning to utilize the upper level course substitution option, please review all the information to ensure the course you are considering meets all the UHP criteria. For any questions please contact a program manager.

2023 Strasser Prize Winners Announced!

Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Strasser Writing Prize competition!  We have one first place winner, and two runners-up.

1st Place:

JaeMin Chu – “Stoic Depictions in the Works of Salvator Rosa”  Click here to read their essay! 

Runners Up:

Anna Weber – “The Cold War-Era Jazz Ambassadors Program: A State Department Success. Click here to read their essay!

Ryan Tiedemann – “The American Folk Revival and Confucianism: A Comparative Analysis”  Click here to read their essay!

Congratulations UHP SURE Award Recipients (Spring 2023)

Congratulations to the following Spring 2023 recipients of the UHP SURE Award, an individual grant of up to $1000 to support UHPers’ research activities:

Caleb Auerbach, Senior, Political Communication

Lexi Carmine, Junior, Biomedical Engineering

John Fine, Senior, Political Communication 

Sana Hafiz, Junior, Public Health

J.P. Infortuna, Senior, Political Communication 

Anne Joseph, Senior, English Literature and Music

Priscilla Pang, Junior, Neuroscience

Anuka Upadhye, Senior, International Affairs (International Environmental Studies concentration) 

Peri Wivell, Junior, Biology (Cell and Molecular Biology concentration) 

We look forward to hearing more about their research projects later this academic year through our SURE Stories series. We will be sure to keep you posted!

Fall 2022 Diversity and Inclusion Updates

Below is an update on D&I-related goals and outcomes for the program in Fall 2022. This work is ongoing, and we will provide additional updates at the end of Spring 2023.

  • Honors Diversity and Inclusion Committee: The D&I Committee – composed of students, faculty, and staff – met several times in Fall 2022 to discuss programming priorities and possible tasks/initiatives for the year. The Committee welcomes new members at any time and welcomes ideas and suggestions for programming from anyone in the UHP community.   
  • Learning/Training: Diversity and inclusion topics were integrated into our first-year orientation during Fall 2021 and the successful aspects of that orientation were repeated in our Fall 2022 orientation (August 22 & 23). These included a presentation about microaggressions during our first-year student welcome session, topical breakout discussion sections led by Peer Advisors, and a required orientation workshop led by Dr. Jordan West, Associate Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement. Incoming first-year students had the opportunity to self-select which breakout discussion session to attend, with Peer Advisors opening up the space for students to share concerns. In this way, students had the chance to begin building support networks with Peer Advisors and one another. Dr. Jordan West’s interactive workshop focused on building a welcoming community and provided space and time for students to have open and honest conversations with one another as they began the process of developing an Honors community. Additionally, the UHP continues to focus on communicating to students via the NewsFlash, blog, and course syllabi about the various campus offices and resources where students can access on-campus support including but not limited to Title IX, bias reporting, and the Student Code of Conduct. 
  • First-year Student Survey: In Fall 2022, first-year students were asked to complete a short survey related to their experiences within the program and the greater GW community. The results have been considered by UHP staff, peer advisors, and the D&I Committee and help to identify initiatives that have been successful as well as those that could be created or improved upon. A number of concerns related to housing and dining came up in the survey. While the UHP has no jurisdiction in these areas, all student concerns were relayed to the proper authorities in Campus Living and Residential Education. Recently, Roslyn Gowens became the acting director of the Mount Vernon Campus. The UHP has been working closely with her and others in her office to advocate for our first-year students.
  • Programming: In alignment with the UHP’s goal of building and sustaining a welcoming community through various events and programs, the UHP partnered with the Women’s Leadership Program to host a dinner and presentation/conversation on “Dealing with Imposter Syndrome” (October 2022). The UHP chose to focus on this topic because imposter syndrome had been a major concern in the 2021 first-year student survey. The event was facilitated by Dr. Jameta Barlow, a community health psychologist who is an Assistant Professor of Writing in the University Writing Program and a faculty member in the WLP. Dr. Barlow’s research – including her “Saving Our Sisters Project,” utilizes “decolonizing methodologies to disrupt cardiometabolic syndrome and structural policies adversely affecting Black girls’ and women’s health, intergenerational trauma and perinatal mental health” (see her full bio here). The imposter syndrome presentation/discussion was centered around how imposter syndrome can impact students inside of and outside of the classroom. Additional topics such as concerns with confidence, how to combat negative feelings, and resources on campus were presented in an open dialog format allowing anyone to share their experiences and to learn from one another. While a significant number of students RSVPed for the event, less than half of those who RSVPed actually attended. Unfortunately, lack of attendance follow-through from students limits our ability to offer similar programming in the future.       

An additional program that was carried out as a direct result of a student suggestion from the Fall 2022 first-year experience survey was a therapy dog event. Director Kung and the UHP Program Managers hosted this “Therapy Dog Day” immediately before Fall 2022 final exams (December 13). The UHP partnered with the Alliance of Therapy Dogs and were able to provide a space for students to spend time with trained therapy dogs to destress before exams began. Unfortunately, one of the dogs was not able to come at the last minute, but the two dogs that did make it were doted upon by a combined 65 UHP students. We look forward to hosting more events like this in the future. 

  • Peer Advisor Program: This year, the Peer Advisor Program made intentional efforts to connect UHP first-year students with their Peer Advisors both before and after they arrived on campus. As implemented last year, our standard policy is now to provide incoming students the chance to match with a Peer Advisor based on identity, interests, academic school, and/or major. 

During first-year orientation, the Peer Advisors hosted breakout rooms discussions about topics such as being a first-generation student, balancing academics and social life, queer life at GW, and more. The goal of these discussions was to foster community within the UHP and to assist first-year students in making connections with one another. 

Throughout the semester, Peer Advisors hosted a variety of events on the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon Campuses with the continued goal of fostering community. These events included museum trips, cookie decorating, scavenger hunts, and community visits. Also – for the first time – Peer Advisor held “drop-in office fours” weekly, providing students with the opportunity to stop by with any questions or concerns. 

We are extremely thankful for our Peer Advisors and wanted to recognize their hard work at the end of the semester. First-year students were given the opportunity to share their gratitude by submitting personal shoutouts with our “Peer Advisor appreciation form.” We received responses from 26 students expressing appreciation for the work of their Peer Advisors and passed their kind words along to their Peer Advisors. 

  • Upper-level UHP Courses/Faculty: The program continues to work closely with the GW administration to give excellent faculty from around the University the opportunity to teach a unique seminar within the Honors Program. There are, of course, many faculty who would love to offer a course within the UHP but who cannot be spared by their departments. We are delighted that Dr. Sharon Hill, Associate Professor of Management, will be joining us in Fall 2023 to teach a course focused on preparing students to lead and collaborate in contemporary teams. In the next few semesters, we are hoping to offer courses focused on Africa and Latin America and are also pursuing the possibility of offering an upper-level course taught entirely in Spanish. Our upper-level course substitution option remains available for students interested in course topics that we cannot currently offer within the program. Director Kung will be holding a “focus group” discussion in early Spring 2023 to hear from students about what other topics they would like to learn about.     

 

Congratulations Professors Eyal Aviv and Mark Ralkowski!

The UHP congratulates Professors Eyal Aviv and Mark Ralkowski for each receiving a 2022 Morton A. Bender Teaching Award at GW’s 12th Annual Faculty Honors Ceremony! Each year, the Bender Award recognizes faculty at GW who have maintained the highest academic standards while fostering a supportive and inclusive environment for their students. The UHP is extremely proud and grateful that their hard work and dedication has received this well-deserved recognition!
GW 12th Annual Faculty Honors at Jack Morton Auditorium on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in Washington. (Joy Asico / Asico Photo)
GW 12th Annual Faculty Honors at Jack Morton Auditorium on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in Washington. (Joy Asico / Asico Photo)
GW 12th Annual Faculty Honors at Jack Morton Auditorium on Tuesday, October 18, 2022 in Washington. (Joy Asico / Asico Photo)

Spring 2023 Registration Guide

It’s almost time to register! To help prepare, check out these tips and reminders.

Early Registration Date: Friday, November 11th, 2022 @ 9AM-11:59PM EST

Early registration is for your 2nd, 3rd, and 4th semesters!

Regular Registration Schedule

Priority Registration

Date Day Category Eligible
Nov 10 – Jan 16 All Degree-Seeking Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students:

November 14 Monday 90 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

November 15 Tuesday 70 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

November 16 Wednesday 50 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

November 17 Thursday 30 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

November 18 Friday 0 or more credits earned

(use your transcript to find your total credits)

If you’re not sure when you register, you can check your earned credit hours in GWeb using the following path: Student Records & Registration Menu > Student Records Information Menu > Transcripts > View Unofficial Transcripts. Make sure you’re looking at overall hours earned for the accurate total!

Waitlists

The option to add yourself to the waitlist becomes available on November 21st when general registration opens. More on waitlists here.

Hold Information

Check your record via GWeb regarding holds prior to your scheduled registration time. Any hold on your account will prevent access to registration. You can view any holds on your account by looking at: Student Records & Registration Menu > Student Records Information Menu > View Administrative Holds.

Make sure to check now and again in the days lead up to registration. Check early, and check often! More on holds here.

Upper Level Honors courses

Remember that if an Honors course is cross-listed, you can sign up for any open section. To ensure that the non-Honors section counts as an Honors requirement, please ask a Program Manager to submit a petition in Degree Map.

In order to maximize the availability of seats for all students, students cannot be enrolled in more than one upper-level Honors seminar (HONR 2047: Self & Society and HONR 2053: Arts & Humanities) per semester without pre-approval from a Program Manager. [Note, however, that this restriction does not apply to the non-“HONR” section of cross-listed courses – just remember to submit the correct paperwork to a Program Manager to ensure that your Degree Map gets appropriately updated.]

Upper Level Course Substitution

If you are planning to utilize the upper level course substitution option, please submit the course substitution request PRIOR to registration.  For any questions please contact the program manager.

Cross-listed courses

Remember that if an Honors course is cross-listed, you can sign up for any open section. make sure that you enroll in a class with the exact CRN listed on our course description website – many sections have similar course designations and titles, but only sections with specific CRNs are considered Honors equivalents.

Welcome Tabitha Dean, New Program Manager!

Hi UHPers! My name is Tabitha Dean (she/her) and I am so excited to be joining you all as the new Program Manager. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about the program thus far, and am very much looking forward to meeting all of you!

I am from a small city in North Carolina and spent the majority of my life in the state before moving to D.C. last August. I am a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in Peace, War, and Defense and Political Science. Throughout my time in college, I worked for Carolina Housing as an office assistant, resident advisor, and a member of the leadership team for the campus’ only apartment-based residence hall. I always share with students that finding this community was so vital for my college experience, from the opportunities I was given to grow and develop, to the relationships I built with my residents and co-workers. This is what excites me the most about joining the UHP – being there while each of you find your people, develop your academic, personal, and professional goals, and most of all, cheering you on as a member of your community and support team! 

After graduating from college and nixing my original plans to pursue a career with the federal government, I found myself wanting to continue in a role that actively supports students along their educational paths. I served as a college adviser within a North Carolina high school for two years, assisting seniors with the application process, financial aid, and most importantly, having dialogues with students regarding their collegiate goals. After finishing my time with college advising, I transitioned into an official higher education role with Johns Hopkins University, assisting graduate students with their administrative needs (mainly, financial aid, student accounts, and registration). Ultimately, I found that I was missing the connections I was able to develop with students while advising, which led me here to be with you! 

I hope to be a resource and offer you a space of comfort whenever you find it needed. I look forward to sharing the knowledge I obtain and learning what is important to you. Please feel free to reach out to me via email at tabitha.dean@gwu.edu if there’s ever a time you’re looking for support – best of luck with your studies!