Diversity and Inclusion

The University Honors Program (UHP) endeavors to bring together a diverse group of students, faculty and staff who – through academic and co-curricular engagement – benefit from the opportunity to learn and grow together as an inclusive community of scholars.

Bringing together into the classroom students with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences helps to stimulate wide-ranging and meaningful interactions – and to forge life-long relationships. Learning is very much a social process, and the UHP seeks to leverage each student’s unique point of view while challenging students to expand their horizons and to recognize that respectful disagreement and debate are fundamental to building a just society. This is one of the reasons that the UHP is a university-wide program, rather than being housed in just one of GW’s many undergraduate colleges. Engineers and humanists benefit from open discussion with one another. Political science majors can learn a lot from business majors, and vice versa. Research demonstrates that creativity and problem solving are both greatly enhanced within diverse groups.

The UHP recognizes that cultivating an inclusive community while ensuring that students feel a sense of belonging within the program requires ongoing work and reflection.  The UHP actively listens to our students about their experiences, and we encourage feedback. Our aim is to foster the intellectual development of each UHP student as an individual and to ensure that every student can thrive in the UHP, in their college, and at GW more broadly. Correspondingly, it is each UHP’s student’s responsibility to adhere to UHP and GW community standards and to take personal responsibility for their own academic performance.  

FAQs

How are students admitted into the UHP?

Incoming first-year students apply to become a member of the UHP as part of their GW application (see details here) and are typically informed of their UHP application status in March, even if they applied to GW via early decision. Each spring, the program also accepts applications from second semester first-years students to become members of a small “Sophomore Admissions Cohort” (see details here). The program is not able to accept applications outside of these periods.  

When a student chooses to apply to the UHP (either when they submit their original application to GW, or during the Sophomore Admissions process) their application undergoes a holistic review process. Students selected for the program must demonstrate the following characteristics:

• strong academic promise
• an understanding of the aims and purpose of the UHP’s liberal arts curriculum
• the desire to actively and positively contribute to the UHP’s scholarly community.

These key admissions characteristics are evaluated based on a student’s educational records and through the supplemental essays that students submit to the UHP. The UHP seeks to admit students who bring unique strengths into the program and works to balance admissions to roughly match the percentage of UHP students representing each undergraduate college with the percentage of GW students in those schools. The UHP adheres to all admissions policies and practices overseen by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, including those mandated by law. In alignment with the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling related to affirmative action, the UHP is not provided with a student’s self-disclosed race and ethnicity information during the admissions process. However, students applying to the program are welcome to describe in their essays any identities, goals, and/or lived experiences that are fundamental to how they intend to contribute to the UHP’s academic community.

How does the UHP promote inclusion?

All students deserve to feel welcomed and included within the UHP’s community of scholars and within GW at large. The university holds its members accountable for sustaining an academic, work and social environment that values open communication, respectful interactions, and civility. We have a shared responsibility for the well being of others. (The complete GW Statement on Diversity and Inclusion can be found here.) The UHP’s first-year student orientation each fall focuses on welcoming students into the program and establishing a common understanding of appropriate community behavior both inside and outside the classroom. Students should expect to experience academic challenge and potentially even intellectual discomfort in the classroom, but should never feel personally threatened or attacked. To remain informed about best practices, UHP faculty and staff regularly participate in seminars, workshops and trainings related to diversity, equity and inclusion, such as participating in the annual Diversity Summit hosted by GW’s Office for Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement.   

One pillar of the UHP’s curriculum is the inclusion of writing by and knowledge from scholars who have historically been marginalized within their academic fields. In the “Origins and Evolution of Modern Thought” classroom, for example, students read classic works by Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Confucius, Marx, Kant, and Nietzsche but also encounter texts such as “Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde, “Ethics for a New Millennium” by the Dali Lama, “The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir, “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin, “One Drum” by Richard Wagamese, and many others. In “Scientific Reasoning and Discovery” courses, students might consider contributions from scientists often excluded by the textbooks, such as Rosalind Franklin, Barbara McClintock, Mary Anning, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt, or reflect on how certain populations have been overlooked or exploited under the guise of “scientific progress.” 

Outside of the classroom, the UHP works closely with campus partners in Campus Living & Residential Education (CLRE) to ensure that students (particularly first-year students living in West Hall on the Mount Vernon Campus) experience a positive living environment. Both the UHP and CLRE encourage students to participate in a wide variety of campus activities, to ensure that UHP students are taking full advantage of the opportunity to meet and form relationships with students in other Living-Learning Communities on the Mount Vernon Campus and with all their GW peers living on either campus.

What are the community and academic responsibilities of UHP students?

UHP students are expected to abide by both GW’s Code of Student Conduct and Code of Academic Integrity. Students who are found in violation of either code can be dismissed from the UHP.  All student conduct and integrity issues are managed/adjudicated by the Office of Conflict Education & Student Accountability (CESA) and the Title IX Office. For full details, please see the UHP Student Handbook.

Any UHP student experiencing a peer-to-peer conflict that does not rise to the level of a Student Conduct violation, including disagreements with roommates, is encouraged to contact their Community Coordinator who can facilitate conflict peer mediation.  

Additionally, UHP students must adhere to a number of specific scholastic requirements to maintain their membership in the program. These requirements are detailed in the UHP Student Handbook.

What academic support is provided to UHP students?

Challenge and struggle are fundamental to learning and growth. UHP students can expect to read complicated texts – texts that will stretch their imagination and possibly make them feel like their head is on fire! They will tackle the application of complex scientific reasoning and data analysis. They will be expected to actively participate in the classroom and speak up in front of faculty and peers. While exertion and effort are the goal, the UHP also ensures that students can access support quickly if needed. Direct academic support in the UHP is provided by the UHP faculty and the UHP Program Managers, who provide both focused and holistic academic advising to all UHP students. UHP students also have access to many other on-campus academic resources.   

Given that UHP first-year seminars are quite small (15 to 18 students), faculty are able to monitor student attendance, participation, and performance very carefully. When encountering a course challenge, students should first reach out to their faculty member during office hours. Faculty communicate regularly with the UHP Program Managers to help identify students that might benefit from additional GW resources. Students are also welcome to make an appointment with a UHP Program Manager at any time to discuss learning strategies and to hear about available on-campus academic resources such as “Student Success Coaching,” peer-tutoring through Academic Commons, and writing support through the GW Writing Center.

Recognizing that the shift from high school to college can be a particularly difficult adjustment both socially and academically, the program is designed to provide extra academic support during a student’s first year at GW.  Regular advising meetings and “four year planning” are integral parts of the UHP first-year experience

The UHP Program Managers also work closely with school-specific advisors to ensure that each student is on track in terms of required classes and activities for their major(s) as well as all GW general education (GPAC) requirements.

While UHP faculty and Program Managers are not mental health professionals, the UHP maintains open communication with many campus partners including the Office for Student Success (OSS) and Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and can provide referrals as needed to these additional support systems.

While the UHP is committed to supporting the academic success of each student within the program, students are personally responsible for their own academic performance and will be dismissed from the program if they do not meet the scholastic requirements detailed in the UHP Student Handbook.

How can I report an incident of discrimination?

If you ever witness or are a target of an incident of hate, bias or discrimination (involving any GW community members – students, faculty, or staff), you should consider reporting it to the Office of Access and Opportunity (OAO) using this form. The university encourages all individuals to report any potential violations of the university’s  GW’s Equal Opportunity, Non-Discrimination, and Anti-Harassment Policy policy. If the incident occurred in a UHP space, please include that in your report. Reports can be submitted anonymously, though reports which include identification will enable OAO to mobilize communication with and supportive measures for the affected community members.