The College of Arts and Sciences at Santa Clara University offers degree programs in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, with interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary options. As the home of the Core Curriculum, the College serves roughly 6,100 undergraduate students, 3,000 of whom are students within the College.
Made up of 27 departments and programs, the College offers 33 majors and 49 minors for undergraduate students and an M.A. in Pastoral Ministries for graduate students. It serves as the home of the Center for the Arts and Humanities and offers programming through various initiatives, including the Sinatra Chair in the Performing Arts, the Digital Humanities Initiative, and the DeNardo Lectureship in the Health Sciences.
Our award-winning faculty and student body consistently draw national attention, receiving grants or scholarships from institutions such as the National Science Foundation, Fulbright Scholars Program, and the Rhodes Scholar Program. Opportunities for students to participate in undergraduate research projects, creative expression, and summer internships through our REAL program are available and encouraged.
Vision:
As a central part of our Jesuit and Catholic University, the College of Arts and Sciences advances fundamental knowledge and addresses the fundamental challenges of society by promoting discovery, deepening knowledge, and fostering artistic expression. Using the lens of social justice, we focus on the sustainability of our common home, and address humanity’s problems, such as inequity, poverty, and illness. The College will evolve into an ever more welcoming academic community where faculty, staff and students flourish in a climate of mutual respect, celebration, and compassion.
Strategic Goals:
The departments, programs, centers, and initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences contribute to this vision through the following interconnected goals.
Goal #1 - Fostering extensive engagement between undergraduates and faculty
- Actively engaging students in their majors and the Core curriculum
- Conducting research and creative activity
- Mentoring students and peers
- Providing opportunities for vocational discernment
- Advising undergraduates
- Promoting innovation in pedagogy and curriculum
Goal #2 - Creating a learning and working environment that prioritizes justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI)
- Increasing faculty development opportunities in JEDI
- Developing JEDI curriculum and inclusive pedagogies
- Recruiting and supporting diverse faculty, staff, and students so that they may thrive at Santa Clara University
- Gauging and responding to changes in the classroom for both students and faculty
Goal #3 - Providing engaged, experiential learning with connections to our local communities in the context of a global world
- Offering meaningful internships
- Conducting well-supported field studies
- Engaging with communities
- Providing hands-on lab and studio experiences
- Leading deeply engaged capstone experiences
Goal #4 - Supporting faculty and staff in their professional development
- Providing greater support to Associate Professors and RTLs for advancement to Full Professor and Senior Lecturer, respectively
- Expanding the Faculty Collaborative into a Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning
- Promoting training and skills-acquisition for staff advancement
- Meaningfully rewarding service excellence
Goal #5 - Defining the liberal arts Teacher-Scholar Model at SCU in the 21st Century
- Supporting faculty as they distinguish themselves in their disciplinary/interdisciplinary fields of study and in artistic expression
- Identifying the optimal blend of teaching, scholarship and service for each faculty member
- Collaborating on scholarship and creative activity with undergraduates
- Defining a wide range of research and creative activity so that all faculty, staff and students may personally flourish in their disciplines