Impact Magazine 2021

Message from the Dean:

This past year was a challenging one for the College of Liberal Arts. With a few exceptions, the global health pandemic prompted the shift to a mostly virtual learning environment. Our faculty and students responded with amazing resilience and creativity, both inside and outside of the classroom. Our dance and music concerts, our senior art exhibit, and research competitions went ahead, albeit in a virtual format. Some of our faculty developed virtual international exchange opportunities in their classes in lieu of canceled study-abroad programs.

Despite numerous challenges prompted by the pandemic, the College of Liberal Arts remains committed to a vision of liberal arts sin fronteras: without borders, boundaries or barriers. Even in the face of significant budget cuts, the college continued to make progress on key priorities. We launched the college’s first-ever Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), providing opportunities to engage undergraduate students in faculty-led scholarship. The college developed a five-year Diversity Action Plan that lays out clear goals and metrics to guide us in achieving a more diverse, equitable and inclusive college. And we created the Access, Community and Equity (ACE) Program to provide first-generation and low-income students with stipends to support their participation in high-impact Learn by Doing experiences.

I’m confident that we’ll emerge from these uncertain times with a greater sense of shared values and purpose that will propel us to new heights in the future. I hope you’ll join us in this effort! 

Best regards,
Philip Williams
Dean, College of Liberal Arts