At SLU’s College of Arts and Sciences, we educate the mind, body, heart and spirit.
In the Saint Louis University College of Arts and Sciences, you can study everything from the smallest pieces of matter to the intricacies of the natural world. You’ll examine the nature and substance of the individual person, as well as the essence of human creativity and imagination. We will also help you understand the social and institutional world structures we share.
SLU's College of Arts and Sciences provides undergraduate students with a liberal education based on a core curriculum designed to educate the whole person. Our graduates are prepared to make value-centered, ethically-based judgments. They are academically competent in their chosen disciplines. And they are prepared to enter their professional or academic future inspired to be effective leaders for change.
Graduate students at the College of Arts and Sciences are leaders within their disciplines. Here, they gain the knowledge and skills that lead to breakthroughs in research and new discoveries that are consistent with Jesuit values. Based on that 500-year-old educational tradition, our goal is to truly educate the whole person-mind, body, heart and spirit.
As Dean of the oldest and largest college at Saint Louis University, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the College of Arts and Sciences and tell you about some of the many accomplishments and successes that make us proud of the work we do. Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, we continue to welcome record numbers of freshman and transfer students to the college. These students choose to study from a variety of majors, and we have growth in all our disciplines cutting across the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Our students get to learn from a talented, dedicated and award-winning faculty who challenge our students to engage with their coursework and disciplinary content in innovative ways. For example, Dan Kozlowski, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Communication, is a 2021 recipient of the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award given out annually to St. Louis area educators who demonstrate significant contributions to student learning. Professor Kozlowski teaches courses in journalism and media ethics as part of our major in communication.
Our faculty and student research continues to be impressive. Faculty across the college, including two faculty from our Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Amy Wright, Ph.D., and Dan Nikolai, Ph.D., have each received prestigious awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support their scholarship and teaching. Allison Miller, Ph.D., professor of biology, in conjunction with the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center located in St. Louis, received a $12.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the New Roots for Restoration Biology Integration Institute. Assistant Professor of Music Stephanie Tennill has developed a specialized face mask, the VocalEase Mask, that allows for both COVID protection and the full range of motion and breath support for musicians and stage actors. Ness Sandoval, Ph.D., of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, uses emerging geospatial technology and computational spatial science methods to study social, economic and environmental patterns of inequality. Professor Sandoval also serves as the associate director of SLU’s Geospatial Institute (GeoSLU), a consortium of faculty and students from across the University engaged in geospatial research, training and innovation.
These achievements are only a small sample of the many ways in which the College of Arts and Sciences lives out the larger Saint Louis University mission to pursue truth for the greater glory of God and for the service of humanity. Our success in a period of rapid change and disruption serves as an important reminder that the education we offer, motivated and guided by Jesuit spiritual and intellectual ideals, is an education that provides our students with the tools to meet the unknown demands of the future with confidence. Thank you for your interest in our work in the college and for your support and personal witness to our mission.
In warm appreciation,
Donna J. LaVoie, Ph.D.
Dean and Professor
College of Arts and Sciences