Future-oriented

The E.K. and Dorrie Fretwell Building is the administrative home for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, but the college’s 19 academic departments, two military science departments and 20-plus interdisciplinary centers and programs are located across the University. More than 8,100 undergraduate students and nearly 900 graduate students are enrolled in the college, which offers 78 undergraduate, 25 master’s and 10 doctoral degree options.

In this pre-COVID photo, Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, speaks with students at a college event.

As it marks its 40th anniversary, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) continues to create, collaborate and innovate.

LYNN ROBERSON

“The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has a long history of re-inventing itself and inspiring others to do the same,” said Dean Nancy A. Gutierrez. “One thing we have never done is stay static, especially as societal issues have grown increasingly complex. Our ability to anticipate and adapt is crucial as the world confronts a global pandemic, climate change, justice and equity challenges, challenges to democracy, economic upheaval and other significant issues.” A constant for the college is its central emphasis on ensuring students are prepared for work, citizenship and life.

“For undergraduate students, we are focused on redefining what liberal learning means, to prepare them to be tomorrow’s leaders and citizens — with a deep understanding of what justice and equity mean, so they can lead with that mindset,” Gutierrez said. “This dynamic redefinition holds particular significance in health, the environment and humanistic areas.”

The approach includes course work drawn from cross-cutting fields of study as well as experiential learning. The goal is for students to leave the college with a stronger sense of self and with firm confidence in their abilities to take risks and manage the unexpected.

“Data indicate that students who engage in liberal arts and sciences experiences can improve their economic status and social mobility,” Gutierrez said. “This means that our redefinition of the liberal arts and sciences directly impacts our focus on social justice. Because the 21st century has shown us that disruption happens and that career paths are often nonlinear, we provide students with the tools to develop resilience and grit to navigate unsettling times.”

CLAS Points of Pride

$11.86 million in research awards (2019)

2,053 research products or publications (2019)

35-plus Faculty Fulbright recipients

U.S. News & World Report ranks Master of Public Administration program in top 21% and Clinical Health Psychology doctoral program in top 38% nationally

The Financial Engineer ranked the math finance master’s program no. 14 nationally

Home of three UNC Charlotte Chancellor’s Professors and three recipients of UNC System’s Holshouser Award for Excellence in Public Service CLAS LEADS

A cornerstone effort is LEADS, a program that inspires innovative thinking and creative problem solving through a variety of programming and classes. Students who complete 10 credit hours of LEADS classes can earn a Certificate in Leadership, Innovation, Technology and Diversity. Students also participate in internships with organizations including Discovery Place and Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation.

“LEADS has helped me realize my abilities and work ethic,” said political science major Hiral Patel. “I was not the type of person to speak in front of crowds, and taking the introductory courses for LEADS in my freshman year helped me realize that it’s not that hard as long as I am prepared and know what I am talking about.”

Through LEADS and its explorations of disciplines and careers, including an internship with Discovery Place, Patel has added to her studies classes in economics and capitalism studies. She has decided to pursue a career in corporate law and policy.

More broadly, the college offers intensive research opportunities that are often interdisciplinary in nature, particularly for graduate students. In the future, the college intends to develop cutting-edge doctoral programs, such as digital cultures and communications, along with new master’s level degrees. Currently, the college offers 10 doctoral degrees, 25 master’s degrees and 19 graduate certificates, along with its 78 undergraduate degree options.

A historical perspective

The College of Arts and Sciences was created when then-Chancellor E.K. Fretwell Jr. brought together the individual Colleges of Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences and Science and Mathematics in 1980.

A year earlier, in his installation address, Fretwell stressed that under his leadership, the University would continue to emphasize the recognized value of the arts and sciences while addressing the civic needs of the Charlotte region and serving a more diverse student body. The college has proven critical to fulfilling these goals, which subsequent chancellors have also embraced.

Although the college marks 1980 as its official year of origin, and 2008 as its reinvention as the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, CLAS actually dates to the University’s founding period. When the Charlotte Center opened its doors to returning veterans in 1946, its first full-time teacher, Mary

Bertha Maxwell-Roddey and the late Mary Harper helped co-found the now Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.

Denny, taught English courses. She was joined by part-time teachers in math, Spanish and biology, disciplines now positioned in CLAS.

Since those early days, CLAS has expanded to encompass 19 academic departments, two military science departments and more than 20 interdisciplinary centers and programs, including its partnership with three other colleges in the School of Data Science. The newest department, Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies, is the first academic department of its kind in the Carolinas.

The Women’s and Gender Studies Program, currently offering a minor, also is seeking to establish a major. Meanwhile, the college has expanded

CLAS Points of Pride

14 graduate students received research awards of national or international significance during the past four years including three from the National Science Foundation, two from National Institutes of Health and one from the U.S. Department of Defense

In the past five years, CLAS has created 76 new inventions, filed 68 patents with 51 issued and started six companies

The UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens began under the leadership of Bonnie Cone and biology professor Herbert Hechenbleikner, left, and Schley Lyons, right, served as the second dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; as a political science professor, he helped launch Leadership Charlotte.

CLAS centers and interdisciplinary partnerships

• Center for Professional and Applied Ethics

• Center for Applied

Geographic Information

Science

• Center for Holocaust,

Genocide and Human

Rights Studies

• Center for the Study of the New South

• Center for

Optoelectronics and

Optical Communications

• Charlotte Teachers

Institute

• School of Data Science

• UNC Charlotte

Botanical Gardens Wenwu Tang is executive director for the Center for Applied Geographic Information Science, which has collaborated with government and health officials on water issues, COVID-19 and the city’s vanishing tree canopy.

interdisciplinary minors in response to the needs of students, employers and society. Those include areas such as biotechnology, capitalism studies, health and medical humanities, legal studies, Latin American studies and Southern studies. Last year, the college added dual master’s degrees in anthropology/public health in collaboration with the College of Health and Human Services.

“The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has maintained the centrality of the liberal arts and sciences to the University’s mission, by interpreting traditional disciplines in a contemporary context, promoting the connections across disciplines and championing emerging disciplines,” said Joan F. Lorden, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. “With its broad array of graduate and undergraduate programs, CLAS is essential to the University’s ability to fulfill our educational, scholarly and community engagement commitments.” CLAS partners to benefit the community

Beyond its own departments and disciplines, the college has long served as an engine of intellectual innovation across the University and in the community.

“The areas of knowledge that are housed in the college provide a core element to virtually all the areas of knowledge in other academic colleges,” Gutierrez said. “This means that the college often incubates new areas of thinking. For example, computer science grew from math, and contributed to the emergence of the College of Computing and Informatics. Likewise with fine arts, which are now part of the College of Arts + Architecture, and social work, now in the College of Health and Human Services. CLAS faculty were instrumental in the founding of the Urban Institute. Our disciplines are essential to the School of Data Science, with its role in bridging the gap between society and technology.”

According to Gutierrez, connecting society and technology, particularly the ethical use of data and technology, cannot occur without the faculty expertise and disciplines from CLAS, including philosophy and applied ethics, sociology, anthropology, geography, criminal justice, Africana Studies, psychology, public policy and more.

CLAS leaders and alumni have had significant

influence in the broader community:

• College faculty championed the creation of the first Black Studies programs in the 1960s and went on to found the Afro-American Cultural

Center, now the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Also, faculty provided leadership and expertise in the establishment of the University City area.

• The college has developed more than 90 active research and engagement partnerships with

community organizations, offering students and faculty opportunities to apply their research and knowledge. These include diverse organizations such as the Electric Power Research Institute, the Gantt Center, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Food Policy Advisory Council, the Atrium Health Systems, Clean Air Charlotte and International House.

• The Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI) is an innovative partnership among Charlotte-

Mecklenburg Schools, UNC Charlotte, and Johnson C. Smith University. Through intensive, semester-long seminars led by faculty from UNC Charlotte and Johnson

C. Smith University, CMS teachers learn new content, work collaboratively with other district teachers and develop curriculum units for their own classrooms.

• The Department of Mathematics and

Statistics, and departments in the natural sciences — Biological Sciences, Chemistry,

Geography and Earth Sciences and Physics and Optical Science — work closely with local school systems and educators. Faculty and students take science experiments into classrooms, and bring teachers and students into UNC Charlotte labs and the natural world for experiential learning. They also offer hands-on science activities at the annual UNC

Charlotte Science and Technology Expo, part of the N.C. Science Festival.

• The college houses centers that confront topics important to the broader community, including the Botanical Gardens, known for its native plant collection and classes, and the Center for

Professional and Applied Ethics, which works with the community on ethical issues. The

Center for Applied Geographic Information

Science (CAGIS) collaborates with governments and health officials on water issues, COVID-19 research and the vanishing tree canopy.

• The Center for the Study of the New South looks deeply with community partners into topics centered around what it means to be Southern in an increasingly diverse world, and the accompanying issues. One of its latest initiatives, an outdoor, living exhibit under construction in the Botanical

Gardens, tells the story of North Carolina through plants and crops crucial to the state’s development. A team composed of the University’s Center for the Study of the New South, Botanical Gardens and Urban Institute received a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council for the project.

As these and countless other efforts make a difference today in creating knowledge and connections for students and for the community, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences will continue to evolve, as does the world.

“Stay tuned for the next 40 years,” said Gutierrez.

Lynn Roberson is director of communications for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

“The areas of knowledge that are housed in the college provide a core element to virtually all the areas of knowledge in other academic colleges.”

–DEAN NANCY GUTIERREZ