Welcome from the Dean
Welcome to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UC Denver. Your interest in the broad realm of study offered by the arts and sciences shows your appreciation of the many possibilities that await you in your future life and career.
As the largest college at the University of Colorado Denver, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (you'll soon learn to refer to us simply as CLAS) enrolls as its majors 40% of all the students at UC Denver. Additionally, all other undergraduate students take CLAS courses for their Core Curriculum requirements. So you're in good company!
Of the College's regular 182 faculty, 95% hold doctoral degrees in their field of specialization, earned at the nation's best universities. Our faculty teach a wide variety of courses within twenty traditional undergraduate and graduate major departments. In addition to teaching knowledge and skills essential to achievement in these disciplines, CLAS faculty strive to instill both a love of learning and respect for free and independent inquiry.
The broad educational foundation of the arts and sciences empowers students to begin and to change careers; to pursue advanced graduate study in a discipline or prepare for a professional career such as business, education, law or medicine; and to lead a rewarding and productive life overall. The College curriculum maintains traditionally high university academic standards while providing many flexible learning opportunities, such as on- and off-campus internships, undergraduate and graduate research, interdisciplinary study, and pre-professional and certificate programs.
The beauty of an education in the liberal arts and sciences is its simultaneous diversity and specialization. Because a liberal education comprises fundamental problem-solving skills and substantive knowledge that can be widely applied, graduates of the college have careers in a variety of positions in industry, commerce, and government.
As you increase your academic knowledge through your studies, the liberal arts and sciences curriculum will also help you learn such life-enhancing skills as logical argumentation and clear expression, gain insights about relationships within and between nature and society, develop critical thought and interpretive ability, rationally solve complex problems, and heighten aesthetic appreciation of the world around you.
I believe you will discover the best in yourself through your studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. On behalf of all the fine faculty and staff of CLAS, I welcome you to the dynamic experience of our "world of learning."
Best wishes,
Jim Hageman
Interim Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences