College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Click on the links below to go right to that information:

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Educational Goals
Academic Ethics And Petitions

Departments and Programs

Dean (interim)

Laura M. Argys; Professor of Economics

Associate Deans

Richard Allen, Associate Dean for Research and Creative Activities, Associate Professor of Psychology
J. Jeffrey Franklin, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Curriculum and Student Affairs; Professor of English
Marjorie Levine-Clark, Associate Dean for Planning and Initiatives; Associate Professor of History
John Wyckoff, Associate Dean for Faculty and Staff Affairs; Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Sciences

Contacts

Administration Office
North Classroom, Suite 5014
Phone: 303-556-2557
Fax: 303-556-4861

Undergraduate Advising Office
North Classroom, Suite 4002
Phone: 303-556-2555
Fax: 303-556-6277

Mailing Address
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Campus Box 144
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364

The mission of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is to foster academic excellence, to create and impart knowledge critical to a modern society and a global economy, and to ensure the acquisition of skills essential for professional careers and graduate study. Our vision is to enact a new paradigm for a liberal arts education that retains the proven values of a broad education while imparting career-oriented skills throughout the curriculum.

Today’s university graduates need to be critical thinkers who are able to apply knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines to unscripted, real-world problems. A College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) education involves mastery of essential learning outcomes, such as creative problem solving, oral and written communication, quantitative literacy, intercultural competence, and ethical reasoning, which provide students with the tools to become lifelong learners who are adaptive and innovative. While establishing a broad foundational education, CLAS gives students the opportunity to dig deeply into disciplinary and interdisciplinary majors, which train them in scholarly fields, traditions, and methods of analysis. This combination of breadth and depth prepares students for our twenty-first century world, which requires flexibility and mobility, as new jobs develop and careers change at an ever-faster pace. CLAS graduates enter a wide variety of occupations and pursue advanced degrees in academia and in professions like law and medicine.

The CLAS curriculum provides rigorous academic programs while offering a number of flexible learning opportunities, such as the Individually Structured Major, to meet our students’ varied needs and objectives. The college draws on our downtown location and makes use of the city’s many resources through student internships, experiential learning programs, and partnerships with Denver businesses and non-profit organizations. CLAS students have excellent opportunities to participate in first-class faculty research, and the college prides itself on its faculty-mentored undergraduate research programs and applied research in the community.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Educational Goals

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provides undergraduates at CU Denver with a broad and multilayered education consisting of:

In-depth knowledge in one of more than 20 majors that CLAS offers in the humanities, mathematics, natural and physical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences.
Intellectual and practical skills, including inquiry and analysis, critical thinking, creative thinking, written communication, oral communication, university-level reading, quantitative literacy, information literacy, teamwork, and complex problem solving—practiced at progressively more challenging levels.
Personal and social responsibility, including civic knowledge and engagement (local and global), intercultural knowledge and competence, ethical reasoning and action, and foundation of skills for lifelong learning.
Integrative and applied learning, synthesizing knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines and experiences to address complex, real-world problems in our diverse local, national and global communities.

A CU Denver liberal education combines world-class knowledge in specific disciplines with the comprehensive skills and dispositions that students need for success and that our society needs its citizens to possess. In a world where content knowledge rapidly becomes obsolete and where graduates may have a dozen different jobs, these skills and dispositions are crucial. Employers increasingly look for employees who can think critically, communicate clearly, and solve complex problems. A liberal education may be the most vocational education that today’s student can earn. A liberal arts and sciences education truly is “learning with purpose.”

Academic Advice and Information

Students in the college are expected to assume responsibility for planning their academic programs in accordance with college policies and major requirements. To assist students, the college maintains the CLAS Academic Advising Office , North Classroom, 4002, 303-556-2555. Students are assigned to a college advisor in this office according to the students’ last names and must meet with this advisor upon matriculation into the college. The CLAS Academic Advising Office also has a specialty college advisor in teacher education. The college advisor is responsible for advising students of college policies, degree requirements, core curriculum requirements and for the certification of college and core requirements at graduation.

As soon as students have determined a major, they should meet with a major department advisor. The major department advisor will be responsible for the student’s major advising and for certification of the completion of the major program at graduation.

Students planning to ultimately earn a degree from one of the professional schools should also see an advisor in that school or college.

Academic Ethics and Petitions

Academic Ethics

This information applies to both undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

As members of the CU Denver academic community, faculty and students accept the responsibility to maintain the highest standards of intellectual honesty and ethical conduct in all forms of academic work. While most violations center around cheating or plagiarism, the CU Denver Academic Honor Code is more comprehensive and includes the following categories: plagiarism, cheating, fabrication and falsification, multiple submission, misuse of academic materials and complicity in academic dishonesty.

The CLAS Academic Ethics Committee, composed of faculty, students and staff, is charged with establishing academic ethics policies and, when necessary, evaluating ethics charges against students. Faculty and students should be familiar with the Academic Honor Code for the Denver campus (see the Academic Policies chapter) and the CLAS Academic Ethics Policies, available from the CLAS Academic Advising Office , North Classroom, 4002 and online.

Faculty who charge student(s) with a violation of the Academic Honor Code may lower a student’s grade without review. If the faculty decision concerning the alleged violation affects the student’s assignment or course grade, a letter to the student is required with copies to the Department Chair and the CLAS Associate Dean for Student Affairs. Students charged with an ethics violation are required to continue to participate in the class and may appeal the faculty decision to the CLAS Academic Ethics Committee. Students charged with a violation of the Academic Honor Code are encouraged to meet with an advisor in the CLAS Academic Advising Office to review their rights and obtain assistance with procedures.