Welcome from the Dean

Welcome to the home page of the College of Arts and Sciences of Seattle University!

There are some 2,000 students - about 1,800 undergraduates and 200 graduate students from around the country and the world - enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences, making it the largest college at Seattle University. The College of Arts and Sciences has many strengths, but none is more important, and none more essential to its mission, than the excellence of our students, whose capabilities, energies, and diversity make them partners in their own education. We're very proud of the academic successes of our students and the life accomplishments of our alumni.

The lifeblood of any school is its faculty. The quality of any school is only as good as the quality of its members, students and faculty. The College of Arts and Sciences has an outstanding and diverse faculty, about 120 strong (full-time), who are dedicated to rigorous and personalized education. We have gifted teachers of great vitality and warmth, who are also noted scholars, researchers, or creative artists. They inspire our students. They set high standards of intellectual accomplishment. They communicate the pulse of moral concern. Their work, as the poet Yeats said, is "not the filling of a pail, but the light of a flame" - igniting in our students a passion for learning, and a commitment to apply their learning to the causes of service and justice, that will last a lifetime.

The College of Arts and Sciences is also the heart and soul of Seattle University. This is because the Core Curriculum - and integrated sequence of courses that's required of all Seattle University students, regardless of their major area of study - is taught primarily in the College of Arts and Sciences. The "Core" is Seattle University's declaration of what constitutes a liberally educated person, in the Jesuit and Catholic intellectual tradition, at this time in history. The purpose of Core education is to help form a fuller human being, with a critical mind, a caring heart, and a searching spirit, as well as to help shape a more responsible citizen, who lives rightly in a free society.

Over 20 major and minor areas of study are offered through the various departments and programs of College of Arts and Sciences. There are also ample opportunities for customizing one's course of study, interdisciplinary inquiry, service learning, study abroad, independent research or creative work for "departmental Honors" under faculty tutelage, and internships. There are also extensive co-curricular programs (for example, in the arts) that enrich and complement formal study.

As you read about these varied programs and about the people of the College of Arts and Sciences in this web site and you have any questions or comments, I invite you to contact me directly at Lohw@seattleu.edu. I and/or member of my staff will respond and try to be of whatever assistance we can. We also look forward to the opportunity of meeting you and welcoming you in person.

Sincerely,

Wallace D. Loh,
Dean