College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

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The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (also CLAS) at the University of Florida is the largest college on campus, with more than 700 faculty members responsible for teaching the majority of the university's core curriculum to at least 35,000 students each year. CLAS has more than 12,000 undergraduate students pursuing a variety of disciplines through its 42 majors and 42 minors. Additionally, nearly 2,000 graduate students are attaining advanced degrees in the college.

The college faculty rank among the best in the nation and have received a variety of national and international awards, including Guggenheim Fellowships, Senior Fulbright Awards, National Science Foundation Fellowships, Presidential Young Investigator Awards and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships. They hold memberships in the National Academy of Science, the Nobel Prize Committee, the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences and the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh.

CLAS students also are among the top at UF, receiving numerous scholarships and awards for their academic performance. During the past several years, CLAS has a Rhodes Scholar, as well as several Barry Goldwater Scholars, Harry Truman Scholars and James Madison Scholars.

[edit] Mission Statement

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences constitutes the intellectual core of the university. Its principal mission is to lead the academic quest to understand our place in the universe, and to help shape our society and environment. The College pledges to ensure equitable access for all of its constituencies present, drawing strength from our rich heritage of racial, ethnic and gender diversity. Through teaching, research and service, the College continually expands our knowledge and practice in the most fundamental questions in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and natural and mathematical sciences.

At the undergraduate level, students acquire an intellectual foundation based on a well-rounded and comprehensive education designed for an increasingly technological and rapidly changing society. At the graduate level, students master a specialized body of knowledge and pursue original research under the guidance of outstanding faculty.

As a public institution, the College serves society through its research programs to advance our knowledge and capabilities, through its teaching to prepare tomorrow's leaders, and through its outreach programs to ensure dissemination of the state of the art in areas ranging from languages and literatures, to social behaviors, to the fundamental laws of nature. The College captures the brightest ideals of intellectual inquiry and human values mirrored in society, and remains ever conscious that it must represent and reflect all segments of society to remain the intellectual core of the university.