College of Arts and Sciences

Stephen E. Meats , Interim Dean

Room: 311 Grubbs Hall
Telephone: 620-235-4683
Fax: 620-235-4686
email: lolson@pittstate.edu

Departments:

• Art
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Communication
• English
• Family and Consumer Sciences
• History
• Mathematics
• Military Science
• Modern Languages and Literatures
• Music
• Nursing
• Physics
• Social Sciences

Mission:

       The mission of the College of Arts and Sciences is three-fold:  First, through the General Education Program, to provide students with a foundation of knowledge and skills to become educated members of society.  Second, through more than fifty undergraduate and graduate majors and minors in fourteen departments, to provide students with the opportunity to develop expertise in specific disciplines.  Third, through extensive outreach programs outside the classroom, to provide the campus and the larger community with opportunities for cultural, aesthetic, and scientific enrichment and development.

       More than two and a half centuries ago, Alexander Pope wrote that the greatest study of man is mankind. True to this philosophy, today the liberal arts curriculum is the heart of a university education. The College of Arts and Sciences has the privilege and responsibility of helping to preserve and transmit the values, the knowledge, the wisdom that are our common heritage and without which we would not be human: appreciation for the beauty of art, music, literature; skill in painting, sculpture, music, poetry, knowledge of history, society, cultures, languages; and understanding of the physical world around us.  The College of Arts and Sciences offers opportunities for students for career preparation in a number of areas of professional training, applied sciences and pre-professional training.  Additionally, many students specialize in the liberal arts because they realize that the same knowledge and skills learned in these programs will prepare them to pursue successful and productive careers in areas as diverse as teaching, law, management, sales, writing, and many others. The College of Arts and Sciences makes the liberal arts available to students in the more specialized areas of business, technology and education through the required general education program. The combined programs in the College of Arts and Sciences are the largest at Pittsburg State, enrolling more than fifty percent of all students at the university. The College has a faculty of 138 of whom 106 hold doctorates or other terminal degrees in their fields. These faculty are dedicated teachers and active scholars as well, publishing books and articles, delivering papers at professional meetings, holding offices in state and national professional organizations, exhibiting or performing their art, and in other ways contributing to the search for knowledge and excellence in their fields. The College of Arts and Sciences also provides opportunities for students in several areas of pre-professional training, professional training and applied sciences.

Science Education Center

As part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Science Education Center coordinates the education outreach and teacher training programs for the Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics.  The mission of the Center is to increase awareness and quality of science and mathematics education in the region through the sharing of expertise and resources with the area educators and agencies; designing model programs for K-12 science and mathematics education; presenting science education programs to the general public; providing university faculty enhancement seminars; and training highly qualified pre-service and in-service teachers for science and mathematics education.  The Center staff is composed of members from each of the science and mathematics departments who offer a number of content-based courses specifically designed for educators.  The Center also coordinates the scheduling of Kelce Planetarium programs, Chemistry demonstrations, Mathematical Musings presentations, and Nature Reach tours for elementary-level.