2001 - 2002
Undergraduate Catalog

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

• Academic Policies
• Degree Requirements
• Programs
• Liberal Arts & Sciences Home

History and Overview

Scholarships
Anderson Scholars
Dean's List
Honors
Pre-Health/Pre-Law Students
Special Support Services
Career Advising
Internships
Research Experience
Teacher Preparation
Study Abroad
Center for Written and Oral Communication

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) stands at the heart of academic life at the University of Florida providing students with an intellectual foundation. The college offers an academic environment in which students learn to communicate effectively, to reason independently and to comprehend the traditions and institutions that have shaped the world. CLAS offers 36 majors in 22 departments and is home to 33 centers and institutes, including the University Center for Excellence in Teaching, the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research and the Center for African Studies. The teaching faculty, nearly 700 strong, are active scholars working to create new knowledge through research. The main goals of the college are to prepare students as citizens and to empower them as leaders.

The college serves its students, the state and the nation in a number of important ways. Perhaps the most obvious is in the area of research, where faculty and students help expand the boundaries of knowledge through teaching and research in such areas as aging, child development, the family, literature, speech communication, history, women's studies, language, culture, biotechnology, environmental science, politics, high energy physics, space and religion.

World events demonstrate the importance of such ideas as freedom, democracy and human worth. These ideals and values remain central to the mission of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences as it seeks to prepare students for an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Ever mindful of national and international concerns, the college endeavors to foster a healthy cultural, ethnic and racial diversity among students and faculty.

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Special Features

Scholarships

The college awards more than 75 scholarships and fellowships annually ($250,000 in assistance). Please refer to the college's web site or visit 2014 Turlington Hall. The Honors Program office in 140 Tigert Hall also has scholarship information.

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Anderson Scholars

Each fall at a convocation ceremony, the college honors outstanding juniors, as Anderson Scholars. These students receive certificates of highest distinction, high distinction or distinction, based on maintaining a 4.0, 3.9 or 3.8 overall grade point average respectively, during their first two years at UF with a twelve-hour course load each semester.

Anderson Scholars are named in honor of James N. Anderson who served as the first dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1910-1930).

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Dean's List

At the end of each fall and spring term, the dean recognizes the outstanding academic achievement of students who are enrolled full-time and earn a grade point average of 3.75. For students to be eligible for the Dean's List, their coursework for the semester may not include any S/U grades, grade changes, or dropped courses.

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Honors

The college offers a variety of opportunities for independent and seminar honors work to those undergraduates who have demonstrated appropriate qualifications.

Superior students should take initiative in planning undergraduate and graduate programs. They should consult the honors coordinator in their department about requirements for the baccalaureate degree with honors, high honors or highest honors.

For graduation with honors, a student must attain a 3.5 overall junior/senior level average. Some majors have additional requirements. For graduation with high honors or highest honors, the student must attain an overall junior/senior level 3.5 GPA and, in addition, submit a thesis, a research project or other creative work. Upon evaluation by the department or other responsible group, the student will be recommended for high or highest honors. One copy of the thesis and an abstract must be delivered to the graduation coordinator in the Academic Advising Center (AAC) at least three days prior to graduation. Postbaccalaureate students are not eligible to receive honors recognition.

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Pre-Health/Pre-Law Students

Students interested in attending professional school (medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine or law) after completing the bachelor's degree are encouraged to seek advising from the Office of Health and Legal Professions Advising. Contact 100 AAC to make an appointment with a pre-health or pre-law advisor. Handbooks are also available on the AAC web site.

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Special Support Services

The college's Office for Academic Support and Institutional Services (OASIS) coordinates and directs support and enrichment services for all minority students enrolled in the college. Refer to the Student Services section or 200 Walker Hall for more information.

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Career Advising

The Career Resource Center employs a counselor especially for CLAS students. The counselor helps with preparation for interviews and internships, conducts interview seminars and provides information on careers for liberal arts and sciences degrees. Students should contact 392-1601, 100 JWRU, or www.crc.ufl.edu.

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Internships

Students interested in academic credit for work experience in their major should consult their department regarding internship credit.

Additional information is available from 2014 Turlington (392-6800). Information about internships is also available from the Career Resource Center. Scholarships for internships at The Washington Center (in Washington, D. C.) are available in the Honors Program Office, 140 Tigert Hall, 392-1519, www.honors.ufl.edu.

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Research Experience

In most departments, students can conduct research under the direction of a faculty member. Consult a department advisor for information about faculty research areas or search the Honors Program database for faculty research interests: www.honors.ufl.edu. Information about special funding for undergraduate research is available in 2014 Turlington. In addition, students in CLAS are eligible to apply for the University Scholars Program. Teamed with faculty mentors, University Scholars identify a topic, initiate research during the summer and continue investigation throughout the following academic year. Students chosen as University Scholars receive a $2,500 stipend and $500 for research support. For more information, check the web page, www.scholars.ufl.edu.

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Teacher Preparation

Students wishing to become certified as secondary school teachers must start by completing requirements for a liberal arts and sciences degree in the appropriate subject area. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the College of Education have designed an alternative four-year pathway to secondary school teaching, Pathways to Teaching. CLAS undergraduates with majors in Chemistry, Geology (Earth Science), French, German, Latin, Mathematics, Physics, and Spanish are eligible for the program if they combine their CLAS major with the expanded Pathways to Teaching Minor in the College of Education. For more information on this program, and other avenues to teaching in K-12, please contact Glenn Kepic in the Academic Advising Center (392-1521) or Robin Rossie in the College of Education (392-0721 ext. 400).

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Study Abroad

Students in the college are encouraged to participate in study abroad programs administered by the UF International Center. Scholarships are available. Students can meet requirements such as general education, CLAS distribution, foreign language, certain courses in the major, summer term enrollment and UF residency.

CLAS has many programs overseas for undergraduates for a semester, a summer or an academic year that provide a wide range of academic and cultural experiences.

Studying abroad, however, is more than academic. Students establish new friendships, become more fluent in a foreign language and learn about the history and traditions of the country in which they study.

For more information contact the UF International Center at 123 Grinter, 392-5323, or refer to their home page at www.ufic.ufl.edu.

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Center for Written and Oral Communication

The William and Grace Dial Center for Written and Oral Communication offers a range of courses focusing on the communications skills students need for their majors and future careers. Students interested in business, education, law and medicine can learn oral communication skills essential to success in these professions.

Juniors and seniors can also learn communications skills in Writing in the Discipline (ENC 3254), which focuses on writing in a single discipline (anthropology, communication sciences and disorders, neurobiological sciences, psychology and sociology). The course addresses the form, content and style of professional articles as well as how to prepare grant proposals, letters of application to graduate programs and potential employers and oral presentations of research.

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