ASU at the Tempe campus
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences — CLAS — Creating Critical Connections
- A distinguished national and international center of learning and research in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences with more than 50 schools, departments, research centers and institutes.
- Scholars tackling an array of contemporary issues from cancer to urban ecology; the origins of human life to the possibility of life on other planets; border and immigration issues to the dynamics of social and family interactions.
- A driving force in the community, the state and throughout the world — serving more than 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students annually, preparing citizens for an increasingly sophisticated and global society.
The excellence of CLAS — a vibrant force in building the future of the community, the state, the nation and beyond — is widely recognized. Since 1991, CLAS students have won two Rhodes scholarships, 21 Goldwater scholarships, nine Marshall scholarships, 12 Truman scholarships and nine Udall scholarships to give ASU one of the best records in the country for winning prestigious national scholarship competitions. In fall 2005, nearly 40 percent of the university’s National Merit Scholars were enrolled in the college.
CLAS faculty represent 70 percent of the regents’ professors at ASU and have been awarded nearly $71 million in externally funded research awards over the past year. CLAS schools and research centers are setting new standards for excellence and relevance in transdisciplinary research and scholarship.
Student success is of paramount importance in CLAS and is fostered through a myriad efforts including learning communities for first year students (with a retention rate of 83 percent) and special initiatives for first generation and undergraduate research scholarships. Students can choose their future from more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics.
With more than 75,000 alumni throughout the world, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences exemplifies ASU’s goals of excellence, access and impact.