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A university education, properly realized, must be built upon an intellectually broadening program of study in the liberal arts. As critic Mark Van Doren has observed, "Liberal education makes the person competent-not merely to know or do, but also, and indeed chiefly, to be." The essential curriculum of a college education, Van Doren explained, teaches students to learn progressively the arts of investigation, discovery, criticism, and communication. The Florida State University’s liberal studies curriculum, which is grounded firmly in courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, helps to develop these crucial intellectual values and critical skills in all undergraduate students. Majors in the College of Arts and Sciences, furthermore, enjoy the privileges and benefits of developing a richer appreciation of the humanities and the sciences-an appreciation that enhances the quality of students lives morally, intellectually, and professionally.
The oldest college at the University, the College of Arts and Sciences has provided generations of undergraduate students instruction in the liberal arts disciplines that are essential for intellectual development and personal growth: English and mathematics, history, the humanities, and the physical, biological, and behavioral sciences. At the graduate level, too, the contributions of the College of Arts and Sciences have been integral with the growth of the University. The first recorded masters degree at the Florida State College for Women was awarded by the College of Arts and Sciences in 1911, and the first doctorate at The Florida State University was awarded in chemistry in 1952.
Over the decades, various professional schools have been established at the University, and several colleges and schools have separated from the College of Arts and Sciences to become individual administrative entities. Today, 75 percent of the Liberal Studies Program and over 40 percent of University instruction, generally, are offered by the College of Arts and Sciences. Furthermore, the college conducts a large percentage of the sponsored research at the University. Currently, the College of Arts and Sciences annually awards the largest number of doctoral degrees at the University.
The College of Arts and Sciences comprises 19 departments, 17 centers and institutes, and 11 interdisciplinary programs. In addition to awarding bachelor of science (BS), bachelor of arts (BA), master of science (MS), master of arts (MA), and doctor of philosophy (PhD) degrees, and heavily supporting the Liberal Studies Program, the College of Arts and Sciences offers an extensive array of foundation courses for preprofessional and professional programs.
College of Arts and Sciences faculty have earned national and international recognition for research, teaching, and distinguished service to the profession. The faculty of the college has included seven members of the National Academy of Sciences, three Nobel Laureates, a Pulitzer Prize winner, directors of national commissions, university presidents, and numerous winners of other national or international honors. Locally, University committees have named several arts and sciences faculty Daisy Parker Flory and McKenzie Professors, and more than two dozen of the colleges faculty have been selected University Distinguished Professors. More than 150 arts and sciences faculty members have won University Teaching and Advising awards, Developing Scholar awards, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Scholar awards.
Students in the College of Arts and Sciences have been recipients of a wide variety of honors, including a Rhodes Scholarship, Time Magazine and Rotary awards, McKnight and Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowships, professional society scholarships, and other nationally recognized awards. Among the graduates of the college are scientists, writers, doctors, chief executive officers of major corporations, lawyers, school and college teachers and administrators, and other highly regarded professionals.
The College of Arts and Sciences is housed in 21 buildings on the main campus and at off-campus field stations. Arts and sciences research activities are conducted at various locations around the world-from an archaeological site in Cetamura, Italy, to the Antarctic. Special facilities of the college include the Van de Graaf Nuclear Accelerator, the Proton-Induced X-Ray Emission Laboratory , the Statistical Consulting Center, and the Marine Laboratory on Apalachicola Bay. In addition, the National Park Services Southeast Archaeological Center is a major repository of artifacts heavily used by anthropology majors. The college also staffs a large number of other specialized research and teaching laboratories: computer laboratories, radioisotope laboratories, a nuclear magnetic resonance lab, fluid dynamics and ocean modeling labs, language and writing labs, and other facilities. Faculty and students from several departments and programs in arts and sciences conduct research on the supercomputer and other large-scale computers at the Supercomputer Computations Research Institute. The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Innovation Park also provides superb research experiences for faculty and students. Many departments maintain their own libraries of journals, books, and reference materials.
Departments in the College of Arts and Sciences work with various programs, schools, and colleges to offer cooperative and interdisciplinary degree programs. For example, majors in the college may pursue bachelor of arts (BA) degrees in English or modern languages with an emphasis in business, and they may apply for the one-year joint baccalaureate/MBA program. Editing internships in the Department of English offer excellent preprofessional experience; the secondary science and/or mathematics teaching major certifies students to teach in two discipline areas, and several science departments provide hands-on research opportunities for undergraduates. Humanities, American studies, and Latin American and Caribbean studies majors are taught by faculty from several departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. An arts and sciences major may minor in journalism through the cooperative program offered with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Students in arts and sciences help to edit and publish two campus literary magazines and often work on the staff of the Florida Flambeau . Additionally, administrators, faculty, and students in arts and sciences are major participants in the Florence and London overseas study programs.
The College of Arts and Sciences sponsors the Bryan Hall Learning Community, an academic opportunity available to first-year students. The Bryan Hall experience integrates residential life and academic life in a way that is unique on the University campus. Those seeking more information should inquire of the University Housing Office.
Students in the College of Arts and Sciences are eligible for various types of scholarships and grants administered centrally by the University. Specifically within the college, the Uhrhan Scholarship provides a two-year award for an outstanding rising junior majoring in mathematics, physics, or modern languages. The College of Arts and Sciences also gives an award to every major elected as a junior to Phi Beta Kappa. All departments in the college administer undergraduate scholarship and award programs.
All students must meet the University-wide baccalaureate degree requirements summarized in the Undergraduate Degree Requirements section of this General Bulletin . In addition, all students receiving a degree from the College of Arts and Sciences must satisfy the requirements listed in the following paragraphs. In order to enroll in the College of Arts and Sciences, an undergraduate must be certified by the Division of Undergraduate Studies or be a transfer student with fifty-two (52) or more semester hours of accepted credit. Admission to the College of Arts and Sciences requires at least a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) in prior academic work. Since individual departments may stipulate higher admission standards, students should consult the appropriate section of this General Bulletin for specific requirements.
Students who wish to pursue graduate study in the College of Arts and Sciences must apply through the Office of Admissions and must be accepted for graduate study by the intended department or program. Those interested in graduate work in the college should therefore consult the College of Arts and Sciences entry and departmental or program sections of the Graduate Bulletin .Students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences may concurrently prepare for, and become certified in, various professional programs. This is made possible by the cooperation of professional schools within the University with various College of Arts and Sciences departments that have established programs with special emphasis in certain professional areas.
Liberal Studies . All areas of liberal studies must be satisfactorily completed. Students must have an overall GPA of at least 2.0 in their liberal studies courses. Students who entered the upper division after summer 1983 must have a C- or better in each course in Areas I, II, and IV. Note : students who entered the University with an associate of arts (AA) degree from a Florida community college must have completed at least six (6) semester hours of English composition, three (3) semester hours of mathematics, three (3) semester hours of history, six (6) semester hours of humanities, and six (6) semester hours of natural sciences in order to satisfy College of Arts and Sciences requirements. Students who did not complete these courses at their previous institution will need to do so at the University.
Foreign Language . The College of Arts and Sciences requires that bachelor of arts and bachelor of science students be proficient at the intermediate level in one language other than English. Students may satisfy the requirement by completing course work through the 2000 level (2200 or equivalent course) of a classical or modern foreign language. Those with a 2.5 GPA may take these courses on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) basis, so long as they meet the University deadline for declaring this intention. A student taking course work to fulfill the colleges foreign language requirement must earn at least a C-. Hours used to fulfill the foreign language requirement may not be counted toward a major or a minor. For exceptions to this policy, students should contact the College of Arts and Sciences. Native speakers of another language and other students who wish to demonstrate proficiency by means other than course work should consult the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics.
Please note that the colleges classical or modern foreign language requirement is more extensive than the University’s foreign language admissions requirement. It is important to understand that, although completion of two years of high school foreign language courses or two semesters of postsecondary foreign language will satisfy the University’s admissions requirement, these courses do not satisfy the College of Arts and Sciences foreign language graduation requirements for BA and BS students. Please consult the Admissions section of this General Bulletin for more information.
The Florida State University does not currently offer modern foreign language or classical language instruction at the Panama City campus. Therefore, students pursuing BA or BS degrees in the College of Arts and Sciences at the Panama City campus may count as part of their sixty (60) semester hours of senior institution work a maximum of twelve (12) semester hours of courses taken at Gulf Coast Community College to satisfy the language requirement. These hours will count toward the sixty (60) semester hours only if they are taken subsequent to the students enrollment as juniors and seniors at the Panama City campus.
Summer Requirement . Students who enter one of the ten state universities with fewer than sixty (60) semester hours of transfer credit must complete nine (9) semester hours of course work during the summer at any of the ten State University System (SUS) institutions. Requests for waivers of the summer requirement (normally for reasons of regular summer employment) must be approved in the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences and by the Dean of the Faculties.
Upper-Level Course Work . Students must complete at least forty (40) semester hours of 3000/4000 level courses to receive their degree. Courses transferred from another school may count toward this requirement if the equivalent Florida State University course was numbered 3000 or above at the time the course was taken.
Senior Institution Hours . At least sixty (60) semester hours of course work must be completed at a senior institution (i.e., not a community college).
Repeated Courses . Credit can only be given one time per course. If, for example, a student receives a D grade in a course and then repeats it, even when doing so under the forgiveness policy, the student will not receive duplicate credit. This will most frequently affect a students total hours and/or upper-level hours.
Physical Activity and Other Activity Courses. The University will allow a maximum of two (2) semester hours of physical activity courses to count toward a degree (e.g., tennis, sailing). Students who attended a community college and received an AA may have already taken two (2) or more semester hours in this area. The University will not take away any hours from an AA; however, any additional courses taken in this area after the AA may not count toward the total hours needed to graduate from The Florida State University. No more than eight (8) semester hours can be taken in applied music, physical activity, or office skills courses, combined.
Minor . Most majors in the College of Arts and Sciences also require a completed minor. Exceptions include Latin American and Caribbean studies/business, secondary science/math teaching, humanities, foreign language/business, and English/business majors. Students completing a double major do not have to complete a minor. Students pursuing two degrees (dual certificate or a second baccalaureate degree) must have a separate minor for each degree that is awarded by this college. If one of the degrees is to be awarded by another college in the University, that deans office will specify any minor requirements. While many minors require only twelve (12) semester hours, others require as many as eighteen (18) semester hours. No courses used for satisfying liberal studies requirements or a major may also be counted toward the minor. Normally, the students minor will be in a different department than the major. In a few cases it may be possible to take the minor in a different program, but within the same department, as the major. Students wanting to pursue that possibility must consult with their departments.
Grade Point Average . The University requires students to have a GPA of at least 2.0 in order to receive a bachelors degree. Certain programs have established required exit GPAs that are above the 2.0 level; please consult the individual departmental listings.
Residency . A students final thirty (30) semester hours must be completed in residence at The Florida State University. Petitions for waivers of this requirement must document unusual circumstances and be submitted through the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences prior to a review by the Dean of the Faculties. Students taking courses at another senior institution or by correspondence must request that a final official copy of their grades immediately be sent to the University. These grades must be added to the University transcript before the degree can be posted.
Incomplete Grades . I grades completed after the degree is posted will not be recorded. The I will simply remain an I.
CLAST . Unless students are exempt, they must show passing scores on all sections of the College Level Academic Skills Test. For exceptions, students should contact the College of Arts and Sciences Office of the Dean.
Course Load . In order to graduate in four years, students should take an average of fifteen (15) semester hours each fall and spring semester unless they are affected by the nine (9) semester hour summer attendance policy. In this case, they can take fourteen (14) semester hours each fall and spring and nine (9) semester hours over one or more summer terms and still graduate in four calendar years.
Community College Course Work . Please note that students cannot earn transfer credit for community college courses after they have been awarded an AA degree from a community college. Also, even if students have not already earned the AA, they still may not earn transfer credit for any community college courses taken during their final thirty (30) semester hours at The Florida State University. See the Foreign Language section above for exceptions to this policy for students at the Panama City campus.
Requirements for the Major . Each candidate for the baccalaureate degree must complete major requirements in one of the following departmental or interdepartmental fields. The major normally consists of eighteen to thirty-six (1836) semester hours depending on the department in question. See departmental entries for specific requirements.If courses from the major department are used to meet the liberal studies requirements, no more than four (4) semester hours of these Liberal Studies courses may also be counted toward the major requirements.
Exit interviews or surveys. Each department in the College of Arts and Sciences is required to conduct appropriate exit interviews or surveys of graduating students. In some departments, eligibility for graduation may be based on completion of the exit interview or survey.
| Humanities Area | Natural Sciences Area |
| Classics | Anthropology |
| English | Biochemistry |
| French | Biological science |
| German | Chemical science |
| Greek | Chemistry |
| History | Computer science |
| Italian | Geology |
| Latin | Mathematics |
| Philosophy | Meteorology |
| Religion | Physics |
| Russian | Psychology |
| Spanish | Statistics |
The following interdisciplinary courses are taught by science faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences. These courses may be taken as undergraduate elective credit. Some departments also include these courses among elective hours within the major.
ISC 2003. Global Change, Its Scientific and Human Dimensions (3) . Prerequisites: Two years high school science, two years high school math. Global environmental change, scientific and human dimensions, and international public policy implications.
ISC 3121. Science, Technology, and Society (3) . Prerequisite: Junior standing or instructor permission. The role played by science and technology in American society is considered by examining the organization of the scientific enterprise, the realities of scientific life vs. portrayals of scientists in the media, how science is funded, its economic and its intellectual significance, dilemmas posed by progress in science and technology, and societal conditions under which science flourishes. This course cannot be used as credit toward a major or minor in a science department.
PSC 2800C. Earth Science for EC/EE Teachers (4) . This course is designed for prospective elementary and early childhood education majors. The course integrates geology, oceanography, and meteorology with the laboratory integral to the course. Students will work in groups in a hands-on, minds-on approach to learning earth science.
PSC 2801C. Physical Science for EC/EE Teachers (4) . This course is designed for prospective elementary and early childhood education majors. The course integrates physics and chemistry with the laboratory integral to the course. Students will work in groups in a hands-on, minds-on approach to learning physical science.
SCE 4939r. Seminar in Contemporary Science and Science Education (1). Presentation on current or otherwise interesting issues in science, mathematics, or teaching methods. Content of course will vary from semester to semester. May be repeated to a maximum of four (4) semester hours.
The College of Arts and Sciences secondary science and/or mathematics teaching major and all of the undergraduate teacher education programs in the College of Education, in art education (School of Visual Arts and Dance), and in music education (School of Music) require a 2.5 grade point average (GPA) on a 4.0 scale for entrance into their programs. These requirements became effective fall semester 1989.
The Florida State University is committed to increasing the proportion of teacher candidates who have historically been underrepresented among Florida’s public school teachers. Applicants representing such groups will be considered for exceptions to the general admissions criteria.
A student completing a second bachelors degree in the College of Arts and Sciences must complete at least thirty (30) semester hours at The Florida State University, in addition to the required hours for the first degree. The student must complete a new major and a new minor (with no overlap between these and the first major and minor), and demonstrate satisfaction of the College of Arts and Sciences foreign language requirement. Note : To distinguish between second baccalaureates and second majors, see the appropriate paragraph under Undergraduate Degree Requirements in this General Bulletin.
The College of Arts and Sciences offers honors in the major in all departmental and interdepartmental programs. For requirements and other information, see the University Honors Program and Honor Societies section of this General Bulletin.