Overview of the College

Since 1805, the College of Arts and Sciences has been the intellectual core of the University of South Carolina, entrusted to provide superb teaching in the arts and sciences to all students. The college is a richly diverse community dedicated to the discovery, dissemination, and application of knowledge about the natural and human world. The college is committed to enriching the academic experience of every graduate and undergraduate student through a wide and innovative array of courses, programs, and opportunities in the arts, humanities, and sciences, and to excelling in research, scholarship, and creative activity. With its broad coverage of academic disciplines, the college is uniquely situated to promote opportunities for graduate and undergraduate student research and interdisciplinary and international learning. As the heart of a major research university, the college is a catalyst for positive change in the local community, the state, the nation, and the world. The College of Arts and Sciences aspires to transform the lives of our students and improve the world they will inhabit by creating and sharing knowledge at the frontiers of inquiry.

Undergraduate study in the College of Arts and Sciences is rooted in the great tradition of liberal education. A liberal education is necessarily broad, comprising study and experience in the arts, humanities, mathematical sciences, natural sciences, and social and behavioral sciences. Such an education prepares students to reason analytically and to think critically, to communicate effectively, to expand their creative and intellectual capacities, to comprehend the relationship between humans and the natural world, to appreciate the promises and limitations of technology, and to understand the connections among diverse cultures, ways of processing knowledge, and forms of human expression. Curricula in the college, both general education and major programs of study, support these aims.

The College of Arts and Sciences consists of the Departments of Anthropology; Biological Sciences; Chemistry and Biochemistry; Criminology and Criminal Justice; English Language and Literature; Geography; History; Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Mathematics; Philosophy; Physics and Astronomy; Political Science; Psychology; Religious Studies; Sociology; Statistics; and Theatre and Dance, as well as the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment and the School of Visual Art and Design. Programs that offer undergraduate degrees include African American Studies, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, Environment and Sustainability, Film and Media Studies, Global Studies, Marine Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Through departmental and interdepartmental programs in these areas, the college offers the undergraduate degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies, and Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. The college also offers both a Bachelor or Arts and a Bachelor of Science degree program in Economics as well as a degree program in Cardiovascular Technology that combines 100 semester hours of academic work with a clinical program at an accredited hospital.

Additional programs that may offer undegraduate courses and opportunities include African Studies, Asian Studies, Islamic World Studies, Linguistics, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Southern Studies, and Speech Communication and Rhetoric. The Departments of Aerospace Studies, Military Science, and Naval Science administer the University’s ROTC programs.

In addition to serving students majoring in any of the established arts and sciences disciplines, the constituent departments and programs of the College of Arts and Sciences offer courses included in the general degree requirements and elective options for all baccalaureate students at the University. Units of the college also participate actively in the South Carolina Honors College.

The School of Visual Art and Design is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD.) The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been approved by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Committee on Professional Training, and the curriculum for the Bachelor of Science in Chemistry meets ACS requirements. In the Department of Psychology, the graduate degrees in Clinical/Community Psychology are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA); graduate degrees in School Psychology are accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) through a partnership with the National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE.) The Master of Public Administration degree offered by the Department of Political Science is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA.) The Department of Theatre and Dance is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) and the University/Resident Theatre Association (URTA.) Through selected degree programs, the College of Arts and Sciences participates in the teacher education programs of the University that are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.