2023-2024 Academic Catalog

College of Arts and Sciences

Student and professor studying science artifact

Danielle M. Poe, Dean
V. Denise James, Associate Dean
Carissa Krane, Associate Dean
Michelle C. Pautz, Associate Dean
Cynthia A. Payne, Assistant Dean
Cynthia T. Shafer, Assistant Dean
Kimberly A. Trick, Assistant Dean
Versalle F. Washington, Assistant Dean

The College of Arts and Sciences is a distinctive learning community that forms the vital center of the University of Dayton. In the finest tradition of liberal education, the College is committed to excellence in the discovery, integration, dissemination and application of knowledge. Academic programs provide instruction in critical thinking and expression, social and cultural criticism, computation, scientific reasoning, the creative and performing arts, historical analysis, and religious and moral awareness. The College of Arts and Sciences takes as its mission the Marianist principle of educating the whole person and enabling all members of our learning community to fulfill their potential.

The faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences demonstrate connected learning and scholarship by integrating teaching, research and service. They engage students from across the University in this process through traditional and innovative approaches to learning. The faculty understand that the principles of liberal education emerge not only from the classroom, studio and laboratory, but also from the many resources the students have within their reach: advisement; mentoring; campus ministry; social and professional clubs and societies; campus media and publications; fine arts events; and membership on departmental and campus-wide committees where students gain experience in working with others and contribute to the wider University community. Taken together, these dimensions of liberal education form the basis for lifelong intellectual, professional and personal growth.

The College of Arts and Sciences affirms its commitment to the Catholic and Marianist tradition. In humanities and social science programs, in the physical and life sciences, and in the creative and performing arts, the College strives to ensure that its graduates are distinguished by their discernment and intellectual rigor, their broad base of learning, and their sense of moral responsibility. And through their participation in a vital learning community, the College ensures the graduates will be distinguished by their appreciation and respect for diversity, their commitment to service, and their ability to positively affect individual lives and the common good.