Welcome from the dean

Welcome to the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida State University, the oldest and largest of the university’s schools and colleges. We blend the rich liberal arts tradition of FSU with the freshest approaches to teaching and learning in a wide variety of areas. While our students can study traditional subjects like Psychology and Chemistry, they can also choose majors not offered everywhere, like Meteorology, and innovative majors like the FSU-Teach program, which is preparing a new generation of math and science teachers for our schools.

Florida State University is a Research I-Extensive university, which means that we have facilities for research, teaching and learning that are world-class. From computer labs to chemistry labs, from the library to the language labs, students have access to a wide array of cutting-edge resources. But more importantly, being a Research I university means that we have world-class faculty members. Many of the College's faculty members “wrote the book” for their subjects, figuratively and often literally. From a Pulitzer Prize winner to a Nobel laureate, the members of the College faculty include famous scholars in every discipline. Imagine being able to say that you took a course from one of the world's authorities on a subject—this is what makes a great university—and you can say that if you've taken courses in the College of Arts and Sciences.

So visit the College; if you can't see us in person, visit us through these pages. You'll sense how much we love what we do, and you'll appreciate how much fun it is to be part of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Joseph Travis
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Biological Science