Planning for Excellence: Goals and Future Directions of the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Executive Summary (PDF)
Full Plan (PDF)

Dear Colleagues, Students, Former Students, and Friends:

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is composed of 52 departments and programs, each special and unique but also with a common set of goals and purposes. The College provides a variety of learning opportunities for KU undergraduate students, opportunities that stress the development of basic quantitative and communication skills, experiences with other cultures and languages and with the humanities, exposure to the natural, mathematical, and social sciences, as well as chances to work directly with faculty who are some of the world's leading scholars in their respective fields. The College provides opportunities for undergraduate students to express and hone their creativity, enhance their ability to solve problems, develop specific expertise in one or more fields, and above all, prepare themselves for a lifetime of change that follows their KU experience.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is also actively involved in graduate education, research, scholarship, and creative activities. The College has a variety of programs that lead to the M.A., M.S., M.F.A. or Ph.D . degree. Graduate students are involved in undergraduate teaching and learning in addition to the research training they receive working side-by-side with members of one of the best faculties in the world.  As part of a comprehensive, research-intensive institution, more than 600 College faculty contribute to the accumulation of the world's knowledge through their research and scholarship in areas too numerous to list here. Equally important is the integration of the College's research mission with its teaching mission.  Undergraduates and graduate students in the College are actively involved in research, scholarship and creative activities as they prepare for their futures.

It is important for the faculty and students in the College to periodically step back and ask: Where are we going as a comprehensive College? What common goals and interests do we have in the areas of teaching and research? Are our programs current and serving the needs of the students, citizens of the State of Kansas, and national and international communities? To answer these and other questions, the College engaged in a formal strategic planning process during the 2006-2007 academic year. Departments and programs were asked to articulate their visions for the future, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make suggestions about the future. The College Dean and Associate Deans met with the faculty of all of the departments and programs, students, and alumni to discuss their visions and to get a sense of where individual units were heading and where common interests and needs could be identified. The result of this process is the strategic planning document presented here.

In this document we have identified 12 core goals and directions that will guide future planning in the College. The plan is comprehensive and ambitious. It is a vision of what the College can be and what it can do.  It reflects the shared interests of the departments and programs in the College and emphasizes interdisciplinary teaching and research, cooperation among units, and a number of new directions for program development and new opportunities for teaching and research. Will we accomplish all the goals articulated in the document? The answer is probably no, given its far reaching scope and its ambitiousness.  Nonetheless, as a College we believe it is important to define lofty goals and work toward meeting as many as possible in hopes of enhancing our national stature as an active and vibrant College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I hope you share our excitement for the future when reading this document.

With Regards,
Joseph E. Steinmetz, Dean