LSU - College of Arts & Sciences

Arts and Sciences College Plan

Mission of the College of Arts & Sciences

To provide excellent liberal arts, interdisciplinary, and pre-professional degree programs and opportunities for research experiences to undergraduate majors.

To afford graduate students the opportunity for advanced study and research in preparation for professional careers.

To promote a high level of scholarship and to contribute significantly to the University’s status as a research intensive institution.

To offer quality instruction in support of the University’s General Education program.

To provide service to the community, state and nation through the collective expertise of its humanists, social scientists, mathematicians, and health practitioners.

2007-2008

Strategic Directions and Objectives

Strategic Direction 1: To create a challenging learning environment that enriches students' intellectual lives, develops their professional and personal abilities, and fosters civic engagement.

Objective 1.1: To increase the contact between undergraduate students and research faculty. To continue offering students one-on-one communication with professors and graduate teaching assistants, including in survey courses.

Objective 1.2: To foster the development of interdisciplinary curricula to meet the needs of students whose academic goals are broader than the majors in the college. To develop colloquia and a web page that will promote interdisciplinary research and identify graduate courses of interdisciplinary interest.

Objective 1.3: To maintain channels of communication with students and student organizations.

Objective 1.4: To support the service components of the mission of the College of Arts & Sciences Council, including those that benefit LSU students and those targeting the Baton Rouge community.

Objective 1.5: To continue to support service learning and residential college initiatives.

Objective 1.6: To increase the coordination between the college and the departments on student advising in order to serve the students well.

Objective 1.7: To improve our assessment of outcomes of the learning process.

Strategic Direction 2: To foster ethical conduct and multiculturalism.

Objective 2.1: To assist the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies to increase its offerings in the area of Ethics.

Objective 2.2: To assist the faculty in Ethics in their outreach programs in the community, particularly with the members of the medical profession.

Objective 2.3: To establish an honor code within the college in order to reduce plagiarism and other forms of cheating.

Objective 2.4: To encourage and assist faculty and students in activities that further international understanding and collaboration, including the International Studies Program.

Objective 2.5: To encourage and assist faculty and students in activities that further multiculural education, including the African and African-American Studies Program and theWomen's and Gender Studies Program.

Strategic Direction 3: To invest resources wisely.

Objective 3.1: To reallocate departmental budgets in order to meet fairly and realistically the differing needs of the departments.

Objective 3.2: To reallocate space as opportunities arise in order to reduce the crowding in departments that have grown rapidly.

Objective 3.3: To reallocate graduate assistantship budgets in order to meet the differing needs of the departments fairly and realistically and to secure additional funds from external sources to augment the budgets as needed.

Strategic Direction 4: To reward faculty and staff systematically for excellence.

Objective 4.1: To continue efforts to secure donations to support endowed professorships and chairs.

Objective 4.2: To recognize publicly all faculty receiving awards during a given year at a reception the following year.

Objective 4.3: To provide merit raises for outstanding faculty and staff as resources permit. To prioritize merit in scholarship and research when awarding annual raises.

Objective 4.4: To continue efforts to utilize funds in salary lines to allow us to retain and recruit the highest quality faculty.

Strategic Direction 5: To increase the quality and quantity of University scholarly and creative activity.

Objective 5.1: To assist faculty in identification of funding sources, both private and public, for their research.

Objective 5.2: To hire and retain the most creative and productive faculty.

Objective 5.3: To foster and support scholarly excellence and research.

Objective 5.4: To modify college policy statements regarding subventions and to reallocate resources so that scholarly productivity is supported as resources allow.

Strategic Direction 6: To be a national leader in the application of information technology and the development of library collections and services.

Objective 6.1: To encourage departments to review and upgrade their departmental requirements in computer literacy.

Objective 6.2: To support faculty efforts to improve their knowledge of the use of information technology in the classroom.

Objective 6.3: To establish and maintain connectivity for all faculty.

Strategic Direction 7: To enhance the physical infrastructure of the University.

Objective 7.1: To continue our support of restoration and preservation of the murals in Allen Hall.

Objective 7.2: To assist Facility Services by providing timely reporting of problems.

Objective 7.3: To engender in faculty and students a pride in the physical facilities of the College for the preservation of our beautiful campus.

Strategic Direction 8: To build and sustain informed support for LSU's role as Louisiana's flagship research university.

Objective 8.1: To restructure the College website, making it more informative, making it more user-friendly, emphasizing the scholarly contributions of the faculty, and accurately representing the research emphasis in the college.

Objective 8.2: To diligently send press release information to University Relations when faculty and/or students have major accomplishments.

Objective 8.3: To publish information about accomplishments of faculty, alumni and students in the newsletter distributed to alumni.

Objective 8.4: To publicize events of the college, such as Honors Convocation (recognizing student achievements), Faculty Awards Reception (recognizing faculty achievements), Professor and Donors' Brunch (recognizing donors of professorships and chairs and the faculty appointed to those positions), and Scholars and Donors Reception (recognizing donors of scholarships and their recipients).

Objective 8.5: To encourage faculty and students to be active in the community and represent LSU well in outreach projects.

Strategic Direction 9: To secure adequate private and public funds to support the mission of the university.

Objective 9.1: To increase the donations to the College through the annual fund campaign.

Objective 9.2: To increase the donations to the College for endowed professorships and chairs and for graduate assistantship enhancements.

Objective 9.3: To increase the funding of faculty scholarship and research through grants and contracts.

Objective 9.4: To provide the central administration with data helpful in securing additional resources to meet the goals of the College.