Dr. Beth Wright, Dean of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Students, Faculty Shine, Achieve

We are happy to offer our sixth progress report on the people, programs, events and achievements in UT Arlington’s College of Liberal Arts. The College of Liberal Arts includes the visual and performing arts, communication and languages, humanities, and social sciences in its 12 departments. It plays a central role in The University of Texas at Arlington. Growth on our campus has broken records once again. In Spring 2012, as the University enrolled almost 33,500 undergraduate and graduate students, almost 5,000 of them are majors in the College of Liberal Arts. And virtually all students on campus, whatever their major, take our courses: from freshmen and sophomores attending introductory English, History, or Political Science classes to engineers and nurses taking classes in professional and technical writing and communication; from middle school language arts teachers studying literature to international business majors learning foreign languages. One third of all the student credit hours on UT Arlington’s campus are in College of Liberal Arts courses. College of Liberal Arts degrees are almost 20 percent of all the undergraduate degrees on our campus.

In May, our university celebrated its first commencement ceremonies in College Park Center. It was truly inspiring to see the arena filled with graduates and their cheering family and friends. Some of the loudest cheers greeted the pioneer student who was the first to earn a B.A. in Linguistics. Already more than 30 undergraduates are enrolled in this program. They are thrilled to be able to engage directly in research documenting endangered languages.

Our students hone their professional skills and engage with a wider community. This year teams of undergraduate students from the Department of Communication won prizes in national competitions in advertising and public relations. Art students exhibited their work nationally and internationally. Our team of political science and modern language majors competed successfully in Washington, D.C., in Model NATO. Another team of political science and modern language majors (undergraduates all) represented us with distinction in Vienna, Austria, in an international moot court competition in mediation: the only undergraduate team among 300 teams. And one of our undergraduates (a double major in political science and philosophy) was awarded a U.S. Department of State internship in the Vatican in Rome for Spring 2012.

There’s good reason for student achievement: our magnificent faculty. Ken Roemer (Professor of English) received the Graduate Dean’s Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring Award – the first time that a Liberal Arts faculty member has won this award. Four COLA faculty members have been designated to receive Regents Outstanding Teaching Awards, the top teaching faculty in the University of Texas System. Fulbright grants were awarded to Alusine Jalloh (Associate Professor of History and Director of the Africa Program), who is engaged in research in Sierra Leone, and Ritu Khanduri (Assistant Professor of Anthropology), who will engage in research in India. Assistant Professor of Art Ya’Ke Smith’s first full-length film, Wolf, is winning major prizes across the country. We are very proud of our exceptional faculty and the students whose education, research scholarship and creative activity are being nurtured and advanced through their efforts.

Our faculty and our students share the excitement of the discoveries they are making in the field, in the archive, in the studio, on the stage. Those skills of critical analysis and research creativity – ferreting out the information so that the important questions can be understood and solved – those are the skills which are universally and eternally needed. Our alumni tell us – teachers, lawyers, Fortune 500 CEOS – that the skills they learned as students have led to their fascinating careers and satisfying lives.

We are happy to share with you these stories of innovators and pioneers. And I invite you to learn more about us by reading our monthly e-newsletter, consulting our College of Liberal Arts and department websites, and coming to campus for an event or an exhibition. Discover our world!

Dr. Beth Wright
August 2012