The Individual and Society. The Organism and the Ecosystem. The Student, the Classroom, and the Community. The Mind and the Body. The Firm and the Economy. Justice and Fairness. The Academic and the Practical. The Traditional and the Innovative. The Local and the Global. The Atom and the Universe.
These are a sampling of the meaningful subjects we study and apply in the College of Liberal Arts, Sciences, Business, and Education or CLASBE (Pronounced Claz-Bee). We house over 40 undergraduate majors and education certification programs, 20 graduate programs, and around a dozen advanced certificates and graduate extensions. We are also home to multiple centers of interfaith studies and dialogue.
What unites this innovative and diverse gathering of academic areas is that we are a community of students, faculty, and staff who promote the interrelatedness of the knowledge of our fields. We have a thirst for understanding the fundamental building blocks of knowledge that make up the liberal arts and sciences and to share and apply our knowledge with the broader world.
In our School of Business and Leadership, which emphasizes traditional business principles, innovative leadership strategies, and emerging technologies, we prepare students to excel in the global marketplace, shaped by their understanding of economics and ethical business and leadership practices.
Application of knowledge takes place in our award-winning teacher preparation programs in the School of Education, which prepares inclusive, effective, and change-oriented educators.
In fact, any of our undergraduate and graduate programs teach directly applicable knowledge — for the workforce and for a life filled with thought, reflection, and action. Experiential learning is infused into all of our programs and encourages us to put academic study into action, with an ethical mind and a commitment to inclusivity. In this way, academic learning — valuable in itself — is enhanced by the opportunity to apply it in various experiential learning activities.
As the founding dean of CLASBE, I am impressed and humbled by our students, faculty, and staff who embody the ideals of their disciplines. With over 100 full-time faculty and staff and over 1,000 students majoring in our programs, I am often in awe at the wonderful diversity of people and thought that exists in CLASBE. What this means is that CLASBE is a place that encourages you to explore anything you want to learn; and we help you to create an informed, meaningful, and rewarding life.