College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

LAS collaboration focus of presentation by Dean Whiteford

Collaboration, whether it was across departments, colleges and beyond campus, is prelevant throughout the faculty and programs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

That was the message given by Michael Whiteford, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS), on Friday, May 20, during a morning presentation to Iowa State's President's Council.

Whiteford said LAS was at the center of everything that Iowa State does - through its classroom instruction, research projects and outreach efforts.

"Collaboration, cooperation, synergy. These are the important roles the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provides Iowa State in a very effective manner," he said. "This college makes a major impact on all of our students."

Whiteford gave several examples of this collaboration including:

TEACHING

• Every undergraduate student takes at least 30 percent of their courses in LAS.
  
  
• LAS teaches over 385,000 contact hours every year. The next biggest college is approximately one-fifth that size.
  
  
• LAS departments, such as chemistry, physics and mathematics, teach required courses for all Colleges on campus.
  
  
• LAS collaborates with virtually every College on campus for degree programs including biological sciences (College of Agriculture), biological/pre-medical illustration (College of Design), secondary education majors (College of Education) Languages and Cultures for Professions in the Department of Foreign Languages (Colleges of Business and Engineering) and Pre-Vet Studies (College of Veterinary Medicine).
  
  
• Learning communities throughout campus relay upon LAS academic departments for linked courses.
  
  
• The Department of Music encourages participation of non-majors in every instrumental, orchestra and choral ensemble with nearly half of the total participants coming from non-LAS majors.
  
  
• This summer, a Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures study abroad program to Alicante, Spain has more than 80 particpiants making it the largest Iowa State study abroad program. The students traveling to Spain are primarily double majors with their second degrees in disciplines across campus.

RESEARCH

• LAS faculty are key players in a number of interdisciplinary centers and institutes on campus including the Ames Laboratoy, Plant Sciences Institute, the Institute of Science and Society, the Institute for Socail and Behavioral Research, the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities, the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods, and the new Center for American Intercultural Studies.
  
  
• LAS faculty conduct numerous collaborative research efforts with other colleges and departments, not only on campus, but throughout the world. Whiteford gave an example of Max Morris, professor of statistics, who has provided statistical analysis for such diverse projects as cardiac risk in the chemistry of water, human bone marrow system, and working with engineers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to look at the bizarre chemistry that occurs when a reactor melts down.

Whiteford also highlighted the College's outstanding faculty who have received awards and recognitions in the past two years. He also indicated that the research that LAS faculty were conducting was changing lives, changing minds and changing practices including:

• Gary Wells, Distinguished Professor of liberal arts and sciences and professor of psychology, for his ground-breaking research on eyewitness identification.


• Alicia Carriquiry, professor of statistics, for her work determining agencies can't match bullets used in crimes to unspent bullets in possession of suspects.


• George Kraus, University Professor of chemistry, for his discovery of an additive that will make production of meth more difficult.


• Doug Gentile, assistant professor of psychology, who's media violence reseacrch looks at how the media affects children.


• Matt DeLisi, assistant professor of sociology, and his research on how a small, but dangerous group of repeat offenders commit the most crimes and are most damaging to society.


• Paul Spry, professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, who for the past decade has worked with the Iowa DOT studying de-icing effects on Iowa's concrete highways.

The complete PowerPoint presentation is available at www.las.iastate.edu/newnews/prezcouncil05.ppt.

 

Michael Whiteford

Ames, Iowa 50011, (515) 294-4111. Published by: University Relations, online@iastate.edu. Copyright © 1995-2004, Iowa State University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.

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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Ames, Iowa 50011-1302

General Information: (515) 294-7740

Academic Advising: (515) 294-4831

Email: las@iastate.edu

Michael Whiteford - Dean

Bret Larwick - Director of Technology

Dave Gieseke - Director of Communications