The College of Arts and Sciences

HENRY A. KURTZ, Ph.D., Dean
Room 107, Scates Hall
(901)678-3067
http://cas.memphis.edu

PURPOSES

The College of Arts and Sciences has three distinct functions within the framework of the University.

1) Its primary function is to offer a strong liberal arts program designed to help the students prepare themselves for life in their own cultural setting by acquiring the means and desire to continue the processes of intellectual development and character formation throughout their lives. "The purpose of education," wrote John Stuart Mill, "is to make capable and cultivated human beings." "Education has for its object the formation of character," wrote Herbert Spencer. We believe that people are people, no matter what their careers, and that if we can help people to become more capable and sensible, they will have better careers and lives. It is our belief that the best preparation for any profession or vocation is a thorough foundation in those major fields of human interest, which are included in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. A program of liberal studies at the University of Memphis aims to provide the students with a store of factual knowledge, to introduce them to varying sets of principles, to stimulate them to think about and evaluate facts and principles, and to encourage them to order their own affairs and those of their society with the talent, insight, and discrimination they develop.

2) The College of Arts and Sciences offers this kind of education to the candidates for its own degrees, and to the students of other colleges of the University, all of whose degree plans call for courses in the arts and sciences.

3) The college offers preparatory courses for students interested in careers in medicine, dentistry, nursing, teaching, law and other professions; specific pre-professional programs, designed to prepare students to qualify for admission to professional schools, are available.