A Word from the Dean

Since 1924, Nazareth College has been committed to the value and centrality of the liberal arts and sciences. Today, the College of Arts and Sciences remains the largest of the four schools at Nazareth, offering more than 40 majors and programs; we also teach most of the College’s core curriculum.Liberally educated people ask good questions: they learn to see knowledge and the world from multiple perspectives, acknowledging our long, shared, human past, and negotiating a complex present and future. At Nazareth, you will study philosophy,literature, history, mathematics, religion, the social and natural sciences, and the visual and performing arts. You will hone your writing and research skills and study a modern foreign language; we hope that you will study abroad. Moreover, Nazareth integrates liberal and professional studies, encouraging you to apply them experientially through internships, practica, or service-learning in ways that deepen your ethical insights and sharpen your competence in whatever career path you choose.

Nazareth’s core curriculum will help you to identify questions we call “enduring” because they pervade our lives and relationships across cultures. Liberally educated people learn the different ways that the disciplines pose and approach problems, and how they ask and attempt to answer questions. As effective critical thinkers and skilled problem-solvers, you will have not only the content knowledge of your discipline, but also the cognitive ability to analyze and synthesize information in new ways. You learn to become a creator of knowledge, not merely to imitate what others know. The creativity of liberally educated people is a signature of a Nazareth College education.

Dr. Deborah Dooley ’75
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences