The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) is an intellectually engaging teaching and learning environment. CLAS faculty and students have a work ethic and passion for learning that helps them make significant contributions to the development of just, humane, and sustainable communities locally and globally. Early access to faculty expectations, robust and coherent programs of study, compelling intellectual engagement with ideas, faculty and student peers, are hallmarks of CLAS. Intensely engaging classes permit individualized learning and collaborative pedagogical approaches in academic programs that systematically provide richer, deeper, broader and more meaningful knowledge and career opportunities. In CLAS, professional advisors and faculty mentors provide students with individualized support in preparation for their professional futures following graduation, including graduate and professional school.
Within and across CLAS to the College of Art and Design (LA+D), our goal is to educate students for life-long learning, the generation of new ideas and knowledge, and careers in the pursuit of a better world. CLAS departments offer the majority of courses in the general education curriculum. This innovative, contemporary curriculum is organized around 21st century outcomes that prepares students for a wide variety of careers, lifelong learning, and engaged global citizenship. Teacher education candidates and students with aspirations to enter PhD programs immediately or enter the world of work, will do so armed with foundational knowledge of their disciplines, applied learning within and across programs of study, and a life-long curiosity for learning and effective community engagement.
Toward a Future of Excellence
Students develop academic and professional skills in an environment that supports and promotes intellectual and individual growth. Along with the students enrolled in the BFA and BA programs at the College of Art and Design, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences students live and study in a setting of 1,900 on-campus undergraduate students. Additionally, as part of a larger university that includes graduate programs, we offer students the resources of a major higher education institution of 6,000 students while providing the advantages of a small college community. Students have access to the faculty and courses of the University's various schools, including the opportunity to develop creative and independent programs of study that challenge and support their learning goals and plans. The decision to maintain a small college setting reflects the conviction that our community educates students in a personalized way, and the commitment that every Lesley student be perceived, and know, that they are a vital member of the University.
Running through the rich diversity of the college is a pervasive and unifying theme: what you do matters. The philosophy endorses the notion that each student should be encouraged to strive for one's personal best. The curriculum and community are informed by one guiding purpose: to provide all Lesley students with an exceptional opportunity to make an impact through the development of leadership skills, creative problem solving, and solid theoretical and hands-on preparation to influence the communities and people with whom they will work.
Degree Programs
More than 25 degree programs lead to either the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) or the Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree. These programs combine liberal arts and professional study with practical field experience that may begin in the very first year. Students choose or create majors that integrate or combine liberal arts coursework with the theoretical and practical foundations of professional preparation in their chosen field. Students also have the opportunity to explore new areas of academic study through elective courses, independent study, and experiential learning. The College also offers two graduate degrees, the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and the Master of Social Work (MSW), as well as two certificate programs, the Certificate in Holistic Health and Wellness and the Certificate in Child Homelessness Studies.
In conjunction with the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, there are several accelerated and dual programs available to students: the B.S./M.A. program in Art Therapy, the B.S./M.A. program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, the B.S./M.A. in Expressive Art Therapies: Dance Movement Therapy Specialization and Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Dance Movement, and the B.S./M.A. in Expressive Arts Therapy. In conjunction with the Graduate School of Education there are B.A./M.Ed. programs that prepare students to teach in four licensure areas. See specific program sections of this catalog and the Graduate Academic Catalog for a more detailed explanation of the curriculum and degree requirements.