A Message from the Dean
Welcome
Above the doors to Mitrani Hall, students and visitors to Sparks Building read the words, "Live to Learn, Learn to Live." The slogan reflects the mission and the balance of the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. In particular, it articulates a vision for a college
energizing the classical concerns of the liberal arts with the exigencies of our global society.
Every single Penn State student has to encounter the College of the Liberal Arts prior to graduation. Typical undergraduate students take nearly one-third of their courses in Liberal Arts, endowing us with a tremendous responsibility.
We fulfill the responsibility in many ways, through a variety of classes and experiences introducing students to aspects of the world with which they may have been unfamiliar before coming to the University. Alumni often remark about how their eyes and minds were opened by the new things learned in liberal arts classes. Such exposure remains important today.
We build on the classical foundations of the liberal arts to engage pressing issues. The College's research and teaching help to shape the future by studying human populations, history, ethics, families, crime, language, and more -from the state of our nation's ethical moorings to the burgeoning developments in cognitive neuroscience, from the continuing effects of our nation's Civil War to the multiple effects of the global spread of terrorism. In such an environment, faculty and students from diverse backgrounds come together to do the work necessary to ensure a better future.
Susan Welch
Dean, College of the Liberal Arts