College of Liberal Arts
The College of Liberal Arts offers Master of Arts programs in the following fields: English, History, and Clinical Psychology. Additionally, it offers the Master of Public Administration. In support of these programs, the college provides graduate courses in the humanities, and the social sciences. Career-oriented courses for teachers are provided in teacher certification areas.
Graduate programs offered by the College of Liberal Arts are designed to provide opportunities for students to engage in academic study at advanced levels. Knowledgeable and professionally active faculty guide students through their cognate disciplines and fields, produce creative and critical works of high quality, and practice the skills and techniques of their disciplines. Emphasis is placed both on the acquisition and on the generation of knowledge.
The college’s graduate degree programs value excellence, and to achieve this end the college seeks to attract students of high potential from diverse backgrounds and encourages intellectual inquiry and creative/scholarly engagement and production.
College of Liberal Arts:
- Our college values learning that results from purposeful relationships within vibrant and dynamic communities.
- Our college values learning that affects the whole individual through all aspects of our humanity (from the emotive to the rational).
- Our college values learning that produces responsible citizens who engage in the communities around them.
- Our college values learning that engages in research and produces scholarship which extends knowledge and, through this, our regional, national, and global reputations.
Program Admission, Continuance, and Completion Requirements
Students in graduate programs in the College of Liberal Arts must meet the minimum standards for admission, continuance, and completion specified by the University, as well as any additional criteria required by the degree program.
All graduate programs in the College of Liberal Arts require students to complete exit requirements. These may vary from written or oral examinations to capstone courses and theses. The exit requirements shall be rigorous and appropriate to the specific discipline. A student must successfully complete the exit requirements described in the course of study to graduate with an advanced degree.
A student on enforced withdrawal may not enroll in any graduate program for a minimum of 12 consecutive months. Please see “Scholastic Probation and Enforced Withdrawal” in the catalog section entitled “Graduate Academic and Degree Requirements.”
Student Responsibility
Each student working toward a graduate degree is responsible for meeting the requirements outlined in the degree plan. The student is also responsible for meeting all deadlines: program application, examination, and graduation application. If the deadlines for examination and graduation application are not met, the student will not graduate that semester. In no instance will a student be admitted to degree candidacy without an approved and completed degree plan on file in the office of the college Dean. Amendments to the degree plan must be proposed by the student and approved by the degree committee or program advisor and the college Dean.
Course Load
A student registered for 9 semester hours or more is considered a full-time student. It is recommended that no more than 12 semester hours should be taken in a regular semester or 6 semester hours during each summer term. A student employed full time should not register for more than 6 semester hours in a regular long semester or 3 semester hours in a summer term.
Conditional Admission
To earn a graduate degree, a student who has been accepted conditionally into a program in the College of Liberal Arts must fulfill the requirements of the conditional admission set by the program’s admission committee, as well as all university and college degree requirements. For more information on conditional admission, see “Graduate Student Admission Classifications” in the “Admissions” section of the catalog.
Non-Degree Seeking Status
Students classified as non-degree seeking may take graduate courses in the College of Liberal Arts with the approval of the Dean. They also must meet the minimum requirements set by the University for admission. Priority for class enrollment will be given to degree-eligible students. In addition, non-degree seeking students must be approved for registration by the chair of the department offering the course or courses they wish to study. Those students needing additional professional development beyond one semester must seek permission from the Dean of the college. No more than 9 semester hours earned as a non-degree seeking student may be counted toward the requirements for any graduate program in the College of Liberal Arts.
Graduate Courses
The Courses A-Z section of the catalog lists the complete course inventory in each teaching area. When registering, the student should always consult the Semester Schedule, which contains the specific course offerings for that term.