2016 Mile Markers
The College of Liberal Arts is a diverse, energetic, and passionate community of students, faculty, alumni, and staff, dedicated to advancing society and driven by our passion to serve and make a difference at home and throughout the world. We find answers in the wisdom of the past, the data of the now, and in the elevation of the human condition. TOGETHER WE ARE SHATTERING EXPECTATIONS OF WHAT A LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE CAN BE.
SHATTERING EXPECTATIONS The driving vision in the College’s Roadmap is to transform the College of Liberal Arts into a destination college. We are determined to have CLA on the short list for students across the country and, indeed, around the world when they are thinking of the preeminent places to earn their degrees. We are determined to have the College be widely known as one of the absolute best locations for faculty and staff to build their careers. We want the College of Liberal Arts to be among the first institutions considered when organizations, agencies, groups, and firms from the local to the global are seeking to engage with a higher education partner. And we want our alumni to think of CLA as their intellectual home base, a place where they can engage with each other, with students, and with leading researchers and artists. The 2015-16 academic year saw some significant progress around our four Roadmap goals of improving student readiness, strengthening research and creative activities, expanding engagement opportunities, and building a more diverse and inclusive community.
CLA BY THE NUMBERS FALL 2016 31 ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS AND 13 COLLEGIATE RESEARCH CENTERS 69 UNDERGRADUATE MAJORS AND 68 MINORS 56 GRADUATE MAJORS AND 37 MINORS 3 GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS
15,407 TOTAL STUDENT ENROLLMENT 13,698 undergraduate students 2,643 freshmen 3,403 sophomores 3,311 juniors 4,341 seniors 1,624 graduate students 85 non-degree students
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS Number enrolled: 13,698 Fall 2015 freshmen who returned in fall 2016: 91.5% Class of 2020 who are on track to graduate in four years: 99.5% Five-year graduation rate (Class of 2014): 71.8% Six-year graduation rate (Class of 2013): 73.4%
GRADUATE STUDENTS Number enrolled: 1,624 Degrees awarded (2014-15): 396
CLA FACULTY & STAFF Total employee headcount: 1,377 Faculty total: 536 Faculty FTE: 514 Faculty of color: 25% Female faculty: 43.8% Leadership and P&A total: 567 Leadership and P&A FTE: 456 Civil Service and Labor Represented total: 274 Civil Service and Labor Represented FTE: 236
CLA ALUMNI Total distinct alumni: 168,616 Total living alumni: 154,104 Undergraduate alumni: 146,435 Master’s alumni: 19,327 Doctorate alumni: 10,234
CLA BY THE NUMBERS FALL 2016
CLA Alumni and Donor Support 2015-16
4,379 donors
Five-Year Revenue
$16,688,995 raised
FY16 Revenue - $265 million
180 160
5.3%
140 120
20%
100 80 60
69%
$ Millions
40 Tuition & U Fees
20
State Allocation
FY12
FY13
FY14
FY15
FY16
Gifts & Endowment Income All Other Revenue
Printed on recycled and recyclable paper with at least 10 percent postconsumer waste material. This publication is available in alternative formats upon request. Direct requests to clanews@umn.edu or 612-625-5031. The University of Minnesota shall provide equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. Š2016 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
FAST FACTS ABOUT CLA CLA has undergraduate students representing 49 states along with Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and 95 nations. CLA is the largest college in the University of Minnesota system. CLA students are 44.6% of the total Twin Cities campus. CLA educates more students than any other Minnesota college, public or private. Thirty-three languages are taught at CLA, 30 of which are “less commonly taught languages” (LCTLs) such as Swahili, Finnish, and the endangered Dakota and Ojibwe languages, which are indigenous to Minnesota. CLA is one of the first colleges to be granted a “community engagement” classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Forty percent of CLA students take a service-learning course. One third of CLA scholarship recipients are the first person in their family to attend college. Just over one half are from Minnesota. Twenty-nine percent of all CLA students participate in a study abroad program. An average of 20 CLA political science majors work at the Minnesota Legislature during each session. A dozen CLA faculty and alumni have won the Nobel Prize. Six CLA faculty members have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships in the past decade; most recently Elaine Tyler May (2013, American studies & history), and Ananya Chatterjea (2011, theatre arts & dance). The Department of American Indian Studies, established in 1969, is the oldest program of its kind in the country with departmental status. The Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies is one of the oldest women’s studies programs in the nation and was the first to offer a PhD. CLA’s Immigration History Research Center has one of the world’s largest and best collections of materials documenting US immigrant and refugee life. English professor Maria Sanford was one of the first female professors in the US. The U’s first dormitory for female students was named for her, and her statue stands in Washington DC. CLA has had 4 Rhodes Scholars since 2001; 3 Truman Scholars since 2004; 26 Fulbright grants since 2004; and 4 Beinecke Scholars since 2006. Departments and units of the College are located in 32 buildings on the East Bank and West Bank.
ENGAGEMENT What if the most important part of democracy isn’t voting, but talking before the vote is taken? And what kind of talk is good for democracy? Are average citizens capable of productive conversation, especially in this age of political polarization? Political science professor Daniel Myers and the freshman students enrolled in his seminar Political Discussion and Deliberation in the 2016 Election, took on these questions, partnering with the 2016 Twin Cities Election Forum to host a public conversation where average citizens discussed the presidential election. Funded by the Joan Aldous Diversity & Public Engagement Award, and using the Star Tribune Minnesota poll as a starting point, the group convened a representative group of 60 voters from the seven-county metro area to discuss the most pressing issues of the upcoming presidential election. Participants worked in groups to produce a list of reasons why people might support one candidate or another. “This isn’t about trying to change anyone’s mind,” says Myers. “We’re trying to learn more about the issues that truly matter to Twin Cities voters and to understand how they have come to support the candidate they’re supporting. Ultimately we want to find out whether it is still possible for Americans with different political views to have a good conversation about the presidential election.”
CLA will deepen a culture of engagement for our alumni, community, and state.
READINESS Elise Armani came to CLA certain that she wanted to be an art major. But when she started taking classes in gender, women & sexuality studies (GWSS), she discovered her particular focus. She describes it as an “abrupt, eye-opening experience.” Seeing overlaps between what she was studying in her GWSS courses and her art major, she declared a double major in GWSS and art and began studying the work of women and queer artists, seeking research opportunities where the fields converged. She began working with Howard Oransky, director of the Nash Gallery, in her freshman year and received an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program scholarship the following year. The collaboration ultimately led to her curating the exhibit, Ana Mendieta: Documents of Life in Art. Mendieta, a Cuban-American woman of color, worked in different media, including film, sculpture, performance, and painting, and Elise examined her work’s themes of displacement, marginalization, and violence. She knows curating her own show as an undergraduate is a rare privilege and still views that first GWSS class as an experience that “altered my perception of self and the world and changed the way I navigated through life.” Elise found her niche—and career path—by combining her interests in art and GWSS. In the summer of 2015 she interned at the Weisman Art Museum and now works there on staff. She graduates soon and her CLA experiences have made her more certain than ever of her long-term goal to work as a museum curator.
CLA alumni will be the most desirable graduates available.
RESEARCH Peggy Nelson is a scholar of the senses. A professor and former chair of the Department of SpeechLanguage-Hearing Sciences, she is the co-founder and current director of CLA’s Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science (CATSS), which aims to harness the University’s expertise in sensory science to tackle the problems faced by people with sensory deficits. Throughout her years at the University, Nelson, an expert on hearing loss, began to see opportunities for cross-discipline research into other sensory deficits like reduced vision or poor balance. In 2011, she joined with colleagues from the Departments of Psychology, Otolaryngology, and Biomedical Engineering to create a multisensory lab. A few years later, work began on creating a full-fledged center. Today CATSS is fulfilling its founders’ vision of being a cross-departmental hub. Fifteen different groups from four colleges and fields, ranging from neuroscience to computer science, work side by side. Its projects include everything from brain mapping stimulus response in autistic children to sensory loss associated with the aging process and its accompanying cognitive and emotional implications. Nelson finds that CLA has been an ideal setting for the center. “CLA is the group to pull all the different colleges together because the problem is not just in the ear, it’s in how we learn and use the information. It’s how that hearing loss causes disconnection. It’s understanding the human being as a whole. That’s why CLA is the perfect home for this work.”
CLA will have a relentless focus on research and creative excellence.
DIVERSITY As an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, Kong Pha received an interdisciplinary degree in psychology, sociology, history, and Asian American studies. Now a PhD candidate and Diversity of Views and Experiences (DOVE) Fellow in American Studies, Kong is focused on questions around refugeeism and queer studies. His dissertation focuses on how Hmong gender, sexualities, and kinship systems are understood through time and explores the impact that these constructions have on contemporary Hmong youth, queer identities, and queer theorizing. Kong used his DOVE Fellowship to conduct a series of community-based interviews focused on the unique perspectives of Hmong LGBTQ people and how ideas around gender and sexuality in Hmong communities in the US affect their sense of belonging. This research was key to finishing his PhD dissertation, which he will defend in the spring of 2018. “My project is significant and crucial at this moment as we embark on a quest for freedom for LGBTQ people around the world, “ says Kong. “The knowledge gained from my project will not only enable us to understand how race, gender, and sexuality are connected to each other but will also help us combat the injustices and biased representations that continue to create suffering and oppression in the world.” Kong ultimately hopes to be a professor and teach, research, and write about Hmong and Asian American migration as well as history and race, class, gender, sexuality, and queer studies. He says, “I hope to continue my research and teach courses and mentor underrepresented students.”
The CLA community will mirror the community at large.
CLA UNDERGRADUATE CLASS OF 2020 2,548 FRESHMEN
(out of 30,369 applications)
23%
students of color
59% female
78%
graduated in the
TOP 25%
of their high school class
27.3
average ACT score
66% Minnesota residents
12% Wisconsin residents 7% International students