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Dear Friends,
As the semester moves toward a close, we reflect on what we’ve achieved this year. But we also look forward—to all that we want to accomplish in the new year, and to providing new opportunities for Liberal Arts students and faculty.
We’ve begun the process of admitting new students for the fall of 2016, and this year, Purdue went on the road to welcome two of the first students in the Class of 2020, including Makenzie Bishop, who will study art education in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. And as many of you know, in order to help place students first at Purdue, President Daniels has launched the next campaign for Purdue University—Ever True. The launch video features the work of Michael Stamets, a CLA student in the Department of Theatre.
We couldn’t be more proud of our current students, including Brenda Ramirez, a senior studying law and society and corporate communication who was a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. Purdue’s last Rhodes Scholar, Robert Orrill (English, 1961), was also a Liberal Arts student.
Kim Gallon, assistant professor of history, and Cornelius Bynum, associate professor of history, recently received a combined $445,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Their grants will provide opportunities for higher education scholars and high school educators to combine black studies with the latest digital technologies.
CLA alumni also understand the important role a Liberal Arts education plays in the lives of our students, and are generous in supporting them. Kathy Kimball (French, 1980) recently established the Kimball Affordability Scholarship for students in the School of Languages and Cultures. Her gift contributes to a key CLA initiative in the Ever True campaign: to increase undergraduate scholarships.
I’m also happy to report on several new initiatives in the College of Liberal Arts: INNOVATE, to assist faculty in transforming the curriculum and the student experience; ASPIRE, to support research and the wide dissemination of that research; PROMISE, which supports graduate student research and conference travel, and Job-Ready, an initiative to make unpaid and low-paid internships a viable option for more of our undergraduate students. These initiatives would not be possible without the leadership of Associate Deans Joel Ebarb and Melissa Remis, as well as the support of Provost Debasish Dutta and contributors to the CLA Dean's Fund, which provides the inaugural support for Job-Ready.
As we celebrate the achievements of 2015, I am grateful for students, staff, and faculty who work hard to face the world’s grand challenges. Together with our alumni, we are a force for good in the world.
Sincerely,
David Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts
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