Welcome to Division of Liberal
Arts at Upper Iowa University
The nineteenth-century engraving reproduced above represents Apollo-the
Greek god of the fine arts, medicine, music, poetry and
eloquence-carousing with the nine Muses: the goddesses of epic poetry,
history, lyric poetry, music, tragedy, rhetoric and oratory, dance,
comedy, and astronomy.
Traditionally, the liberal arts have been the cornerstone of higher
education, and degrees founded on them prepare students to excel across
the disciplines. Thus in 1867 Reverend William Brush, Upper Iowa's
president, composed the following statement for the University
Catalogue:
The course [in the 'Collegiate Department'] is substantially that
of the oldest and best colleges in our country. Experience has proved it
to be every way adapted to make sound, practical and accomplished
scholars; and by requiring a mental discipline which qualifies the
student to be a close and vigorous thinker, it effectually secures the
great end of education.
In those post-Civil War days, the entire university consisted of only
seven teaching faculty empowered to grant five general degrees. Today
Liberal Arts is the largest academic division on campus, made up of
seventeen scholars and professionals offering bachelors degrees in nine
major and five minor areas in the fine arts, humanities, and social
sciences. Together we are bringing the classical ideals of humanistic
education into the 21st century. However, while our numbers and breadth
have increased over the years, our mission and goals remain the same:
producing adaptable, well-rounded individuals who possess clarity of
thought, precision in expression, and the ability to bring diverse
perspectives to bear on contemporary problems.
Click on any of the hyperlinks below to peruse program requirements,
along with departmental and faculty homepages.
