Like most liberal arts colleges, we provide an administrative home for the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. But we also host three distinctive centers/ projects in CLAS.
- The Center for a Sustainable Future (CSF) provides numerous opportunities for students, faculty and community members to be involved in activities that focus on sustainable food production, best sustainable business practices, and environmentally responsible waste disposal, and the center offers a curriculum leading to a minor plus a pathway into international networks around sustainability.
- CLAS is very proud to be home to the student-initiated Civil Rights Heritage Center (CRHC). Now located in the historic Engman Natatorium on Washington Street in South Bend, the CRHC partners with multiple constituencies in the city while also carrying out its primary mission to study, tell the story of, and promote civil rights for all.
- No group or organization on campus is busier during an election year than our American Democracy Project (ADP). Part of a national network that promotes student engagement in politics through awareness, participation, and promotion, the ADP provides the venue during election years for nearly all local candidate debates in the region, stages Constitution Day every fall, and administers an energetic program of films and speakers for the entire campus.
If science grabs your interest, then you will want to see our greenhouse on the roof of Northside. Or if you love learning about the celestial heavens, check out our rooftop observatory at the same location. We also have plenty of hands-on opportunities through the Laboratory for Material Culture, where the emphasis is on the study of cultural objects from around the world. Or you may want to try your hand at recording oral histories, or going on a local dig sponsored by our anthropological field school.
Perhaps you are a budding writer—if so, we have two literary presses that provide opportunities for students, a creative writing program, and regular readings by authors from far and near throughout the year. Or maybe you are more of an integrative thinker. If so, CLAS is home to several interdisciplinary programs from American Studies to General Studies to Women’s and Gender Studies.
Wherever you ultimately find your academic home, we are here to serve all students at IU South Bend. You are always welcome to attend our sponsored events, drop by and visit, or check out our websites.
Please visit our web magazine for more stories about CLAS.
