From the Dean
One of the strengths of the College of Arts & Sciences is our diversity of disciplines and departments. At the same time, one of the challenges of the College of Arts & Sciences is our diversity of disciplines and departments — mainly because we can’t get them all in one building!
I sometimes am envious of the other Baylor academic divisions which are able to be contained within one or maybe two buildings, instead of the 14 buildings occupied by Arts & Sciences. With our 25 departments spread out across campus like this, it means I can’t just walk down the hall and chat with anyone in the College. To be clear, this is the case for most Arts & Sciences colleges nationally.
I thought for our fall issue this year I would provide you with a quick run-through of our 25 departments (as well as our two programs that function like departments) and let you know where they are located on campus, in case you want to pay them a visit. As a reminder, the A&S Dean’s Office is located in Burleson Hall on the Quadrangle, the original heart of Baylor’s campus when it moved to Waco from Independence in 1886.
Humanities and Social Sciences
The Department of Political Science is located near the Dean’s Office in Burleson Hall, while nearby, Modern Languages and Cultures is located in Old Main and Draper. These three buildings are connected as one facility at the heart of the Quad.
English is located in the Carroll Science Building next to Old Main on the Quad. History, Religion and Sociology now occupy the recently renovated Tidwell Bible Building, which is right across Speight Street from Burleson Hall. Morrison Hall, the former home of Baylor Law School, now houses the departments of Philosophy and Classics. Morrison is just across Fifth Street from the Quad.
If we go north across the Baylor campus, three A&S departments — Journalism, PublicRelations and New Media, Communication, and Film & Digital Media — are housed in the Castellaw Communications Center, located just west of Moody Library. Go a bit further north on campus, and the departments of Art and Art History and Theatre Arts are located in the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Center on University Parks Drive. At this point, it should be apparent how far these facilities are located from the Quad!
Sciences
The departments of Statistics and Anthropology are located in the renovated Marrs McLean Science Building, one of our former science facilities.
Mathematics is located across Fountain Mall from Marrs McLean in the Sid Richardson Building, another former science facility. Museum Studies, meanwhile, is located in the Mayborn Museum complex on University Parks Drive across from the Hooper-Schaefer Fine Arts Building.
The massive Baylor Sciences Building (BSB) on the northeast corner of campus houses six of our science departments — Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, EnvironmentalScience, Geosciences, Physics, and Psychology & Neuroscience. One of our Arts & Sciences programs, Medical Humanities, is also located in the BSB.
Our other A&S academic program, Aviation Sciences, has its offices in the Hankamer Academic Building. Finally, both Aerospace Studies (Air Force ROTC) and MilitaryScience (Army ROTC), which are both part of the College of Arts & Sciences, are located in the Speight Plaza Building across from the Hankamer Academic Center.
I had to count all the departments and programs after writing this to make sure they totaled 27. And yes, while they do occupy 14 separate buildings, please know that the College has always been able to operate as a coherent group through regular interdepartmental meetings, committees, events and so on — some of which have become easier to bring about, given our recently fine-tuned ability to connect through virtual means.
When you’re here for Homecoming, or any time you’re on the Baylor campus, please drop by and visit any of these departments at any time. I also welcome all of you to visit the A&S Dean’s Office in Burleson Hall.
Sic ’em, Bears!
Dr. Lee Nordt
Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences