LAS_UG_Overview_V4.1292020_pages

LAS OVERVIEW The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) stands at the UIC NOTABLES forefront of the urban experience and offers a wide range of academic programs and student supports that lead to • UIC this fall enrolled a record number of students for the fifth personal enrichment, scholarly achievement, and solid year in a row, as its campus footprint expanded to include career opportunities for students. For the second year in a the opening of two major buildings as well as the merger row, UIC is included on the top ten list of colleges and with the UIC John Marshall Law School as its 16th college. universities that offer the “Best Value” according to LAS has also seen its largest first-year class in thirty years. Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education rankings. UIC ranks 8th this year, ahead of UCLA and Princeton! • U.S. News & World Report ranks UIC among the top 20 ethnically diverse national universities in their 2020 “Best The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) is UIC’s Colleges” rankings, as well as No. 61 among U.S. public largest college and offers a research-rich undergraduate colleges and universities and No. 132 among all U.S. and graduate education that prepares students to universities. become engaged citizens in a world of multiple cultures, languages, and possibilities. • Money Magazine names UIC #10 in its 2019 ranking of “Most Transformative Colleges.” We strive to deliver an unparalleled learning experience by: - S TIMULATING curiosity and collaboration across the • UIC was recently ranked in the “Top 10 Low-Profile, High-Value Colleges” by Forbes Magazine. natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, as well as interdisciplinary areas; • UIC is one of only four Carnegie designated Research I - I NSPIRING our more than 10,000 diverse students to Institutions in Illinois. There are currently only 115 Carnegie follow their passions and remain part of an extended R1 universities in the United States, and UIC is one of the network of alumni; very few R1 minority-serving institutions in the nation. - R ESEARCHING the most challenging questions of our time and extending the frontier of knowledge; and, • The university has received the designation of Hispanic- -  E NGAGING the intellectual life of the College with the Serving Institution, or HSI, by the U.S. Department of concerns of the people and institutions of our city, state, Education, and is also an Asian American and Native country, and global communities. American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPSI). las.uic.edu [email protected] V4.1292020

COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS & SCIENCES AREAS OF STUDY African American Studies Germanic Studies Polish, Russian, and Central and Anthropology Global Asian Studies* Eastern European Studies Arabic* History Polish Studies* Biochemistry Human Capital and Labor Markets* Political Science Biological Sciences Integrated Health Studies Professional Writing* Central and Eastern European Studies* International Studies* Psychology Chemistry Italian and Italian American Studies* Religious Studies* Chinese* Latin American and Latino Studies Russian Studies* Classical Studies Law and Society* Social Justice* Communication Liberal Studies Sociology Criminology, Law, and Justice Linguistics* Spanish Earth and Environmental Sciences Mathematics Spanish for the Health Professions* Economics Mathematics and Computer Science Statistics English Moving Image Arts* French and Francophone Studies Neuroscience Teaching of English, French, German, Gender and Women’s Studies Philosophy History, Mathematics, Spanish Geography* Physics *= minor only LAS BY THE NUMBERS 25 35 40 48 1,234 Courses Departments Majors Minors Graduate Programs 10,331 1,147 Undergraduates Graduate Students 11 PRE-PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS 14 LANGUAGES AREAS Pre-Dentistry Arabic Korean Pre-Health Information Management Pre-Law Chinese Latin Pre-Medicine Pre-Nursing French Lithuanian Pre-Nutrition Pre-Occupational Therapy German Polish Pre-Pharmacy Pre-Physical Therapy Modern Greek Portuguese Pre-Public Health Pre-Veterinary Medicine Italian Russian Japanese Spanish

We believe that a liberal arts education is the bedrock of long-term success and we strive to inspire perennial careers. We support our students’ dreams by offering the rare combination of a highly diverse campus, innovative research and learning experiences, academic rigor, robust student supports, and top-tier faculty. FACULTY RESEARCH RESEARCH NOTABLES 350+ LAS recently announced the investiture of Professor of Physics and Chemistry Russell TENURE TRACK TENS OF MILLIONS Hemley as its third LAS Distinguished Chair FACULTY GRANTED TO in the Natural Sciences. Hemley’s research explores the nature of materials in extreme FACULTY RESEARCH environments, specifically high pressures and temperatures. He is most recently credited LAS supports and promotes research across a wide array of disciplines for achieving near-room temperature and is keenly focused on the challenges of the 21st century. Our dedicated superconductivity, thereby opening dramatic academic community is creating solutions to local and global urban issues; new theoretical and experimental horizons. reframing modern health concerns; pioneering new paths in education; This research will further lead to discoveries reducing community disparities; championing social justice; unraveling the in the areas of synthesis and quantum human brain; harnessing the power of big data; and amplifying the creative materials. Professor Hemley is one of four voices telling the stories of who we are and what we will become. endowed chairs in the natural sciences Faculty research at LAS has been funded by the National Science funded through Prezista® patent royalties Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of and aimed at creating a prestigious academic Education, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, cohort focused on discovery-based research among many others. Royalties from one drug (Prezista®) have generated and scientific innovation that will bolster over $35 million for LAS. A portion of these funds is being used to create UIC’s position as a premier institution for four LAS Endowed Chairs in the Natural Sciences. students aspiring to a career in science. Being a Research I institution means that students are mentored by skilled faculty who bring pioneering and cutting-edge research into the Dr. Yury Polikanov, Assistant Professor in classroom. The LAS Undergraduate Research Initiative (LASURI) supports the Department of Biological Sciences, faculty/student research partnerships across all areas of study, giving has been awarded $1.25 million in NIH-R01 students the opportunity to conduct original research under faculty and $700,000 in NSF-MCB grant funds mentorship and with stipend support. for his research into the ribosome, a complex Our more than 350 tenure-track faculty include Fulbright Scholars, molecular machine that is responsible a MacArthur Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities and for synthesizing proteins. His group is National Endowment for the Arts awardees, and 11 active National clarifying protein synthesis in bacteria, Science Foundation CAREER awardees. In the humanities, Distinguished the modes of action of ribosome-targeting English Professor Luis Urrea’s most recent book was met with national antibiotics, and the mechanisms of drug acclaim, earning him the title of “one of our most important American resistance at a structural level. His research public intellectuals.” In April 2019, Urrea was also the winner of a can be leveraged to fight disease and fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. potentially lead to a new generation of antibiotics, an effort particularly important today during the rise of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains.

STUDENT SUPPORT 1/3 FIRST- GENERATION NO RACIAL OR ETHNIC COLLEGE STUDENTS MAJORITY AMONG STUDENTS LAS students represent America’s future demographics. UNIQUE OPPORTUNITIES We embrace diversity in our faculty, students, and staff, COMMITTED TO DIVERSITY as well as the subjects we teach and the work we pioneer. UIC received its fourth consecutive Higher Education Roughly 68% of LAS undergraduates identify as Asian, Black, Excellence in Diversity award from INSIGHT Into Diversity or Hispanic, and in 2019, the majority (53%) of LAS’s First Magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused Year cohort were from underrepresented groups. publication in higher education that recognizes U.S. LAS students are welcomed into a collegial and creative colleges and universities with an outstanding commitment learning community rich in varied perspectives and a shared to diversity and inclusion. love of learning. Students have an opportunity to connect with creative peers who share their intellectual interests. LAS is recognized for undergraduate research, scholarship, The College offers hands-on experience, as well as a variety and high-impact student experiences. Our students engage of workshops and career exploration activities that help in collaborative assignments and lab experiences that provide students uncover their passions and talents, and prepare a deeper appreciation of the vantage point of others. We also themselves for entering the workforce or attending graduate offer life-changing study abroad and internship opportunities. school. Tutoring services and learning centers support students LAS partners with many major Chicago institutions, including of all ability levels. the Field Museum, Newberry Library, Fermi National Accelerator In addition to our writing and foreign language centers, LAS Laboratory, and Argonne National Laboratory. Pre-health students is home to the campus Math and Science Learning Center benefit from our extensive health care associations which offer which offers free tutoring, group study sessions coordinated the type of exposure a student needs to discover and explore his by undergraduate peer-leaders, and office hours hosted by or her interest in medicine and the allied health professions. teaching assistants. LAS also provides students with personalized attention through first-year-only seminars, cohort advising groups, and mentorship from award-winning faculty within a supportive community. Students are paired with one dedicated academic advisor throughout their course of study. IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC launched in October 2017. As part of this transformative initiative, LAS is seeking more than $35 Million in support from our community to meet the needs of our students – both now and in the future. Together, we will: • Ensure student success • Recruit and retain leading faculty • Fuel new research and teaching innovations • Expand our community partnerships To learn more about how you can support the LAS IGNITE Campaign goals and help us double the number of LAS students who receive scholarship support, please visit www.las.uic.edu/giving. Every gift makes a difference.