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Dean:
Marla M. Iyasere
Dean’s Office:
Dorothy Donahoe Hall, B102
Telephone:
(661) 654-2221
email:
spimentel@csub.edu
Website:
http://www.csub.edu/HSS/
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• Committed to excellence in teaching
and scholarship for our students
• Dedicated to enlightenment and enrichment of our
communities
• Devoted to freedom from ignorance and intolerance in our
societies
More than just changing or transforming those who seek to
learn and to know, education lifts us from ignorance, gives
us something to live for, and empowers us with the knowledge
of how to fulfill our potential as human beings. As the
president of Trinity College points out, students vie for
the limited placements in the freshman class at Ivy League
schools because, “The best undergraduate education for the
21st Century will be based on a liberal education that
produces an individual who is intentional about learning and
life, empowered, informed, and responsible” (Greater
Expectations National Panel Report, page 25).
The humanities and social sciences are the heart and the
soul and the mind and spirit of the University, for
humanities and social sciences are the core liberal arts
from which all education inevitably derives. In the School
of Humanities and Social Sciences (H&SS), we teach students
how to think and to reason, how to read and to write, how to
speak and how to persuade. We hold the keys to
understanding how human beings behave and act and feel and
accomplish; how humans create and perform and expound and
aspire. We impart, ultimately, when it means to be human
and wherein life has its meaning.
These are not just words to inspire our students to excel.
These are our raison d’ętre. A true liberal arts
education is a lifeline, and the core liberal arts are the
fibers from which that lifeline is spun. Whether born to
privilege or poverty, students who enroll in H&SS can be
confident they will receive an education which engages them
as active participants in the process, so they become
lifelong learners, ready to meet changing professional and
personal opportunities, gifted with autonomy and
self-determination.
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Excellence
First and foremost, education must strive for excellence
among all participants and at all levels. Aristotle’s
observation is our guide: “We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is a habit, not a virtue.” To make a
habit of excellence, a system of education must recognize
and reward success wherever it occurs, not only via grand
events such as commencement and honors convocation, but in
the quotidian achievements that build toward these
culminating celebrations. To achieve excellence, we must
embrace change, ever seeking new ways to improve student
learning and faculty professional development. Providing
multiple avenues for learning also models for our students
how they can then continue educating themselves long after
they have left the university.
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Diversity
More powerful than technology, more far-reaching than the
Internet, is the fire within. The commitment and dedication
and passion of those who seek to discover and impart
truth-the faculty-are the keys to excellence. The faculty
in H&SS are both outstanding and diverse, encouraging us to
be expansive and inclusive in all we do. We seek to make
this university a universe of cultures, perspectives,
values, and lifestyles, all the rich panoply of human
endeavor and experience. The multiplicity of our
accomplishments is directly tied to the multiplicity of
strengths available only through welcoming the best
qualified individuals from all backgrounds to participate as
equal partners in our grand venture.
Each of us adds a new dimension to the university-our
individual values, our vision, our personality, our
accomplishments, and our preferences. Each of us brings a
different sample of the world with us. All of us come from
different places-from around the world and from virtually
every state in this grand and majestic union. We bring with
us this richness of our culture to this place and this time
so that a university-a universe of perspectives and
dimensions-so that a university might arise and thrive. We
are all part of a vast continuum, a splendid panoply of
exuberant creation, and share the deep bond of humanity.
And humanity has its most profound roots in what William
Faulkner calls “the old verities of the human
heart”-compassion and love, courage and honor and truth.
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Collaboration
Education is simultaneously a most singular and most
collaborative endeavor. No one can learn for another; the
transfer of knowledge from one to another, whether
individual or generation, requires tough, tender, sometimes
agonizing work. It can be lonely, exhausting, frustrating,
and we will not beguile our students with promises of
“making learning fun.” The joy of learning is far more
transcendent than fun; the insights, the moments of
epiphany, come at high cost and are ever so much worth the
effort.
As much as learning is singular, it is also collaborative.
The proverb, “One hand cannot wash itself clear; it needs
the help of the other,” states simply and clearly a
fundamental truth of education. No one makes it alone; we
all need the help of the other. Thus, enthusiastic
collaboration by all facets of a university is essential for
the most profound learning to take place at the highest
level of excellence.
Our advance is sure, if not swift, when we direct our
efforts toward our common purpose of providing our students
the very best education possible. True collaboration
recognizes the value each participant contributes to the
process. The key is collegiality, collegiality framed upon
mutual respect. The interchange of ideas and competing
agenda may become untidy at times, perhaps even
rough-and-tumble, but it can remain positive and productive
when we bear in mind our common purpose and respect the
positions of all, especially those with whom we disagree.
Working together we can scale heights unattainable by
individual effort. With passion and commitment and purpose,
we can achieve all that we dare to dream.
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