Strengthening Our Catholic Identity

One of the objectives that has remained central to the restructure is strengthening University of St. Thomas’ Catholic identity.

On the administrative side, changes have already taken effect that have increased parish engagement, marketed online Catholic programs to a national audience and formed a position specifically for Catholic outreach.

When it comes to academics, the University is going even further to make sure the Catholic Intellectual Tradition is honored. Rather than follow the national trend of cutting humanities programs as so many other universities are doing, UST will continue to make them the essential part of every student’s education by bringing them together and giving our core curriculum a home.

As part of the approved plan, the University’s School of Arts and Sciences will be reorganized and move from the traditional siloed discipline model to an integrated multi-disciplinary model consisting of three divisions through which the various disciplines will be offered. The new academic divisions will consist of the Division of Liberal Studies, the Division of Mathematics, Technology and Life Science and the Division of Social & Behavior Sciences and Global Studies.

Students’ majors and degree paths will not be impaired but enhanced through the offering of new integrated degree opportunities aligned with the job market of today and tomorrow.

Programmatic changes in line with the new model will begin to be developed and approved in the spring of 2020 for implementation alongside the traditional degree paths beginning in the 2020/21 academic year.