There is no greater challenge facing the United States than health care: the provision of affordable, high quality medical attention to every person, and the establishment of a health care system that ensures equity of access and the integrity of new discovery for all time. 

Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science is on the front lines of this challenge. Researchers from our science and social science—and yes, even our humanities—departments partner with researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and all over the globe to advance the medical sciences. As of March of this year, 307 undergraduates are enrolled in the Arts and Science program in Medicine, Health and Society, where they take courses from faculty university wide on the science, history and politics of health. This relatively new major now trails only economics and political science as the largest in our school. In 2007-2008, Arts and Science researchers were granted more than $20 million in funds for federally sponsored, health-related research. All of us in the Vanderbilt community and society at large benefit from this involvement.

Now I have the great honor to inform you of a new collaborative project involving the college. On March 5, leaders of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced the birth of a partnership between Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science. With the foundation’s support, Meharry will establish the Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s oldest historically black medical schools. At the core of the national center’s mission is the education of a new generation of leaders in health policy studies, leaders whose diversity reflects the full diversity of the U.S. population. 

 The College of Arts and Science plays a central role in the center’s vision. With the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Meharry, we will recruit six new faculty members in sociology and economics of health to Vanderbilt. In turn, the faculty will recruit nearly 20 new graduate students in sociology and economics.

Future leaders in health policy will receive their doctoral training here at Vanderbilt in collaboration with scholars and students at the Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College. These students and faculty will bring the best of both campuses—Vanderbilt’s and Meharry’s—to shape health policy for generations to come. Emerging from an environment of unprecedented interpersonal and intellectual diversity, these faculty and students will broaden the discourse of health policy in the U.S. and beyond. Thanks to this vision, our society will have better answers to its most stubborn, sensitive, and, we all hope, solvable questions. 

Arts and Science is fortunate to participate in this initiative with our remarkable partners at Meharry Medical College, benefitting from the support and expertise of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 

Wish us luck as we break this rich, new ground.

Carolyn Dever
Dean

To think about the College of Arts and Science is to think about diversity. Every day I speak with great pride, for example, about the range of scholarly disciplines pursued by Arts and Science faculty and students. From chemistry to classics, from physics to psychology to philosophy and everywhere in between, our researchers press deeply into the questions of their disciplines—even as their interdisciplinary innovations help to rearrange those disciplines themselves. 

I speak with great pride, as well, about the diverse backgrounds of our faculty and students. The College of Arts and Science is a truly global community: we are committed to bringing the world’s most talented thinkers to our labs and classrooms, and in partnership with our alumni, to bringing the work of our labs and classrooms to every region of the globe. 

Along with Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos and Provost Richard McCarty, we are committed to socioeconomic diversity by making a Vanderbilt education available to every undergraduate we admit, regardless of ability to pay—and we are committed to insuring that every Arts and Science student graduates free of the burden of student-loan debt. 

Each of us benefits from the increasing ethnic and racial diversity among our faculty, undergraduate and graduate students. I am proud of the national leadership of faculty such as Keivan Stassun, associate professor of astronomy, and Richard Pitt, assistant professor of sociology, in helping minority and underrepresented students gain access to educational opportunities. 

To speak of “diversity” as I have here helps me to communicate to you the dazzling energy and scope of this institution. It has surprised me to recognize, then, that the most profound aspect of my experience of the past several months—my first as interim dean—involves the remarkable coherence of a community almost inconceivably heterogeneous. 

For example, when Jay Dickerson, assistant professor of physics, teaches his undergraduate seminar The Art of Physics and the Physics of Art, he presumes not the opposition of science and art but their inseparability. Understanding of the arts illuminates the understanding of science, and vice versa. Professor Dickerson reminds us that we are not the College of Arts or Science, nor the College of Arts vs. Science; we are the College of Arts and Science.

When Assistant Professor of Anthropology Pierre Colas and his sister were killed early in the fall semester, the faculty, students and staff of Arts and Science came together in an inspiring demonstration of the power of a community. Together we shared in those most human of processes: to find meaning in tragedy, to grieve, to heal. 

This College of Arts and Science is as powerfully centripetal as it is centrifugal—a community whose rich diversity fosters its unity. Through the example of this community I have come to a new appreciation of the importance of the “and” in our name: we are the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University.

Carolyn Dever
Interim Dean

As I prepare this column, the 2007–2008 academic year is coming to a close. Rites of Spring has just concluded, exams are approaching, and soon the campus will be transformed for Commencement and the graduation of the Class of 2008. What an amazing year this has been! The selection of Vanderbilt’s eighth chancellor, Nicholas Zeppos, was announced on March 1, 2008. Offers of admission have been mailed to a highly select group of applicants, who will make up the Class of 2012. Applications for admission to Vanderbilt increased by more than 30 percent this year, to just under 17,000, and standard metrics of diversity, test scores, high school grades and contributions to society reached all-time highs. I can’t wait until August to meet the newest members of the Vanderbilt community in the spectacular setting of The Commons. Finally, we have experienced great success this year in recruiting a talented new group of faculty members to the College of Arts and Science who will be actively involved in teaching and discovery. 

I am confident that you will enjoy reading our new alumni publication, simply titled Arts and Science, which replaces our previous newsletter, Cornerstone. This magazine contains an expanded number of features, more art, and greater attention given to the accomplishments of the Arts and Science community, our alumni, students, faculty and staff. Be prepared to be informed, educated, challenged, entertained and inspired.

On the informative side, this first issue includes a feature on our medicine, health and society major. This program is growing so fast in popularity that the number of students selecting it as their major increased significantly while the article was being written. For inspiration, an undergraduate writes of his eventful time serving the people of Tibet and Nepal. Other stories include a look at the international impact of the College of Arts and Science, an exploration of the first-year experience for students, and profiles of several of our fascinating alumni, including a 29-year-old economics grad who co-developed an iconic food brand.

This issue introduces sections that we hope will become regular reading for you: “Forum,” “In Place,” “Back in the Day,” and more. Faculty profiles reveal unexpected information (in this case, about my colleague, Associate Dean Fräncille Bergquist) and “Arts and Science Notebook” delivers the latest news. Visually, Arts and Science presents designs, images and pictures that delight the eye and express the uniqueness and comprehensive approach of our college.

On an environmental note, this magazine is printed with vegetable/soy based ink on 100 percent post-consumer recycled material. The paper is manufactured with 100 percent clean, renewable electric power by a mill that uses a certified environmental management process and recycles waste created in the manufacturing process. I thank the student members of SPEAR (Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Recycling) for leading the charge for the use of eco-friendly materials on campus. We agree with SPEAR that, as individuals and as educators of future generations, we need to be good stewards of the environment. 

I am very proud to be part of the Arts and Science community at Vanderbilt. My hope is that this new publication strengthens your connection to, and love for, this great university. We have a bright future ahead as we build upon a strong foundation of academic excellence.

Best wishes for a wonderful summer.

Richard McCarty, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Photo by Daniel Dubois.