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Home > About NC State > Chancellor > Speeches and Writings > Withers Hall CelebrationWithers Hall Celebration
Monday, October 15, 2007
Withers Hall
Let me thank our students, faculty, staff, alumni and others for joining us today.
As Chancellor, I am both happy and proud to participate in this celebration. Late last month, I gave the first "State of NC State" address. In that presentation, I shared the vision of NC State, reflecting on the past, discussing the present and looking forward to the future of our great university. That timeline included many stories about the growth and development of NC State as we continue to respond to the needs of a changing world.
The event we celebrate today in reopening the doors to Withers Hall is just such a story. The renovation of this facility is marked by the transformation of a once chemistry building into the home of the Departments of Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, and Philosophy and Religion in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
This expansion mirrors the Colleges' growth and is a direct response to helping to meet the need for students to access a well-rounded education. When I first came to NC State in 1986, I remember working with Dean Bill Toole and the Jefferson Scholars Program, the first dual-degree program on campus. Now, there are several dual-degree programs across campus:
- The Franklin Scholars with Engineering
- The Whitney Scholars with Textiles
- The DaVinci Scholars with Design
- The Hamilton Scholars with Management
- The Pinchot Scholars with Natural Resources
And at that time, CHASS had one Ph.D. program -- in Sociology -- which was shared with CALS. Fast-forward to the present -- now, CHASS offers 59 bachelor's degree programs, 15 master's degree programs and 4 Ph.D. programs with close to 4,600 graduate and undergraduate students.
I believe it is plain to see that the expansion of program offerings will continue - and NC State will continue to become an even more comprehensive university.
You know that of our undergraduate students enroll in humanities or social science courses. CHASS helps prepare our students by significantly contributing to a comprehensive education -- One that complements the need for broadly educated students with strong abilities to write, to communicate and to be creative. The disciplines in Humanities and Social Sciences certainly encourage students to understand the past, appreciate other cultures and think beyond the constraints of their specific disciplines. The relocation of these three departments to Withers Hall provides them with a renovated teaching and research facility.
Allow me to share a few of the stories these three departments are writing.
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures provides courses in 17 different languages. Of these languages, NC State is one of only two universities teaching Nepali in the country and has the second largest Japanese language program in the Southeast. In just the last year, the department established a new German Studies major, created a proposal for a Ph.D. program in Hispanic Studies and has begun work on an Asian Studies major, a major that will complement several other initiatives here at NC State. Through the faculty in this department, we also send students on summer study abroad programs to Austria, India, Bolivia, Mexico, France, Peru, Spain and Italy.
In our Philosophy and Religion Department, faculty are seeking an understanding of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries - the nature and evolution of the mind - through NC State's interdisciplinary Cognitive Science Program. The department also leads the Logic and Cognitive Science Initiative, which receives ongoing financial support from the Centennial Campus Lab of GlaxoSmithKline's Semantic Technologies Group. This initiative fosters the development of logic and cognitive philosophy dealing with ideas, structures and methods of reasoning with significant practical applications in the knowledge economy, especially in data mining.
The History Department also celebrates continued growth. The Board of Trustees recently approved establishing a new Ph.D. in public history, expected to admit its first class in Fall 2008. The creation of this program will expand NC State's research and education in the study and understanding of our past. Our history and other CHASS faculty also are finding their way into 4th - 8th grade classrooms with the social studies textbook series, "North Carolina Journeys." The new edition is an updated version of the original text written in the 1990s - "Living in Our World" - which has been used in more than 70 percent of 4th through 7th grade classrooms in North Carolina.
All three of these departments are composed of world-class faculty who earn NSF Grants, fellowships, Fulbright awards, publication recognition and teaching awards.
These are just a few of the stories we have to be proud of at NC State. We have a great deal to look forward to as CHASS continues to be relevant and responsive. Let's tell people about the excitement inside these renovated walls and in the world of CHASS.
Thank you for all you do for NC State and for being here today.