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College of Arts and Science launches significant changes to undergraduate education in fall 2025

Posted by on Friday, August 8, 2025 in News Story.

This fall, the College of Arts and Science is introducing strategic structural and pedagogical changes to undergraduate education that will better serve students and faculty and help to deliver an unparalleled undergraduate academic experience.

These new changes include:

  • The Office of Academic Services (OAS) has changed its name from the Office of Undergraduate Education to more closely reflect the unit’s work, to align with the other undergraduate schools at Vanderbilt, and to simplify processes with the University Registrar’s Office. OAS is the resource for students and faculty regarding undergraduate academic policy, enrollment, curriculum, pre-major advising, declaring/changing majors and minors, academic support services, and more.
  • The Office of Academic Services is now housed on the first floor of Buttrick Hall for greater visibility and accessibility to students. Pre-major advising is now also located there, bringing all undergraduate supports and resources together in one location for greater efficiency, enhanced collaboration, and easier student access.
  • OAS has launched a new website for students, organizing all policies, forms, procedures, and information in one place, making resources more accessible to students and faculty.
  • The college is launching exciting new degree programs, including two new majors and four new minors:
    • The major in Integrative Biology will replace the major in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology. This new degree is designed for students with an interest in the areas of biology that span genomics, ecology, evolutionary biology, comparative genomics, organismal biology, and conservation biology.
    • The major in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies strategically combines the two previously offered majors: Latin American Studies and Latino and Latina Studies. This interdisciplinary degree explores the diversity of histories, languages, and cultures of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the Latinx experiences as they intersect with other national and geographic boundaries. The Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies will also offer two new minors: a minor in Latin American and Latinx Studies that provides students a background in the topic and helps them develop intermediate knowledge of a Latin American language, and a minor in Caribbean Studies, which explores Caribbean language, literature, society, history, and culture in both regional and global contexts.
    • The minor in Museum Studies, offered by the Department of History of Art and Architecture, studies contemporary issues facing museums and the role museums play socially and politically, and prepares students to work in the field.
    • The minor in National Security, offered by the Department of Political Science, will equip students with a foundation in security studies, global affairs, and foreign policy in the U.S.
  • The College of Arts and Science has also introduced several bachelor of science degrees. The B.S. degrees align our students’ educational goals with our degree offerings, as well as make them more competitive for graduate school and in the job market. The B.S. degrees will offer new opportunities for rigorous research. Bachelor of science degrees will be offered in:
    • Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Earth and Environmental Sciences
    • Economics
    • Integrative Biology
    • Math
    • Molecular and Cellular Biology
    • Neuroscience
    • Physics
  • The college is unveiling a new and innovative curriculum, the A&S College Core, for all students entering in fall 2025 and later. Years in the making, the curriculum thoughtfully and intentionally provides students with a firm grounding across the arts and the sciences and offers students the flexibility to explore their interests and career goals.

“The Office of Academic Services has worked thoughtfully and thoroughly to make improvements to our undergraduate services by increasing efficiencies and creating new, more accessible ways of reaching faculty and students,” said Allison Schachter, senior associate dean for academic affairs. “These improvements—better integrating undergraduate advising into the life of the college, introducing new academic programs, launching a new undergraduate curriculum, and even moving our office location to better support students—promise to make the college a leader in undergraduate education across the arts and the sciences.”