Dean's Welcome

The Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies urges its students to make connections and to explore relationships between fields of study and between the liberal arts and the professions. Interdisciplinary programs at Ithaca College provide the opportunity to develop the breadth of knowledge necessary to lifelong learning and to preparation for the numerous career changes each of us will experience in a dynamic future of globalization. Interdisciplinary study complements more narrowly focused programs and encourages students to aspire to a more comprehensive education over the course of a lifetime. Many DIIS students, therefore, are double majors or students with one or two interdisciplinary minors in support of their major program of study in another school.

Currently the division offers three interdisciplinary degree programs: culture and communication, gerontology, and legal studies. These majors emphasize critical thinking, writing, and the development of research skills; they urge students to see themselves in a broad context, working outward from personal experience toward engagement with the global community and attention to challenging issues of concern to us all. We want DIIS students to understand the interlocking local, national, international, and human communities of which we are all a part.

All three majors have import to all members of our society. The degree program in culture and communication invites students to consider communication as system and to look at culture as both barrier and access to others within different systems of communication. Gerontology looks at the dynamic changes we all experience as we move from youth to old age. Legal studies considers the law and ideas about justice in our personal and professional lives and in our nation's domestic and international policies.

The Division of Interdisciplinary and International Studies welcomes students who are committed to fulfilling the responsibilities of learning and who are dedicated to pursuing knowledge and strength of character in support of informed engagement with the global community.

Tanya Saunders, Dean