College of Liberal Arts

Academic diversity, which is the essence of a traditional university education, is a hallmark of the disciplines and majors housed within the College of Liberal Arts. Liberal Arts is a major part of the University Core Curriculum because with a strong foundation in the liberal arts, students can build strong professional careers in any major discipline. The college offers a wide range of majors, minors and also interdisciplinary programs.

This year, the college has put priority on the COLA Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, the COLA Activities Fund, and the Center for Virtual Expression (CVEX) fund.

The CoLA Activities Fund is a general designation that expands the funds available to Dean Joddy Murray in the College of Liberal Arts. Whether that means additional funding for special projects, speakers’ fees, or professional development, these funds play a key role in facilitating big picture change for the CoLA by allowing our college and its people to achieve.

The CoLA Undergraduate Scholarship Fund helps students persevere in their studies at SIU, even when life throws unexpected obstacles. The Undergraduate Scholarship Fund is available to any student in CoLA in good academic standing. Many times, students tell us that receiving a scholarship from this fund made the difference in their ability to continue at SIU.

The CVEX provides a wide range of services to integrate humanities education with virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence technologies. Current-generation computers & VR Gear, comfortable seating, sit-stand desks to accommodate any need, and audio-visual capabilities make this classroom the ideal site for any course, including hybrid teaching. Twice a semester we meet to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by technology. In-depth discussion of the impact of Ai, or demonstrations of current-gen VR technology are open-invite! We offer training in a variety of platforms from LLMs like GPT and Claude, to Image Generation with Midjourney or Leonardo, to Music and Video generation. We're here to help faculty adapt these technologies to their curriculum, and for students to explore other ways to analyze and synthesize information to meet their course goals.

You can profoundly impact student success at SIU. We are grateful for your generosity. Please see our funding priorities below and click Give Now at the top of the page or click the fund you want to support below to make your gift.