Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences


The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences is one of the 17 schools and colleges of University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A direct descendant of the 1787-chartered Pittsburgh Academy, and the oldest part of the university, the school serves as "the liberal arts core" of the university; some 30 departments and programs provide instruction in natural sciences, humanities, and social sciences to all students at the Oakland campus, including more than 10,000 Dietrich School undergraduates. In addition, the Dietrich School has over 1,500 graduate and professional students, over 15% of the university's post-baccalaureate student population, making it the largest graduate school in the Pittsburgh area.

History

Founded by Hugh Henry Brackenridge as the Pittsburgh Academy and chartered in 1787, the School of Arts and Sciences may have originally grown out of a school that was active before the charter was granted, perhaps as early as 1770. Thus the SAS began its life as a preparatory school, presumably in a log cabin, in what is now downtown Pittsburgh, which was then on the frontier of the United States. The school was established on the principles of teaching the rudiments of the "sacred six" of the Scottish universities, as Brackenridge was himself Scottish. Within a short period, more advanced education in the area was needed, so in 1819 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania amended the school's 1787 charter to confer university status. The school took the name the Western University of Pennsylvania.
By the 1830s, the school faced severe financial pressure to abandon its traditional liberal education in favor of the state legislature's desire for it to provide more vocational training. The decision to remain committed to liberal education nearly ended the university, but it persevered despite its abandonment by the city and state. Similar pressure to abandon the liberal arts focus of the school occurred again between 1902 and 1908 when industrial development in the region was attracting more students to technical trades. Financial pressure mounted to abandon the traditional liberal arts curriculum and focus on more vocational training, but petitions from students, alumni, faculty and some trustees kept the original mission intact.
Out of the school, which by then was often referred to as "the College", came the genesis for some of the university's other schools, such as the School of Engineering and School of Law. Both continued to require the traditional classical studies for a bachelor's degree, but they began to formally separate around the time when the university moved to its new location in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, when it also changed its name to the University of Pittsburgh in 1908. With the formal separation from the school of engineering, the school became known as the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Several of the school's departments, like mathematics and chemistry, have an unbroken line of professors from the Pittsburgh Academy. Courses such as astronomy, chemistry, English, mathematic, modern languages, and classics, are essentially descended from the academy and resemble the course listings of the day.
In the summer of 2006, the School of Arts and Sciences began to oversee the administration of the University’s College of General Studies, expanding the community of Arts and Sciences learners to include nontraditional students. On September 22, 2011, it was announced that an alumnus of the school's Department of Political Science, William S. Dietrich II, had donated $125 million to the university, the largest ever donation to the university up until that time, and that the university would rename the School of Arts and Sciences to honor his father, Kenneth.
the school's current dean is Kathleen Blee.

Academics

The School of Arts and Sciences graduate programs offer MA, MS, MFA, and PhD programs in 34 concentrations, as well as a wide range of interdisciplinary programs.

Undergraduate majors

Certificate programs allow students to complete a concentrated area of study in addition to their major. Certificates typically require 18-24 credits, are noted the student's transcript upon graduation.
Certificates can also be obtained from the University Center for International Studies.
Many of the programs offered within the School of Arts and Sciences are considered among the best in the nation. For instance, the Department of Philosophy, is considered one of the top five in the United States, and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, consistently ranked at the top of the field.
Other rankings, including those by the National Research Council and US News & World Report, include the following programs among the best in the nation:
*National Research Council

^ US News & World Report America's Best Graduate Programs