2024 Sacramento State Winter Commencement Program - Flipbook - Page 24
college of arts and letters
The College of Art and Letters at Sacramento State engages faculty, staff, and students in the creation and study
of what makes us human. We offer major programs in the areas of humanities, languages and literature, history,
philosophy, communication studies, design, and the fine and performing arts. We also offer a completion
degree in Arts and Letters for busy adults. In classrooms, studios and field work experiences, Arts and Letters
faculty and staff foster the creative and critical development of students’ problem-solving skills, information
literacy, verbal and written communications, as well as their design and artistic expression. Our students acquire
diverse, intercultural competencies and a keen awareness of the past as they pursue the promise of the future.
These skills, along with the fundamentals of a liberal arts education, prepare students for a lifetime of purpose
and success in today’s complex and dynamic society.
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The College of Arts and Letters offers more than 40 specialized undergraduate and graduate degrees in
addition to nearly 30 minors and concentrations. More recently approved programs include the bachelor’s
in Arts and Letters, Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees in Studio Art, Photography, Graphic Design, and Interior
Architecture, a bachelor’s degree in Design Studies, certificates in Spanish for Healthcare (HEALS) and
Criminal Justice, and a Latin American Studies minor. Global awareness and engagement are further
enhanced through existing semester-long study abroad opportunities, scholarships, and over a half-dozen
newly developed faculty-led study abroad programs.
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The College also offers more than 700 major, general education, and elective courses each semester to over
16,000 students. The Arts and Letters Professional Seminar Series (ALPSS), a collaborative program with
the Career Center, along with new certificates in Curatorial Studies and Arts and Letters Entrepreneurship,
provide additional preparation for career planning.
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In addition to well over 200 performances, films, exhibits, symposia, lectures, and readings, the College
presents two annual anchor programs for the community: U-Nite!, in partnership with the Crocker Art
Museum in the fall, and Festival of the Arts (FOTA), which includes U-CREATE in partnership with the Verge
Center for the Arts, Axis Gallery, and Sunday Funday each spring.
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We are committed to engaging with our community in multiple ways: public history and public art projects;
K-12 arts education programs such as the String Project, theater performances for high school students;
Voces de Sacramento (a Spanish writing contest); service-learning opportunities; and partnerships with
community-based organizations such as 916Ink, Sacramento Promise Zone, Developmental Disabilities
Service Organization, and Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, among others.
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Our students earn national and regional recognition for award-winning student publications, competitions,
and performances, including The State Hornet; Clio: California State University, Sacramento, History Journal;
Downbeat Student Music Awards; and Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival winners and
finalists. Our Public Art Students recently completed and installed Tributary, a monument celebrating
Hornet spirit.
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Arts and Letters alumni continue to make us Hornet Proud. Among them are Jamil Kochai (English), author
of The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, a 2002 National Book Award finalist who has joined our
faculty; Elaine Welteroth (Communication Studies), award-winning journalist and author of More Than
Enough: Claiming Space For Who You Are (No Matter What They Say); and more recent graduates Jonathan
Saatman and Sophia Silvers (Music), who recently performed in Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera’s
production of Die Fledermaus (The Bat).
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Our faculty actively publish, perform, and exhibit nationally and internationally and receive highly
competitive grants, awards, and recognition such as those from the National Endowment for the
Humanities, Fulbright awards, and National Science Foundation.
