Trinity College of Arts and Sciences is the undergraduate

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in liberal arts and sciences. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general intellectual capac ...

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. Founded in 1838, it is the original school of the university. Currently, Trinity is one of three

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

degree programs at Duke, the others being the Edmund T. Pratt School of Engineering and

Duke Kunshan University Duke Kunshan University (DKU) is a Wuhan University– Duke University joint venture, independently accredited university in Kunshan, Jiangsu, China. In 2018, Duke Kunshan University welcomed their first inaugural undergraduate class. Hi ...

. At Duke, Arts & Sciences is the collective name of all educational programs, research programs, and faculty in the

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

, and the

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

at Duke, inclusive of undergraduate programs and many degree programs in Duke's

Graduate School Postgraduate or graduate education refers to Academic degree, academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by higher education, post-secondary students who have earned an Undergraduate education, un ...

. The division's unusual dual name may reflect the fact that it is responsible for undergraduate education (through Trinity College) and graduate education and research (Arts and Sciences).

History

Trinity College was the name of the predecessor of Duke University. Tobacco magnate and philanthropist

James Buchanan Duke James Buchanan Duke (December 23, 1856 – October 10, 1925) was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the introduction of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing, and his involvement with Duke University. ...

left a $24 million bequest to transform the college into a research university called "Duke University" in honor of his father

Washington Duke Washington Duke (December 18, 1820 – May 8, 1905) was an American tobacco industrialist and philanthropist. During the American Civil War he enlisted in the Confederate States Navy. In 1865, Duke founded the "W. Duke, Sons & Co.", a tobacco ma ...

. In 1930, the institution's original Durham campus became known as the Women's College of Duke University, while Trinity continued as the name of the undergraduate men's college. The West or

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

campus about a mile from East Campus became home to Trinity College, along with

Duke University Hospital Duke University Hospital is a 957-acute care bed academic tertiary care facility located in Durham, North Carolina. Established in 1930, it is the flagship teaching hospital for the Duke University Health System, a network of physicians and hos ...

and the graduate and professional schools. The two colleges continued as coordinate residential and degree-granting entities for forty years. However, there was always a single faculty of Arts and Sciences responsible for undergraduate and graduate instruction. Trinity College and the Women's College merged in 1972 to form Trinity College of Arts and Sciences and the East and West campus became co-educational.

Organization

The college is a constituent school of Duke University and contains a dependent system of

residential college A residential college is a division of a university that places academic activity in a community setting of students and faculty, usually at a residence and with shared meals, the college having a degree of autonomy and a federated relationship wi ...

s. Although it is a "college," its highest ranking officer is its Dean. The interim dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences is Mohamed Noor, previously Dean of Natural Sciences for three years. Former dean

Valerie Ashby Valerie Sheares Ashby is a chemist and university professor who currently serves as President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She was the Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University from 2015 to 2022 and fo ...

, professor of

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, left her second term early to become President of the

University of Maryland, Baltimore County The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

in 2022. Each dean is appointed to the position for a five-year term, and the position serves under the university's provost and

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

. Due to Duke's interdisciplinary approach, it is common for faculty to hold cross-college appointments; however, all faculty of the college are also faculty within Duke's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In the beginning of the twenty-first century, Duke renovated the undergraduate residential college experience. In the present day, the residential colleges are funded and controlled by the University, not by the college. Each residential college has a specific dean, headed by one residential "Associate Dean." Note, these deans are not the heads of specific departments, but rather general undergraduate deans. Each department has an independent department head who oversees both the undergraduate and graduate education within the specific department.

Residential colleges

All undergraduate students at Duke University live within the residential college system, regardless of if the students are enrolled in the college of Arts and Sciences or

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

. By keeping all undergraduates, regardless of their undergraduate college affiliation, in one system allows for one integrated Duke undergraduate community. All undergraduate freshman at Duke since the merger of the Women's College in 1972 live on the east part of campus. After their freshman year, undergraduates have the ability to rush certain "houses" within the residential college system, located on the west part of campus. Although similar to the residential housing systems at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

's is distinct due to the tradition of freshman and upperclassmen living on separately designated parts of campus.

Current programs

At Duke, the undergraduate experience centers around Trinity College, with Engineering students taking approximately half of their Duke common curriculum within Trinity. Engineering students are able to enroll in any classes within the liberal arts college, and Trinity students are able to enroll in any classes within the engineering college. The Duke undergraduate curriculum includes a focus on the humanities. All freshman students take a writing class and a current-issues seminar class. The Graduate School trains roughly 1200 doctoral and masters students in the arts and sciences as well as in

divinity Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

, and environmental and earth sciences.

Departments

The following departments are within the college and offer either a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

, or minor: * Sciences ** Biology ** Biophysics ** Chemistry ** Computational Biology & Bioinformatics ** Computer Science (commonly combined with

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

within the

Pratt Pratt is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include: A–F * Abner Pratt (1801–1863), American diplomat, jurist, politician, lawyer * Al Pratt (baseball) (1847–1937), American baseball player * Andy Pratt (baseball) (bor ...

undergraduate college to form Duke's EECS degree) ** Earth and Ocean Sciences ** Economics (where a Finance minor and Financial Economics concentration are available) ** Environmental Studies ** Global Health ** Mathematics ** Neuroscience ** Physics ** Statistical Sciences * Cultural Studies ** African & African American Studies ** Art History ** Asian & Middle Eastern Studies ** Cultural Anthropology ** Dance ** Evolutionary Anthropology ** Global Cultural Studies ** History ** International Comparative Studies ** Medieval & Renaissance Studies ** Music ** Philosophy ** Psychology ** Public Policy (in conjunction with

Sanford School of Public Policy The Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University is named after former Duke president and Governor of North Carolina Terry Sanford, who established the university's Institute for Policy Sciences and Public Affairs in 1971 as an interdiscipl ...

) ** Political Science ** Religious Studies ** Theater Studies * Languages ** Brazilian & Portuguese ** Classics (Ancient Latin / Ancient Greek) ** English ** French ** German ** Greek (modern) ** Italian ** Linguistics ** Romance Studies ** Russian ** Slavic & Eurasian ** Spanish

References

External links

Trinity College of Arts & SciencesDuke University
{{authority control Liberal arts colleges at universities in the United States Duke University Educational institutions established in 1930 1930 establishments in North Carolina