Through the faculty, Arizona State University’s Graduate College offers programs to meet the educational needs of those who already hold baccalaureate and master’s degrees. While many students prepare for careers in research, the professions, and the arts, others study for personal enrichment. Both part-time and full-time students are enrolled in 90 master’s and 46 doctoral majors encompassing hundreds of concentrations and specialties. Other students explore new areas of interest or prepare for career advancements apart from formal degree programs.

The size, strength, and diversity of the graduate community reflect the university’s commitment to high quality education. As a major center for graduate education, ASU supports cultural and intellectual activity as well as research in a broad range of arts and sciences and professional disciplines; in addition, the university conducts research addressing the social, cultural, and economic growth and development of Arizona and the Southwest.

One distinctive project that magnifies our dedication to graduate students is our Preparing Future Faculty program, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and ASU. The program is designed to educate students about faculty roles and prepare doctoral students specifically for faculty positions in our nation’s colleges and universities.

This past year, about 2,000 ASU graduate students were awarded prestigious fellowships and scholarships, exceeding $3.5 million. These awards were funded by the National Science Foundation. NASA, the Ford Foundation, Fulbright, and other public agencies and private foundations.

ASU assisted close to 1,400 outstanding graduate students through academic and tuition scholarship and other financial support programs—the total financial support amounted to $4.8 million, exemplifying ASU’s commitment to enabling student success.

The university’s funded programs, together with our more than 30 research centers and institutes, provide assistantships and training for many of our graduate students; further, the centers coordinate conferences, colloquia, and special seminars to heighten the learning experience. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research provides seed money to empower our faculty and students to work at the frontiers of knowledge. Such activities continually encourage the creative embrace of change and experimentation.

ASU provides numerous choices in student life, for personal enrichment as well as cultural interaction. Many internationally known speakers present lectures here, bringing together faculty, graduate students, and the community to engage in stimulating dialogue.

Intellectual Environment. About 11,000 students from all 50 states and more than 100 nations are enrolled in graduate study at the university. The size and diversity contribute to a cosmopolitan setting that is ideal for intellectual discourse and stimulation. As a balance to this large grouping of students, individual graduate programs conduct small colloquia and seminars where students and faculty discuss their work in an intimate, intellectual environment supportive of student development. The result is a spirited, lively atmosphere in which students and faculty members get to know each other through collaborative research and intellectual exchange.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Degree Programs

Although graduate degree programs differ in many ways, they all share two important characteristics. First, in comparison to baccalaureate programs, they demand a deeper and broader understanding of a body of knowledge in a recognized discipline or profession. Second, in master’s and especially in doctoral programs, graduate students prepare to make original contributions to their fields through research and other creative activities of a high order. In contrast, then, to the broad-based baccalaureate degree, graduate degrees are specialized. ASU offers several types and levels of postbaccalaureate degrees.

For admission information and procedures, access the Web site at www.asu.edu/graduate/admission or refer to the Application for Graduate Admission booklet.

Master’s and Doctoral Work. Many students pursue a master’s degree to satisfy their own quest for learning. In some disciplines, such as dance or architecture, the master’s degree is normally the terminal or final degree. In other fields, students enter master’s programs as the first step toward more advanced work, such as doctoral studies, which prepare students for a lifetime of intellectual inquiry and creativity or for the application of knowledge to professional practice.

Research Degrees. Students at ASU may pursue research-oriented or practice-oriented degrees. Research-oriented degree programs—the Master of Arts (M.A.), Master of Science (M.S.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)—prepare students for careers of research and scholarship in governmental, business, and industrial organizations, or in university or college teaching. Students in these programs develop abilities to evaluate existing knowledge critically and extend it into fresh areas of inquiry and scholarship.

Professional Degrees. The professional or practice-oriented degree programs have slightly different names and distinct academic missions. The names of the degrees are commonly tied to the academic unit offering the program, for example, Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Master of Music (M.M.), Master of Social Work (M.S.W.), and Doctor of Public Administration (D.P.A.). With the objective of preparing students for professional practice, such programs require rigorous preparation in the fundamental literature and scholarship of the field. Some degrees require demonstrated expertise through an internship, an exhibition (art), a performance (dance), or a recital (music). Examples of ASU fields in which academic units offer professional programs include architecture and design, business, education, engineering, health services administration, law, nursing, public administration, and social work.

Nondegree Graduate Study

Many serious students enter graduate studies not intending to obtain a new degree but rather to enhance personal knowledge. They may want to advance in their present career, acquire the background to make a career change, or make up academic deficiencies before entering a degree program. All graduate students, degree or nondegree, enjoy the benefits of cultural and intellectual activities at the university, such as colloquia, seminars, and conferences focusing on the latest scholarship in the field. By consulting with appropriate academic units, students can learn which courses are suitable to their needs.

For admission information and procedures, access the Web site at www.asu.edu/graduate/admission or refer to the Application for Graduate Admission booklet.

Student Services for Nondegree Students. The Graduate College maintains an advising office open year-round. See “Advising and Career/Professional Development” for more information.

Graduate Studies and University Environment

The Graduate College spans the university in supervising graduate studies and offering all postbaccalaureate degrees except the Juris Doctor, which is administered by the College of Law. Since more than 1,600 ASU faculty members teach graduate students in more than 115 instructional units, the Graduate College works closely with the other colleges and academic units. In most cases, graduate instruction is offered by units that also provide related undergraduate programs.

Interdisciplinary Study. Although most graduate programs are offered by academic units, diverse interdisciplinary programs cross academic disciplines and come under the supervision of the Graduate College. Many majors are in fields that are still emerging as recognized academic disciplines and, therefore, do not customarily form the academic basis for departments. Other fields of study are inherently interdisciplinary and do not fit well with conventional disciplines around which departments are formed. Curricula must reflect intrinsically broad disciplinary affinities, and faculty must be drawn from more than one academic unit.

Currently, the Graduate College oversees nine interdisciplinary programs and has joint responsibility with the College of Education for another; several others are planned. Existing programs include the Gerontology Program (Certificate in Gerontology jointly offered by ASU Main and ASU West), Creative Writing (M.F.A.), Curriculum and Instruction (Ph.D.) (jointly administered with the College of Education), Exercise Science (Ph.D.), Justice Studies (Ph.D.), Public Administration (D.P.A.), Science and Engineering of Materials (Ph.D.), Speech and Hearing Science (Ph.D.), Statistics (M.S.), and Transportation Systems (Certificate in Transportation Systems).

Other interdisciplinary degree programs include Communication (Ph.D.) (administered by the College of Public Programs), Humanities (M.A.) (administered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences), and Molecular and Cellular Biology (M.S., Ph.D.) (administered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences).

Each of these programs utilizes resources and faculty from several disciplines. They promote cooperative research and instruction among faculty who share common interests but are housed in different academic units. They allow students to pursue degrees that are intellectually coherent but that bring together diverse strengths of the university. See the “Interdisciplinary Graduate Degrees, Majors, Concentrations, and Certificates Overseen by the Graduate College” table.

Interdisciplinary Committee on Linguistics. Linguistics at ASU is interdisciplinary in nature. The linguistics faculty come from the Departments of Anthropology, Communication, Computer Science, English, Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Psychology, and Speech and Hearing Science, and from the College of Education.

The Interdisciplinary Committee on Linguistics coordinates linguistics courses and programs, provides advising, and hosts conferences and lectures.

Faculty from three departments (Anthropology, English, Languages and Literatures) offer programs with concentrations in linguistics. The programs are: M.A. in Anthropology, M.A. in English, M.A. in Spanish, and the Master of Teaching English as a Second Language.

Certificate Programs. A number of certificate programs are offered by various academic units or programs on campus (see the “Certificates” table).

Research Programs. ASU continues to advance as a major research institution. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research provides leadership in obtaining external funding and in coordinating and administering sponsored projects. Many graduate students receive financial support and gain first-hand experience as they participate with faculty members in carrying out these research projects.

Much of this work is associated with campus research centers that help to develop proposals, coordinate activities, and bring together in colloquia and conferences students and faculty with common intellectual interests. Such centers include the Center for Solid-State Science, the Manufacturing Institute, the Institute of Human Origins, the Hispanic Research Center, and the Preventive Intervention Research Center. For further information on centers and institutes, refer to “Research Centers, Institutes, and Laboratories.”

Research Facilities. The university lends support to research in diverse ways, including extensive facilities for research and instructional programs. Recently built facilities include an architecture building, a fine arts complex, the Goldwater Center for Science and Engineering, an addition to the Life Sciences Center, and the Computing Commons. The Engineering Research Center, built as part of the Engineering Excellence Program, houses advanced facilities such as the Molecular Beam Epitaxy laboratory and a clean room for microelectronic device fabrication. Other facilities supporting research on campus are the Institute for Studies in the Arts, in the College of Fine Arts; the Facility for High Resolution Electron Microscopy, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and the Southwest Archaeological Collection in the Department of Anthropology.

Library System. The ASU library system is a major research facility (see also “University Libraries and Collections.”). It contains more than 3 million volumes of books and approximately 6.6 million pieces of microforms and subscribes to more than 36,000 journals and serials. Among the nation’s research libraries, it is in the top quarter in annual volume acquisition. It is especially strong in amassing current monographs and serials to support graduate programs. Some of the most important research collections include manuscripts and rare photographs on Arizona and Southwest topics and an excellent collection of social science materials on Southwestern and border studies topics, including materials on northwestern Mexico. In the humanities, the main library has a fine collection of literary works and literary criticism from small and major presses in American and English literature. The collection on child drama is also outstanding. A growing rare book and manuscript collection supports the research interests of academic units. The Arthur Young Tax Library emphasizes accounting and law. The Noble Science and Engineering Library is a designated U.S. Patent Depository and as such is one of fewer than 30 U.S. academic libraries to receive copies of all new patents. The entire collection of U.S. patents in microfilm is housed in the Noble Library.

The libraries contain extensive U.S. and Arizona government documents and selected international documents.

Branch libraries provide important specialized collections. The Music Library contains scores and sound recordings. The Architecture and Environmental Design Library houses a nationally recognized set of materials on solar energy and research collections on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Paolo Soleri as well as other Arizona architects.

The libraries offer excellent support to researchers interested in electronic information sources. The online library system incorporates the usual catalog to ASU library holdings as well as several other important electronic reference databases and gateways. Bibliographic information on the library holdings can be accessed from any location in the world via a modem-equipped microcomputer.

The library system belongs to the Center for Research Libraries, permitting access to the center’s vast collections of materials for extended loan periods.

Graduate Student Support Services

Providing academic and professional development support to graduate students is an important part of the Graduate College mission. Services include advising, individual mentoring for disadvantaged students, and financial support, as well as orientation sessions, workshops, career seminars, and research conferences.

The Graduate College Student Programs/Services maintains a variety of programs specifically for graduate and nondegree students.

Graduate College Financial Assistance Office. The Graduate College Financial Assistance Office meets the needs of graduate and professional students. Students may receive financial services at Wilson Hall, without having to visit other offices on campus. Students are offered general information about graduate financial assistance at ASU, may turn in documents, or receive status information on their student loans. Students can also apply for emergency short-term loans or pick up forms to report special circumstances. Staff members are available to help students with financial assistance concerns. Refer to “Financing Graduate Studies.” for a full description of graduate financial support and services or visit the Web site at www.asu.edu/graduate/gradaid.

Advising and Career/Professional Development. Many graduate students have questions and concerns about which degree to pursue, how to combine their student roles with parenting, partnering and worker roles, and what to do with their degrees upon graduation. The Graduate College provides the following resources.

Advising. The Graduate College’s Academic Advising Office supplies general information about policies, procedures, requirements, and support services. Appointments are available throughout the year.

Students with regular admission status should contact their academic unit for degree program advisement and program of study planning.

Career/Professional Development Seminars. The Graduate College, in conjunction with Counseling & Consultation, offers seminars to groups of graduate students interested in exploring career-related subject matters. Examples of seminar topics are dual career issues, the impact of values on career decision making, and transferable skills.

Career Planning Services for Graduate Students. In conjunction with Career Services and Counseling & Consultation, the Graduate College provides a brochure listing numerous career planning services for graduate student needs. This publication is also available at www.asu.edu/career.

Diversity Programs. The Graduate College’s Diversity Programs are designed to increase the number of graduate students from groups underrepresented in their chosen field of study. Students interested in these programs must first go to their respective departments for nomination.

Diversity Assistantship Program (DAP). The purpose of this merit-based program is to support research and creative activities related to a student’s field of study. Nominations are made by departments and recipients are supervised by a faculty member.

Academic Support Program (ASP). The purpose of ASP is two-fold: financial assistance and peer mentoring. ASP is available primarily to first-year students; however, departments are asked to provide a student’s subsequent funding. The program is based on financial need and the nominations of students by departments. Financial support is provided in the form of federal work-study to support field-related research that is supervised by a faculty member. For additional academic support, a student meets weekly with an assigned peer mentor who is two or more years advanced in the academic program.

Orientations. Each semester, the Graduate College hosts orientations for new graduate students and teaching assistants (TAs).

In addition to the General Orientation, teaching assistants have the opportunity to enrich and enhance their teaching through seminars offered each semester. At least two seminars are mandatory for first-time TAs. Among other topics, TAs can attend sessions on teaching lab sciences, human diversity, critical thinking, classroom management, ethical issues, and multimedia applications in the classroom.

Workshops for Undergraduate Students Considering Graduate Education. The Graduate College holds workshops to address the issues that students contemplating graduate study should consider. The purpose of graduate study, the choices among research and professional degrees, the selection of schools to apply to, and the types and sources of financial support are among the topics discussed.

Student Organizations. The Graduate Student Council is part of the Associated Students of Arizona State University (ASASU), the student government for the university. The Graduate Research Support Office represents graduate student interests within ASASU and the Office of Student Life. It assists the Graduate College in planning orientations and other student-related activities and funds with the Graduate College small research grants to support graduate students’ thesis and dissertation projects. In addition to the Council, many other special interest organizations are open to graduate students.

Format Office. The thesis, dissertation, or equivalent is the culmination of an important stage of graduate studies. By researching and writing this final work, graduate students are able to show that they have acquired skills essential to a discipline. The Graduate College publishes a Format Manual as a guide in preparing the master’s or doctoral document.

Publications Program. The Graduate College publishes a number of brochures, fliers, and other items during the year.

Graduate Council

The Graduate Council establishes general policies for graduate programs and serves as an advisory board to the dean. As part of its duties, the council reviews proposals for new degree programs and concentrations, regularly conducts reviews of established graduate programs, and sets policies and general standards for admissions. Sixteen faculty and one student serve on the council, representing a wide variety of degree programs, with at least one member representing each college in the university. Council members are appointed by the president of the university.

Offices of the Graduate College

The general offices of the college, including those of the dean, admissions, advising, financial assistance, and operations are located on the first floor of Wilson Hall in the center of campus. College offices are open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. The Graduate College may also be contacted by e-mail at asugrad@asu.edu or telephone 602/965–3521. The Web address is www.asu.edu/graduate.

1998–99 Graduate Catalog Table of Contents

Graduate College home page

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