2012-2013 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 28, 2024  
2012-2013 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Departments, Offices and Special Programs



Academic Department Listing

Academic Departments & Programs

At Clark, undergraduates can choose from among 31 majors (which includes a self-designed major), 30 minors and ten interdisciplinary concentrations, and can also take advantage of Clark’s Accelerated B.A./Master’s Degree Program, with the fifth year of study free to qualified students. Graduate students can choose from seven doctoral and 12 master’s degree programs.

Undergraduate Programs and Departments

Graduate Programs and Departments

Legend

red leaf icon = Undergraduate concentration

green leaf icon = Undergraduate concentration and Ph.D. program in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

 

Academic Support Services

Academic Advising

The Academic Advising Center helps students plan their academic programs through a coordinated set of activities and services. All new students are assigned a faculty adviser who helps them select courses and programs. Once a student has chosen a major, academic advising is coordinated by faculty within the student’s major department.

Among the Academic Advising Center’s support services are:

  • The Writing Center: Recognizing the importance of writing in all fields, Clark offers cross-disciplinary, departmental and special writing-center programs. Supplementing the curriculum, Clark’s Writing Center provides individual tutoring and noncredit workshops for all interested students. Writing-center offerings are flexibly designed to help students at all levels achieve clear, correct, graceful writing.
  • Disability Services: These services are designed to foster functional independence for students with disabilities. The coordinator of disability services offers advising and helps students, who have submitted appropriate documentation, negotiate reasonable accommodations. An early orientation for eligible first-year students is also part of these services.

English as a Second Language: American Language and Culture Institute (ALCI)

Clark University’s American Language and Culture Institute, known to students around the world as ALCI, offers intensive ESL programs for students who want to improve their English-language skills for academic or professional reasons. Through experiential learning, students receive a thorough orientation into American culture. ALCI serves as a resource for international undergraduates, graduate and Worcester-area community students for whom English is a second language, providing further opportunities in the training of speaking the English language, orientation to American life and culture, and preparation for successful university study.

Instruction is offered at up to five levels of proficiency, beginning through academic preparation. Dedicated, trained professionals provide 18 or more hours per week of intensive ESL instruction, as well as private tutorial sessions. Students are entitled to many services offered by the University including the Goddard Library, computer laboratories, athletic facilities, social activities, campus lectures and day trips to local and regional places of interest.

For more information about ALCI classes and/or programs, call ALCI at 508.793.7794.

Additional Academic Opportunities

Study Abroad

Clark University is well known for its international character and is committed to encouraging a strong Clark presence abroad, and an international presence on campus. The Office of Study Abroad Programs coordinates international study programs.

Currently Clark offers 40 semester or yearlong programs in Czech Republic, England, Scotland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, Senegal, Turkey, Jordan, Turks & Caicos, Australia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Chile, Costa Rica, Central America, Dominican Republic, Spain. Clark also offers a unique undergraduate research program – EuroScholars – that allows students to participate in original research at any of 12 prestigious European research universities in Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland.

In addition, Clark offers a domestic internship semester at American University’s Washington Semester, and at The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars; and a field research Semester in Environmental Science at Woods Hole.

Clark also offers a short-term summer program: The May Term in Luxembourg (which is administered by the Leir LuxembourgProgram located in Dana Commons Students may also take a leave of absence to study abroad on pre-approved programs in locations where Clark has no program of its own. Students may earn up to two units of transfer credit for pre-approved study abroad programs during the summer.

Students may earn up to a full year of credit through study abroad. Students interested in study abroad should contact the Office of Study Abroad Programs at Dana Commons or call (508) 793-7363 for more information.

Students are encouraged to meet with the Office of Study Abroad Programs as early as their first year at Clark to begin planning their junior semester or year abroad.

Leir Program

The Henry J. Leir Luxembourg Program (LLP-CU)

The LLP-CU offers students and faculty additional opportunities for study and research abroad. In addition to the May Term, which offers students a nearly four-week course in Luxembourg, the LLP-CU offers students internships with key Luxembourg institutions, such as the Musée national d’histoire et d’art Luxembourg  and the nations leading scientific institution in environmental science, Centre de Recherche Public - Gabriel Lippmann. For further information, please contact Uwe Gertz at UGertz@clarku.edu or (508)793-7634.

3/2 Engineering Program

The 3/2 engineering program consists of three years of studies at Clark followed by two years at an affiliated engineering school. The program leads to a bachelor of arts degree from Clark after four years and, after the fifth year, a bachelor of science in engineering from the engineering school. Clark offers the 3/2 engineering program with Columbia University. For more information, contact program coordinator Professor Charles Agosta in the physics department.

 

Colleges of Worcester Consortium

Clark is a member of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, which means that Clark sophomores, juniors and seniors can enroll for one course a semester at any of the following schools:

Cross-Registration

This arrangement among all Consortium member institutions allows full-time, undergraduate day students at these institutions to take courses at other campuses at no additional charge. Cross-registration forms with instructions on registration procedures are available in the registrar’s office at each Consortium institution. More information, including a master course list, is available on our web site.

Internship Database

Internships provide unique opportunities to experience career fields and industries before officially entering the workforce. Use this Consortium-wide database to explore the opportunities that exist in our area and consult with your professors and/or Career Services office to find the right match for you.

Consortium Shuttle

A free Consortium shuttle service is provided Monday through Friday, 7am to 7pm. The route connects six member campuses (WPI, Becker, Assumption, Clark, Worcester State, and Holy Cross) with each other and the Worcester Public Library, Union Station, Worcester Art Museum, and the downtown area.

 

Research Centers and Institutes


 

The Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise seeks to improve, through the successful mobilization of use-inspired research, the effectiveness of government and other institutions in addressing social concerns. The institute focuses on important social issues, including such areas as education reform, environmental sustainability, access to healthcare, human development, well-being, and global change. The institute achieves its mission through the promotion of an exemplary model of use-inspired research, sponsorship of projects in collaboration with other research centers on and off campus, publications, conferences, and student internships.

The George Perkins Marsh Institute conducts collaborative and interdisciplinary research on human-environment relationships within a wide range of research themes such as risks and hazards, the human dimensions of global environmental change, resource and environmental policy, industrialization and globalization, and the development and application of Geographic Information Science across multiple disciplines. Several centers are housed within the institute including The Center for Risk and Security, The Center for Technology, Environment and Development, and The Center for Community-Based Development.

Clark Labs for Cartographic Technologies and Geographic Analysis, best known for its flagship product, the IDRISI GIS and Image Processing software, is dedicated to the research and development of geospatial technologies for effective and responsible decision making for environmental management, sustainable resource development, and equitable resource allocation. Clark Labs leverages its academic base to develop innovative and customized research tools, provide software solutions to organizations in need, and apply geospatial expertise to a range of real-world problems.

The Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education, a national leader in education reform, has as its core mission the development of exemplary models of urban schooling, teaching, and teacher education through local partnerships. The Hiatt Center aims to learn from these models and expand the knowledge base of effective practice through research. The work of the Hiatt Center serves as a catalyst for positive change in urban education both locally and nationally.

The Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is an intellectually dynamic forum for education and scholarship about the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and other genocides around the world. Dedicated to teaching, research, and public service, the center offers the only Ph.D. in Holocaust history and genocide in the country, training the next generation of Holocaust and genocide historians, scholars, teachers, museum directors and curators, and experts in nongovernmental organizations and government agencies.