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Bracing for the Pomp and Circumstance

This year, more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students will graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences. For everyone who works in CAS (and anywhere at the University of Oregon), getting students across the finish line is the collective goal. 

What do typical CAS students experience during there time here? Hear from five students — four undergraduates and one graduate — who reflect on their college experiences and share some insights to encourage and help future CAS majors. 

Read more about what's happening in CAS in the May issue of CAS Connection.    

Hear from CAS Students

Congratulations, Graduating Ducks!

The College of Arts and Sciences’ departments will hold commencement ceremonies on Monday, June 15, 2026.

CAS Commencement

News from CAS

MATHEMATICS - The Department of Mathematics hosts Victor Reiner for its 2026 Moursund Lectures. Morsund is a Distinguished McKnight Professor in Mathematics at the University of Minnesota. The series of three lectures is 4-5 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, at 128 Chiles Hall, 4-5 p.m. Wednesday, June 3, at 125 McKenzie Hall and 1:30-2:30 p.m. Thursday, June 4 at 245 Straub Hall.
THEATRE ARTS — The College of Arts and Sciences Department of Theatre Arts is expanding opportunities for students to gain hands-on experiences and learn about different career paths. The most recent example is the student-run production of “Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons” recently staged in the Pocket Playhouse and supported by a new student-director pilot program.
BIOCHEMISTRY, CHEMISTRY — Romila Mascarenhas, assistant professor of biochemistry, is starting a lab that investigates how gut bacteria recognize, transport and use vitamin B12, a molecule that plays a huge role in shaping microbial communities in the human gut. She anticipates her research will lead to collaboration with fellow CAS researchers across disciplines and attract a new generation of STEM students.

All news »

We Love Our Supporters

Your gifts change lives

Your Gift Changes Lives

Gifts to the College of Arts and Sciences can help our students make the most of their college careers. To do this, CAS needs your support. Your contributions help us ensure that teaching, research, advising, mentoring, and support services are fully available to every student. Thank you!

Give to CAS

a collage of images from the april 2026 CAS Connection

What’s Happening in CAS?

Why is storytelling so important for College of Arts and Sciences students, whether they're pursuing creative writing or neuroscience? With the advent of AI and constant technological innovation, it's more important than ever to bring humans together. Find out more how the craft of storytelling is preparing students for an ever-changing world. 

Also in the April CAS Connection issue, an economist weighs in on why the war in Iran and closure of the Strait of Hormuz leads to high prices around the world; alum, filmmaker and Olympic runner Alexi Pappas shares her perspective on ambition and failure; and a chemist shares research on how we can make labs more accessible for students — and more. 

exterior of Villard Hall on campus surrounded by trees

Undergraduate Studies

Wherever your academic goals eventually take you at the UO, all Ducks begin their journey with foundational courses in CAS. More than 60 percent of students go on to pursue a major in a CAS department or program. With more than 50 departments and programs, there’s an intellectual home for almost any interest, talent, or career aspiration.

a person throwing the "O"

Graduate Studies

The College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 30 master's programs and more than 20 doctoral programs across a diverse range of disciplines. Both as contributors to research teams and through their own scholarship and teaching, our CAS graduate students are indispensable to the vitality of the UO academic mission.

Student Support Services

We provide our students with a variety of resources to help you thrive inside and outside the classroom. Through Tykeson Advising, we provide comprehensive academic and career advising from the start of your journey at the University of Oregon. Learn about career preparation and get assistance in selecting the very best classes. Connect with labs, libraries, IT and tutoring. Find your community on campus.

World-Class Faculty

a person leading a classroom

The College of Arts and Sciences faculty members are a driving force of the high-output, high-impact research activity that has earned the UO membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). Our world-class faculty members are inspiring teachers.

Among them are five members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, four members of the National Academy of Sciences. They are committed to helping students discover their academic passion. Every day, they work to expand students’ intellectual horizons, preparing them for life after college with real-world knowledge and skills.

Spotlight on CAS Academics

Choose Your Path

The College of Arts and Sciences offers more than 50 majors and nearly 70 minors across multiple departments and programs in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. We also offer 36 master’s programs and 25 doctoral programs.

dean chris poulsen posing in front of Tykeson hall

Meet our Dean

In the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), we are committed to excellence in research and teaching, student success, and diversity, equity, and belonging. 

A liberal arts education—one that offers a breadth of intellectual approaches and perspectives and depth in a major discipline—is the foundation to a purposeful life as a life-long learner, engaged citizen, and leader. The skills you will learn here—from written and verbal communication to analytical and quantitative reasoning, to compassion and understanding—are those that employers seek and will open the door to a wealth of opportunities. 

You will find more than 50 majors and a multitude of minors within CAS, and seemingly endless opportunities for personal exploration and discovery. Whether you are an incoming first-year student, a grad student or a transfer student, you can map an exciting future and be part of a fun, warm, engaged liberal arts community here. Come join us. And go Ducks! 

More from Dean Chris Poulsen

The College of Arts and Sciences includes:

52
undergraduate degree programs
36
masters programs
25
PhD programs
11,000+
Undergraduate students in CAS Majors
800+
faculty members
1,200+
masters and PhD students in CAS

Happening at CAS

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

UO College of Arts & Sciences (@uocas) • Instagram photos and videos

May 27
Department of History Coffee Hour 1:00 p.m.

Please join us Wednesday afternoons for a free cup of coffee, pastries, and conversation with your history department community! We’re excited to continue this tradition for...
Department of History Coffee Hour
April 1–June 3
1:00 p.m.
McKenzie Hall 3rd floor (in front of office 385)

Please join us Wednesday afternoons for a free cup of coffee, pastries, and conversation with your history department community! We’re excited to continue this tradition for our history undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff. We hope to see you there!

May 27
Peace Corps Send-Off Party 4:00 p.m.

🍕🎉Join us to celebrate the Peace Corps volunteers preparing to depart for assignments abroad. If you have done the Peace Corps, are in the Peace Corps, are curious,...
Peace Corps Send-Off Party
May 27
4:00–6:00 p.m.
Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall 1st floor Commons

🍕🎉Join us to celebrate the Peace Corps volunteers preparing to depart for assignments abroad. If you have done the Peace Corps, are in the Peace Corps, are curious, interested, or applying to the Peace Corps (or just want to eat free pizza and learn about living abroad). Friends and family of future or past volunteers are encouraged to attend.

May 27
Creative Writing Reading Series Presents: ZZ Packer 7:00 p.m.

The Creative Writing Program invites you to a fiction reading with ZZ Packer. ZZ Packer was born in Chicago and raised in Atlanta and Louisville, Kentucky. She graduated from...
Creative Writing Reading Series Presents: ZZ Packer
May 27
7:00 p.m.
Knight Library Browsing Room

The Creative Writing Program invites you to a fiction reading with ZZ Packer.

ZZ Packer was born in Chicago and raised in Atlanta and Louisville, Kentucky. She graduated from Yale, and afterward received degrees from Johns Hopkins and The Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. She has been a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford, a Hodder Fellow at Princeton, and a Lillian Golay Knafel fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. 

Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Story, Ploughshares, GRANTA, Zoetrope All-Story, Best American Short Stories 2000, Best American Short Stories 2003 and 100 Years of The Best American Short Stories.   

Her non-fiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, The Believer, The American Prospect, The Oxford American, The Guardian, The New York Times Book Review, Newsweek Online and The New Yorker Online. She has appeared on the BBC World and on MSNBC as a Huffington Post contributor. 

She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a Whiting Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the American Academy of Berlin Prize. Her collection of stories Drinking Coffee Elsewhere won the Commonwealth First Fiction Award, an ALEX Award and was a National Book Award 5 under 35 winner. It became a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2004, and was selected for the Today Show Book Club by John Updike. 

ZZ Packer is editor of New Short Stories from the South: The Year’s Best, 2008. She is at work on a novel about the Reconstruction and Buffalo Soldiers entitled The Thousands, an excerpt of which appeared in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue” and The 1619 Project.

She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, Tulane University, Stanford University and Johns Hopkins. She’s most recently taught writing at MIT and Williams College, where she was also a writer-in-residence, as well as Harvard University and Vanderbilt, where she currently teaches in the MFA program.

 

May 27
Filmlandia Screening Series: "Sometimes a Great Notion" 7:30 p.m.

Filmlandia Screening Series presents: Sometimes a Great Notion (1971). *Free with UO ID Directed by Paul Newman | 114 min | Rated PG Synopsis: A family of fiercely...
Filmlandia Screening Series: "Sometimes a Great Notion"
May 27
7:30 p.m.
Art House Theater

Filmlandia Screening Series presents: Sometimes a Great Notion (1971).

*Free with UO ID

Directed by Paul Newman | 114 min | Rated PG

Synopsis: A family of fiercely independent Oregon loggers struggles to keep their family business alive amid changing times.

The Department of Cinema Studies and the University Film Society celebrate Oregon’s rich film heritage with a new screening series showcasing movies with a unique Oregon connection—from locally shot features to stories written or directed by Oregon filmmakers. Discover Oregon’s reel legacy on the big screen while connecting with the university film community.

Cosponsored by:  Harlan J. Strauss Visiting Filmmaker Endowment; Department of Art; Department of Comparative Literature; Department of English; Department of History; Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies; Native American and Indigenous Studies; Folklore and Public Culture Program; School of Journalism and Communication; Art House Theater; DUX Present; Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art; Julie and Rocky Dixon Chair of U.S. Western History; and Oregon Humanities Center’s Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities