Number 1 Mathematics and Statistics undergraduates in the nation!

Fort Valley State University ranks number 1 in the nation in Math and Statistics graduates! Diverse, a journal devoted to issues that matter most to HBCUs and Minority-Serving Institutions in higher education, has released their 2014 rankings for schools that produce minority graduates and not only did FVSU produce the greatest number of students with undergraduate degrees in Math and Statistics, we also ranked 8th in the nation in producing students with undergraduate degrees in Biological and Biomedical Sciences!

The ranking confirms the impression I've been forming since joining FVSU: we have some of the most talented and dedicated faculty. The ranking also speaks to the high quality of our students.

FVSU: potential realized!

The Math faculty are led by Dr. Dawit Aberra who also serves as the Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.


Dr. Aberra recently won a major NSF Targeted Infusion grant with fellow Math and Computer Science department faculty members Drs. Shadreck Chitsonga and Haixin Wang. They have been awarded $393,684 to develop a minor in Applied Statistics over the next three years.













Math faculty:
Ms. Bhavana Burell
Dr. Samuel Cartwright
Dr. Josephine Davis
Mr. Gholamreza Keihany
Dr. Patcharin Tragoonsirisak
Dr. Jianmin K. Zhu

One of the joys of Academe is being surrounded by intelligent and industrious people who are constantly working to expand and deepen our understanding of the human condition. I will have an opportunity to share in that excitement by attending a public lecture on October 28, 2014. The talk will be by Dr. Peter Dumbuya who recently came back from a year abroad as a Fulbright Scholar in Sierra Leone. The project was to examine, as Professor Dumbuya puts it, "sexual violence and other traumatic wartime experiences of women and girls during the civil war" in Sierra Leone that spanned the last decade of the twentieth century. Females were systematically targeted by all the warring factions, and Dr. Dumbuya's research examines the legal and cultural structures and preferences that enabled such practices.

He is also interested in examining what happened after the fighting as the government looked to bring women and girls back into society. Legal remedies were "enacted to empower women and girls and end gender-based bias, discrimination, and violence," but there has not been a serious study of the effectiveness of such measures until Dr. Dumbuya's work.

The talk, titled Operation Liberate the Motherland, is open and free to all and will take place on October 28 from noon to one in Pettigrew Center.

Dr. Dumbuya's talk will also serve to launch the College of Arts and Sciences Researcher Series which will feature Fort Valley State University researchers and scholars.




Dr. Dumbuya has published numerous articles and several books, the most recent of which is Reinventing the Colonial State: Constitutionalism, One-Party Rule, and Civil War in Sierra Leone.

As the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fort Valley State University, I will be using this blog to talk about various issues to do with the college and the university, as well as other topics.


The College of Arts and Sciences – the heart of Fort Valley State University – provides 80% of the instruction including the core and general education requirements. The talented and dedicated faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences help students achieve baccalaureates in the Liberal Arts, Performance Studies, Business, and STEM disciplines to name just a few. A few words about some of our programs:
 

• In the Behavioral Sciences, Psychology is one of the largest degree programs on campus and the online program is a high-quality, comprehensive offering growing every semester.

• Biology students enjoy the benefits of a new facility containing state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories. The Biology faculty have an admirable record of placing students into summer enrichment or undergraduate research programs, internships and employment, as well as graduate schools.

• Chemistry has received external funding from the National Science Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation and the Department of Defense and has several partnerships with regional schools such as Mercer University, UGA, Georgia Perimeter, Savannah State and Southern Polytechnic.

• Math and Computer Science has modern teaching and research computer laboratories equipped with up-to-date software, and is involved with local elementary, middle, and high schools. The department has an established record of helping students participate in co-ops, internships and undergraduate research experiences at various prestigious institutions and corporations.

• The Cooperative Development Energy Program works with partner Institutions around the country and the world to help students engage with the energy sector. CDEP has established a pipeline that has made it possible to graduate 80 engineers, 31 geo-scientists, and 8 health physicists since 1997.

• Criminal Justice is one of the largest majors on campus with both face-to-face and  fully online programs. Many of the graduates find immediate  employment in the field of law enforcement.

• The peer-reviewed Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians is edited and housed in the History department.

• Fine Arts and Mass Communications have over two-hundred majors. Our recently acquired Radio station along with our television station help provide a diverse curriculum in media arts. Students have opportunities to take part in Band, the Jazz Ensemble, University Choir, and Theatre production.

• The Business department has Corporate partnerships that provide internships for current students and permanent job placement upon graduation. Small class sizes afford faculty members the ability to provide a more individualized learning experience to our students.

• The English and Foreign Languages department teaches all levels of English and Spanish, as well as French and teaches a good part of the core curriculum for the entire university. The Technical and Professional Writing track regularly attracts many majors. English and Foreign Languages graduates go on to further study in graduate school or law school and become teachers, attorneys, professors, and technical writers.