College of Arts and Sciences

Dean: Matt Bahr
Associate Deans: Molly Kretchmar-Hendricks, Jonathan Rossing, Stacy Taninchev

The College of Arts and Sciences develops women and men for others, ready to face the intellectual, vocational, and spiritual challenges of today and tomorrow.

The College is primarily responsible for delivering courses in the University Core curriculum, the center of Gonzaga’s humanistic, Jesuit, Catholic education. The departments and programs that make up the College also offer students majors, minors and concentrations in liberal arts, humanities, and specialized fields, preparing them for immediate careers or for further studies. For students pursuing Arts and Sciences majors, the College also has a secondary language requirement.

Degree Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences

Bachelor of Arts, General: This is the regular B.A. degree offered by the College; it also is available with a teaching option in some majors.

Bachelor of Science, General: This is the regular B.S. degree offered by the College.

Bachelor of Arts, Honors: This degree is awarded to students who pursue their basic undergraduate education under the direction of the Honors Program. A specific core Honors curriculum, accomplished primarily through colloquia and seminars, satisfies university core requirements for those students who obtain this degree. The degree is available in all majors within the College that offer the B.A.

Bachelor of Science, Honors: This degree is awarded to students who complete the requirements for a major in a field which offers the B.S. and who pursue their basic undergraduate education under the direction of the Honors Program; a specific Honors curriculum satisfies the university core requirements for those students who obtain this degree.

3+3 BA/BS/J.D.: This program consists of three years in an approved undergraduate major¹ and entrance to the Law School in the fourth year, resulting in a B.A./B.S. and a J.D. from the Gonzaga University School of Law in six years rather than seven. The 3+3 program requires successful completion of 98 credits from Gonzaga University by the end of their junior year (six semesters). Upon completion of these 98 credits, the student should have met all relevant undergraduate degree requirements, except for the final 30 undergraduate credits required under the 128 credit undergraduate degree policy. The additional 30 elective credits will be fulfilled using completed law school courses. Students complete the application to the Gonzaga School of Law in their fifth semester. Because of the pre-planning this pathway involves, interested students should contact a pre-law advisor in Career and Professional Services during their first semester.

¹Some majors are credit-intensive and/or highly sequenced. Students in those majors may not be able to complete the major in three years and would not be able to participate in this program.

College of Arts and Sciences Degree Requirements

In addition to the general degree requirements of the University, including the University Core curriculum, students earning all Bachelor’s degrees offered by the College of Arts and Sciences must complete the following requirements:

1. Completion of the requirements for a major within the College.
2. Completion of a senior thesis, comprehensive exam, capstone, or other culminating experience designed by the major department.
3. Language Requirement: Competency in a second language (classical or modern) at the intermediate level (courses numbered 201-202) is required for students continuing in the study of a language. Students beginning study in a language they have not previously studied can fulfill the requirement by completing one year at the beginning level (courses numbered 101-102). The languages regularly taught at Gonzaga are Arabic, ASL, Chinese, Filipino, French, German, Greek, Italian, Latin, Japanese, and Spanish. International students from non-English speaking countries whose primary and/or secondary education was in a language other than English, the CAS language requirement is automatically fulfilled sine the proficiency threshold for admissions is advanced proficiency, exceeding the requirement of the language requirement. 

Please note: Every degree requires a minimum of 128 completed semester credits. No core, major, minor, or concentration courses may be taken under the Pass/Fail option.

Table of Credits for Degrees, Majors and Minors

Note: *Number of credits required is dependent on non-English language competency.

Teacher Certification
In order to obtain a teaching certificate, students need to complete a degree with an appropriate major and also complete professional educational requirements. Since most future teachers obtain their degree in the College of Arts and Sciences, they have an academic advisor in that college. In addition, they need an advisor from the Teacher Education Department, who is usually assigned to them when they register for EDTE 101L.