Academic Affairs

Physica Classroom

Providing leadership and resources to support the curriculum and the intellectual and professional growth of students, faculty and staff.

Ursinus’s Quest Curriculum is based on a “distinctly American” style of higher education, that combines specialized disciplinary education with perspectives from a range of disciplines. Unlike other colleges, Ursinus provides opportunities for students through all four years to make connections between courses and their co-curricular experiences to help them make value-based decisions about their future and their interactions with those around them.

Higher education in the United States was designed from earliest days to educate the whole human, rather than simply prepare an individual narrowly for a career. Many credit the long history of innovation and creativity in the U.S. to this style of education. Higher education in the rest of the world has been much more focused on disciplinary training, and only recently has begun to adopt the American model.

Not really, but to many, the term Liberal Arts suggests a political slant, and a focus on arts and humanities—neither of which is accurate! At Ursinus, we want to take this type of education to a higher level by structuring reflection points throughout the four years when students are challenged to understand other perspectives, draw connections between various experiences in and out of class, and use those reflections to chart their futures.

Liberal education was designed to empower people for leadership—in careers and in society. The first American colleges were only accessible to an elite group. Today, this unique education belongs to everyone. And Ursinus will prepare you for exceptional success—as scientists, as artists, as teachers, as political leaders, in all fields.

We help our students define and find their own success. But don’t just take our word for it—the American Association of Colleges and Universities has done a lot of research on this!

If you are a prospective student, try starting here or here.

If you are a family of a prospective student, try starting here.

If you are a high school counselor, try starting here.

Meet Our Deans

Heather Lobban-Viravong

Interim Vice President, Academic Affairs and Dean of the College
Vice President, Division of Inclusion and Community Engagement

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Kelly Sorensen

Professor of Philosophy and Religion
Associate Dean of the College

A brain ready for everything - that’s what an Ursinus education helps you develop.

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Simara Price

Assistant Professor of Biology
Associate Dean of the College

In addition to teaching introductory level laboratory courses, I have been developing and teaching biology courses that also explore how the field of biology plays a role in the African Diasporic experience in America. The topics we explore in these courses include human evolution, migration and skin pigmentation, medical fallacies, stress and epigenetics, ancestry and many more!

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Johannes Karreth

Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations
Assistant Dean of the College

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Rebecca Lyczak

Professor of Biology
Assistant Dean of the College

In my research lab, we are interested in understanding what genes control early embryonic development and regulation of the cell cycle. We use a combination of genetic approaches with time-lapse imaging of early cell divisions to uncover the role for different genes during development.

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URSI: The Ursinus Research Magazine Our faculty are on the cutting-edge of new and innovative research. Meet our researchers.