Students during an undergraduate research class in the new Department of Biology teaching labs. | Photo by Matt Shiffler

In 2015, the College of Arts and Sciences was the academic home to nearly 1,400 undergraduates. By 2024, that number had soared 59%. Today, the most popular major is biology, followed by neuroscience—an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree offered as a collaboration with CWRU’s School of Medicine that launched in fall 2020. And on the Case Quad, the university’s $300 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building is framed out at five-stories high and will open in fall 2026, beginning a new chapter in our research endeavors. 

Continue reading to learn more about how the college is growing and flourishing.

Increasing Undergraduate Enrollment at the College and CWRU

2018: 1,345 and 5,262

2019: 1,459 and 5,383

2020: 1,504 and 5,430

2021: 1,671 and 5,792

2022: 1,701 and 6,017

2023: 1,791 and 6,186

2024: 2,221 and 6,528

The College’s Five Highest-Enrollment Undergraduate Majors

*This is from fall 2020, when the program was first offered

Books by College of Arts and Sciences faculty are showcased in shelves near the dean’s office in Crawford Hall.

Faculty Publications**

271 Articles

36 Books published

38 Book chapters

**From January 2024 through mid-May 2025

External Grants

$12 million received in fiscal year 2024—mostly in federal grants—in fields from biology to psychological sciences; from music to religious studies. The largest share of grants awarded were provided to faculty in the following departments:

• Physics: nearly $3.6 million  

• Biology: $2.5 million
  

• Psychological Sciences: $1.6 million
  

• Chemistry: nearly $1.6 million

As a third year student, Zhaonian Li, MFA (GRS ’25, dance), performed the lead role in the Department of Dance production of Quest last fall. Professor Gary Galbraith (CIT ’86; GRS ’88, dance), choreographed the piece, incorporating holograms and motion-tracking technology with support from a College of Arts and Sciences’ Expanding Horizons Initiative grant. | Photo by Brad Petot; digital rendering by Anastasiya Kurylyuk, Interactive Commons at Case Western Reserve University

College Grants to Support and Broaden Research and Teaching

In fall 2020, Joy K. Ward, then the college’s dean and now CWRU’s executive vice president and provost, launched the Expanding Horizons Initiative to fuel interdisciplinary research, creative collaborations and teaching innovations, increase external funding and to create more opportunities for students to work with faculty. 

Since then, the initiative has drawn more than $7 million in current use and endowment funds, largely thanks to alumni donations. The impact has been both broad and deep:

199 proposals funded involving …

• 125 college faculty (77 received grants and 48 others collaborated), 33 faculty from other CWRU schools and 20 faculty from other universities

• 124 graduate students

• 302 undergraduate students

• $1,654,367 in grants awarded to date