Teaching & Research Priorities

  1. Develop undergraduate Capstone courses in each discipline and various interdisciplinary topics. Enrollment will be limited to 15 high achieving juniors and seniors to give them an intense one semester exposure to on-going research projects on critical social issues. Each capstone course will include case studies of how social science research can be used to solve economic, social, and political problems.
  2. Establish leadership programs at the master's degree level for which we will recruit outstanding undergraduate students who have demonstrated excellent leadership skills. Students will seek a master's degree in one of our disciplines that will be enhanced with a common curriculum in building leadership. The International Affairs Future Leaders Program will emphasize cross-cultural communication and will recruit students world-wide.
  3. The Elderly Security Initiative is a teaching and research program that will focus on how the life course events affect the income and health status of senior citizens. Among the issues examined are pensions, social security, housing, age discrimination, spousal loss, and access to health care and long-term care. Faculty from all College departments and the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy are working in this area with the cooperation of the Pepper Center.
  4. Widening disparities in income and health outcomes, coupled with persistent poverty and inequality in education achievement, raise important challenges for America and all other industrialized countries. The College will expand its major research and outreach efforts in order to better understand the underlying causes of these problems and to develop innovative solutions involving an appropriate mix of individual responsibility, government policy, and non-profit sector initiatives.
  5. The Dialogue Initiative will enhance the College and University's international education programs. Led by the Claude Pepper Center for Intercultural Dialogue, this Initiative will focus on how cultural differences, poverty and political institutions combine to influence international relations, terrorism and economic development. This initiative will involve faculty and students from the many programs at Florida State and will promote world-wide student and faculty exchanges.
  6. Community governance, growth management, and environmental protection. Florida's fragile environment, vulnerability to hurricanes, and rapid population growth require a new understanding of how developers, communities, governments, the non-profit sector and the state can independently and jointly contribute to more effective growth management while maintaining the economic opportunity that growth brings. The College is committed to exploring alternative policies and institutional arrangements to help address hot-button issues such as off-shore drilling, water quality, protection of Florida's shoreline and the Everglades, affordable housing, and economic development.