Dean Gregory Crawford spoke to Student Senate Wednesday about the College of Science's accomplishments since it set goals for development in 2008.
The College aimed to improve its undergraduate program, grow economically and advance its Catholic character, Crawford said. Crawford focused on the College's success in developing its academic curriculum.
"We really put a lot of effort the last three years in biology," he said. "A lot of the young people that we hired [for that department] we got from incredible schools."
Crawford said the College of Science added a new department called Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, noting the University's previous lack of a variety of statistics courses.
"It was becoming an issue that we didn't have the expertise to really dig deep into some of these questions that our researchers had," Crawford said.
The College also launched a minor in sustainability last fall, Crawford said. The program, open to all students in all majors and colleges, incorporates elements of science, human health, the environment and energy.
"There are different tracks you can take, so you can … find your own niche in what you might be interested in doing," Crawford said.
The College of Science expanded its membership in the Glynn Family Honors Program, which endeavors to bridge the arts, humanities and sciences, Crawford said.
Student body president Pat McCormick said he has been in conversation with the staff of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (DPAC) about creating an arts advisory council.
"DPAC has been working to really try to develop this proposal to really advance the arts at Notre Dame," he said after the meeting. "I think they're still determining what the membership of the council would be, but essentially it would be a means of providing student input into the arts at Notre Dame and also work to coordinate among students in efforts to advance advocacy for the art community."
McCormick said he also scheduled a meeting with the South Bend Police Department next week to promote community relations between Notre Dame and South Bend.
"We're looking forward to just continuing to try to build up good relations and also a shared commitment to keeping the community safe," he said.
