The College aspires to earn the reputation as Louisiana's premier public undergraduate arts and sciences college. Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences contribute to the traditional core of a baccalaureate education for all students seeking a degree at Southeastern. Its purpose is to offer a wide range of courses and curricula in the arts, humanities and the natural, applied and social sciences. Programs in the college enable students to understand themselves and the world around them in a broad intellectual perspective. Such a perspective provides students the opportunity to live full, rich, balanced lives and to assume positions of leadership in the public and private sector.
Graduates are prepared to think critically, communicate effectively and become lifelong learners.
An arts and sciences education at Southeastern has a number of distinctive aspects. Each department in the College offers opportunities for students to become involved in faculty scholarship or gain practical experience. Most of these opportunities earn college credit. Some involve students working with one of the College's research and public service centers listed below. The Turtle Cove Environmental Research Station , Southeastern's field research and educational facility, is located at the upper end of the Lake Pontchartrain estuarine ecosystem.