American University - Academic Organization

Academic Organization

The university is composed of seven divisions, referred to as colleges or schools, which house its academic programs: College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), Kogod School of Business (KSB), School of Communication (SOC), School of International Service (SIS), School of Public Affairs (SPA), School of Professional & Extended Studies (SPExS) and Washington College of Law (WCL). With the exception of WCL, undergraduate and graduate courses are housed within the same division, although organized into different programs.

Students who do not declare into a specific school are sorted into CAS, which combine with its variety of academic programs to make it the largest division, followed by SIS, SPA, WCL, KSB and SOC.

American University is also home to a unique program known as the Washington Semester Program. This program partners with institutions around the world to bring students to AU for a semester. The program operates as part of the School of Professional & Extended Studies. The program combines two seminar courses on three days a week with a two day per week internship that gives students a unique look at Washington, D.C. The program is unique in that the courses are not typical lecture courses; instead, speakers from various sectors of a particular field are invited to address the class, often from different perspectives.

In the Chronicle of Higher Education survey of college presidents' salaries for 2007–08, President Cornelius M. Kerwin was fifth highest in the nation with a compensation of $1.4 million.