Established as the College of Social Sciences in the fall of 1973 as part of a university-wide academic reorganization, our college began with just five departments: economics, geography, government (now political science), sociology, and urban and regional planning.
There’s been much growth over the years, with 12 departments and interdisciplinary programs now housed within the college, along with 11 centers and institutes.
COSSPP has evolved to become a bedrock college for the university, with over 5,000 students calling COSSPP home each year and 50,000+ alumni around the globe working to address the world’s challenges and bettering their communities.
As the third-largest, most demographically diverse, and politically engaged college on campus, COSSPP is a microcosm of the campus, the state, and the nation.
Warren F. Mazek, Ph.D., was named the first dean of the college in July of 1973, a post he would hold until 1986. Since then, the college, which was renamed to include Public Policy in 2015, has had five deans, with Tim Chapin, Ph.D., being the most recent appointed in 2016.
One thing that has not changed over the past 50 years, however, is COSSPP’s commitment to its mission of developing the next generation of leaders, citizens, and innovators to advance scholarship, engage communities, and serve society.
The college’s profile continues to rise not just on campus, but also around the country. In just its first few years, the new public health undergraduate degree has become one of the most popular degree programs at FSU.
COSSPP’s academic programs turn out top graduates at every level, and our programs’ various rankings demonstrate the rigor of our teaching and research.
Our Department of Sociology’s doctoral program, established in 1954, is ranked #29 among all public universities and #49 overall, and it is the top-ranked sociology program in Florida among both public and private institutions.
Our public affairs graduate programs, including public administration and policy, urban and regional planning, political science, and emergency management and homeland security, were ranked among the top in the nation by U.S. News and World Report in its 2023-2024 edition of Best Graduate Schools.
Our award-winning faculty engage in groundbreaking research and train the next generation of academics, applied research scientists, and leaders in government agencies and the private and non-profit sectors.
Our faculty are consistently ranked highly for their productivity in leading disciplinary journals. Recently, our Askew School faculty were ranked #6 globally and #2 nationwide for their exceptionally high productivity in leading academic journals by ShanghaiRanking, and our political science faculty were ranked #16 for research productivity among all U.S. doctoral programs by the American Political Science Association.
In addition to our academic offerings, our programs, faculty, and staff provide strong professional development and networking opportunities for our students, which are key contributors to our high job placement rates after graduation.
With a successful network of more than 50,000 COSSPP alumni worldwide, graduates have gone on to find lucrative careers in their respective fields in public and private industries with organizations such as CNN, The Coca-Cola Company, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, the Florida House of Representatives, Google, NASA, U.S. Census Bureau, The World Bank and more.
The college’s 11 centers and institutes have supported evidence-based, interdisciplinary researh on topics facing our communities at the local, national, and international levels.
Grants are also on the rise, with our faculty bringing in $5.4 million in externally funded research projects in the 2023-2024 fiscal year from entities like the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute on Aging, Florida Department of Health, and more.
As we look to the next 50 years, we know that in many ways the ‘Future will be Made in Bellamy,’ and we thank our alumni and friends for continuing to support the next generation by generously giving of their time and treasure.
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To stay up to date with all the exciting things going on at the college, be sure to sign up for our quarterly Alumni & Friends Newsletter online at bit.ly/COSSPP-alum-friends-newsletter.
To read more about our college’s rich history, visit cosspp.fsu.edu/50th.