Charles A. Johnson

                Charles A. Johnson, professor of political science, has served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts since 2001. Throughout his term as dean, Johnson has been committed to continued growth of the liberal arts at Texas A&M through a focus on high standards and an expansion of diverse educational opportunities.

He empowered departments to take action and, as a result, several academic programs improved their competitiveness nationally and faculty began to compete successfully for national fellowships and awards. The college developed more diverse learning opportunities through faculty hires and course enhancements, and the college enhanced a study abroad program in Germany that focuses on a study of the European Union. A study abroad component also was built into a new learning community begun to mentor honors-eligible liberal arts majors.

Under Johnson’s leadership, the college secured an endowment to support humanities programming for faculty and students through the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research and successfully recruited the Center for the Study of the First Americans with over $2 million in endowment support to the Department of Anthropology.

The college has developed a more diverse learning environment in several ways. It has provided a grant program to either revise or introduce courses which offer new and different perspectives. The preeminent journal Callaloo, which covers the arts and letters of the African Disaspora, relocated to the Department of English. The college also established a new doctoral program in Hispanic Studies, a B.A. in classics, minors in Africana Studies and in Asian Studies, and established an Arabic and Asian Languages Office.       

As a part of the university's faculty hiring initiative that began  in 2001, Johnson implemented hiring guidelines that broadened the candidate pools. As a result, more than one-third of the faculty hires have been racial or ethnic minority scholars and more than half of those hires  have been  women scholars.

Internationally the college has broadened the types of international educational experiences liberal students pursue. In conjunction with a German foundation, ASKO – EUROPA STIFTUNG, a summer European academy was created where Texas A&M students spend six weeks in Europe studying the European Union. Reciprocal agreements have been signed with universities in France, England, and Mexico to establish faculty and student exchanges.

The College of Liberal Arts will continue to build it academic reputation through strong academic programs that provide unique learning opportunities for all students. The college has instituted a pilot program involving Texas A&M alumni and prospective undergraduates to encourage minority students to accept admission to Texas A&M University. The college also has plans to further enhance the undergraduate educational experience by offering more classes to reduce the faculty-to-student ratio, developing new study abroad courses, and creating new student scholarships.

Prior to his role as dean, Johnson worked in the Department of Political Science where he had served as professor and head since 1992. Johnson joined the faculty at A&M as an assistant professor in 1978 and was promoted to professor in 1986, thereafter serving as Associate Dean of Liberal Arts from 1987 to 1992. Johnson received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1977. His scholarly work has focused on the American judicial process. He is co-author of Judicial Policies: Implementation and Impact, Independent Counsel: Law and the Investigation, and coeditor of American Courts: A Critical Assessment.