The College of Arts and Sciences is the academic core of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, a public, metropolitan research university that serves Missouri's most populous and economically and socially diverse region. Through academic programs offered on and off campus, it educates traditional and nontraditional students who will supply knowledge, skills, and intellectual leadership in both the private and public sectors. Active engagement in research and scholarship enables College faculty in every department to advance knowledge and to impart research methods and results directly in their classroom teaching. In addition to providing extensive opportunities in general education and undergraduate and graduate degree programs in many disciplines, the College emphasizes multi-disciplinary programs in life and environmental sciences as well as metropolitan and regional studies.