This is the third in a 10-part series about the current and future state of each undergraduate college within Boston University after President Brown and Provost David Campbell assumed their new positions.

The College of General Studies, which feeds into the other university colleges after two years, aims to remain on its course under the new university administration.

Dean Linda Wells, who has been at the university since 1980, said she does not foresee any change in CGS’s fundamental program.

According to Wells, the college will continue “providing a strong liberal arts foundation for specific study,” and hiring only Ph.D.s as professors.

CGS, which opened in 1952 as a “spin-off” of the General College located in Copley Square, was designed to provide World War II and Korean War vets with a solid liberal arts foundation. Here, Wells said the idea of interdisciplinary teaching was born.

“We founded team teaching in the ’50s,” she said. “Other institutions have imitated it, especially middle and high schools.”

Wells said CGS is unique within both the university and the country.

“We have no peer,” she said. “And that is good and bad.”

Assistant Dean Robert Emery said the mission of CGS is to “provide a top-level core curriculum.”

“We provide a more structured approach to the first two years of college,” he continued. “We’ll continue to change and shift with the times.”

Natural Sciences Division Chairman Pete Busher said there have been many changes during his 22 years at BU, including freshman electives, the international program and more directed studies at the college.

“We offer many more opportunities for our students,” he said. “It was a good school when I got here. It’s only improved.”

Assistant Professor of Rhetoric Regina Hansen said she hopes to keep teachings applicable to life outside the university.

“I hope that we’ll continue to offer a breadth of knowledge,” she said, “but continue to move with what’s relevant in the world.”

Most of the changes earmarked for CGS will affect the facilities, Wells said.

The Brendan Gilbane study lounge, designed specifically for the team method used by CGS, opened Friday.

“We want some more rooms like this study lounge,” Wells said. The lounge includes small rooms for group meetings and wireless internet.

“It’s more the aesthetics that need to be improved,” she said. Busher said he would like to upgrade the lab facilities, which would aid in improving the natural sciences curriculum.

“We want to stress lab activities and we need the infrastructure to do that,” he said. “We encourage the faculty to carve out small spaces to use to encourage research beyond the lab.”

CGS graduate and College of Arts and Sciences senior Colin Minich said there is a need for a solid science program, as well as an updated study center.

“They need to put some books in there that have some use,” he said. CGS sophomore Priya Pandit said she would like to see more flexibility in classes scheduling and options.

“The sciences are really unnecessary,” she said. “I don’t need science for my major at all.”

Both Wells and students commented on the view of CGS within the BU community.

Wells said people tend to generalize members of certain groups and colleges on campus.

“Because the rest of BU doesn’t take classes here, they don’t know what it’s like,” she said. “CGS students have to be the ambassador of their program.”

Pandit said she felt CGS was looked at as being intellectually different than other schools on campus.

“I feel like the administration looks at us like we’re a different school in the university,” she said. “They should make it a little more competitive.”

As for the new administration, Busher said all conversations have been positive.

“There’s an undercurrent of good feeling about the university,” he said. “The change in the upper level has been a breath of fresh air. It’s very positive.”

Hansen, who has taught for 10 years at BU, called the administration’s new approach optimistic.

“It seems like everyone’s pleased with the way they’ve been studying the issues,” she said. “The fact that they’re asking the questions and taking them seriously is good.”