College Dean's Prize: Improvements for Sociology

Since the end of the school year is coming to a close, this week’s blog entry will explain how I think the sociology department at the University of Southern California can be improved. I am writing this entry as my response to the USC College Dean’s Prize. The Dean’s Prize offers a monetary award for students who submit proposals on how to further improve the enrichment of student academic life. When considering how to improve the institution it is important to know the central mission of the university; to further the growth of students and society through the nurturing of spirit and mind. The important aspects included in the mission statement are “teaching, research, artistic creation, professional practice, and selected forms of public service.” In addition to the importance of the current mission, it is also relevant to know the university’s vision for the future. Found in USC’s strategic plan the vision for the future is “to become one of the most influential and productive research universities in the world.”

Does the Department of Sociology fulfill USC’s mission statement? Yes it does, however improvements can still be made, especially to fulfill the future visions of USC. The sociology department at USC offers a wide selection of courses from medical sociology to deviant behavior; four of which are required. These required courses fulfill the mission statement because they include teaching, research, artistic creation, professional practice, and public service. The sociology department’s “strength are enhanced through research and teaching partnerships.” Through these partnerships, students observe, tutor, and research children in the local schools. Although these classes fulfill the mission statement of the University, there are some problems.

For any 300 level courses there usually is only one professor who teaches each topic and the classes are around 50 people. It is important to have variety among professors; one professor may be more visual and others more auditory. Different students require different methods of teaching and with only one professor per topic many students’ learning needs are not met. As for the class size, this issue can easily be fixed with smaller discussion sections with the TAs once a week for an hour. Increasing the number of professors teaching the same class can also help with the size because there would be more classes for the same subject. In addition to the classes being large, some students cannot get into the classes they need because there is only one section of it. The first week of classes this semester there were at least ten students who needed to enroll in each of my sociology classes to be able to graduate but could not because the classes were full. If more sections were available there would not be a problem with getting into a specific class. With only completed one semester in the sociology department I have not been exposed to other areas that might need improvement.

My comments on how to improve the undergraduate sociology department and the University of Southern California will help achieve the future visions of USC. Will smaller class sizes and more professors, more research can be conducted to make USC one of the most influential research institutions. As human beings we constantly strive for perfection and whenever we reach one goal we create a new one. Even if these improvements are made to the sociology department, someone else will find other improvements, bringing it that much closer to perfection.