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.

USC Honorary Degree: Barrie Thorne

Since commencement will arrive in just over a month, this week’s post will discuss the University of Southern California's honorary degrees. This week I was challenged to find someone I thought was deserving of the USC honorary degree in my field of interest, sociology. However, there is some controversy over who is deserving of these degrees. James Freedman discusses how honorary degrees have been carelessly given out to those who do not deserve them. However, USC has specific categories and criteria that a nominee must fulfill to receive an honorary degree. USC’s four categories of criteria prevent those who do not deserve the degrees from receiving them. The first is “to honor individuals who have distinguished themselves through extraordinary achievements in scholarship” and other fields. The second is “to honor alumni and other individuals who have made outstanding contributions” to USC. The third is “to recognize exceptional acts of philanthropy”. Finally the fourth category is “to elevate the university in the eyes of the world”. Beyond these four categories there must be a reason why the nominee is specifically appropriate for USC.

The woman I would choose to nominate for a USC Honorary Degree would be Barrie Throne. She fits excellently into the first category of scholarly and academic achievement. Barrie Thorne is a prominent sociologist with a focus on feminism. She is the co-director of the Center for Working Families in Berkeley as well as a professor of Women Studies at UC Berkeley. She has written several books including Feminist Sociology: Life Histories of a Movement, Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School, and many more. Also, Thorne is the recipient of the Jessie Bernard Award. This award “is given in recognition of scholarly work” that have contributed greatly to the field of sociology by the American Sociological Assosiation. In addition, it is given to those whose work “has enlarged the horizons of sociology to encompass fully the role of women in society”.

Thorne embodies these traits as a scholar, researcher, teacher, and mentor. Thorne has also received other numerous awards for teaching and mentoring. She has accomplished great achievements for the feminist movement. But the main reason for this nomination would be her contribution to ethnography. She argues that the way we research children is ineffective. Children need to be studied separate from all other spheres. In addition to her studies on children and women, her work also focuses on sociology of age relations, sociology of gender and ethnographic methods.

Barrie Thorne is an excellent nominee for a Doctor of Science Honorary Degree. In my encounters with professionals and non-professionals I have found that they do not consider sociology as a science. By honoring Thorne with this degree can prove otherwise. Sociology is based in research just like every other science. There is a stigma that sociology is an easy area because it is simply what a person thinks. This stigma needs to be removed because years of research go into every theory in sociology. This is the reason why it would be specifically appropriate for Thorne to receive a USC Honorary Degree; to dispel the notions, even of some professors, that Sociology is not a science, when certainly it is. If Barrie Thorne were to be chosen to speak at commencement she could talk about the importance of sociology and specifically the importance of finding new methods of research in any field. All fields, from history to science, have some form a research involved. Without new methods, the areas of study would come to a stand still. We need to continuously try and better ourselves and society through new ways of research, in all fields including sociology. A woman like Barrie Thorne would be an incredible asset to the University of Southern California.