Sociology Newsletter
Winter 1999

Message from the Chair

Sociology in the United States is seeing a growth in student interest. Students recognize that our discipline is on the cutting edge of teaching and research with topics of immediate concern to them. As a field we deal with multi-cultural content and issues of gender sensitivity. Student awareness is also reflected in increased enrollments in our courses. At UM St. Louis the Sociology Department has tried hard to get the message of the growing centrality of our discipline onto the "radar screen" of the campus administration. We continuously work at revising our sociology offerings to meet the educational needs of the St. Louis metropolitan region consistent with the institutional mission as Public Research University.

During the past year the department completed a self-study. Rather startling findings emerged from this enterprise. Statistically, for example from 1987 to 1996 we saw a growth in majors of +75% while the same period saw our faculty reduced by 32%. While we are a small faculty, the student evaluations of our courses were especially high for the question: "Overall, how does this course compare to other UM-St. Louis courses you have taken?" followed by "The Instructor presents course material clearly." As a department we realize that with the decline in faculty strength we will need to pare down the wide array of focused areas in sociology which are listed in the catalog. The current listing of six areas: Urban Problems; Minorities and Power; Deviance, Conformity, and Social Control: Social Psychology: The Individual and Society; Organizational Dynamics: Conflict and Consensus; Applied Analysis and Measurement is too optimistic in light of the teaching resources assigned to the Department. We decided that we will redirect our focus areas towards a) cities, inequality and population; b) organizational and interpersonal conflict resolution; c) comparative-international societies.

To respond to heightened student interests, the Department is looking towards reallocating resources towards staffing discussion sections in large introductory, and statistics and methods courses; regularize the offering of required (core) courses; intensification of cooperation with other departments and campus programs; more "hands-on" experience in applying sociology through apprenticeships, practica, and labs along with field and internship placements; and improved articulation with area Community Colleges and our partner University of the Western Cape (South Africa).

As 1998 fades away, sociology at UM St. Louis has entered a new era of optimism. Teresa Guess re-joined the UMSL sociology family., after receiving a Ph.D. from UM-Columbia, as Assistant Professor of Sociology. She started her progress towards this position by receiving an undergraduate degree, and later a masters degree from us. We are all delighted about her choice of our department as home base for her scholarly future in research and teaching. Mid-year brought good news from Dr. Martin Sage, the (acting) Dean of Arts and Sciences. He authorized the reopening of our own departmental office (Phone 516-6364) on the 7^th Floor of the Tower.

The year also continued to see sociology validated by the election of colleagues to campus faculty leadership positions and to committees of scholarly societies of national and international scope. We participated in a Faculty Telethon calling on our graduates many of whom pledged support for our scholarship drive. More importantly, we learned that sociology graduates succeed in finding employment in meaningful work, and that past graduates make valuable contributions to our community and their employers, such as, for example, Benjamin Phillips who was appointed by Mayor Harmon as Special Assistant. We would like to share some of these success stories with other graduates. Perhaps you will write or e-mail us some data you would allow us to share more widely?

On the national scene sociology is well represented by the officers of the American Sociological Association who acquaint government and corporate users of sociological skills with the reservoir of expertise that can be brought to bear on the definition of policy issues and identification of potential solutions.

In 1999 stay in touch -- there is no end to applying sociology in our lives and learning about new developments. Share with us what's new with you and yours.

Let me thank colleagues, students, and our new sociology Department Assistant, Pat Hill, for their loyalty to sociology and support of our departmental efforts.

With best wishes for 1999 -

K. Peter Etzkorn

Excellent Teacher Award

The Department is especially honored that Rocky Keel, Instructor of Sociology, received two major awards. The College of Arts and Sciences recognized him as 1998 Lecturer of the Year and the University of Missouri- St. Louis Chancellor, at the Annual Founders' Day Banquet, honored him with the 1998 Chancellor Award for an Academic Non-Regular. Keel's awards are among the most prestigious to be received on the UM St.Louis campus.

Mannheim Park - Social Analysis Consortium - Founded

Mannheim Park is a student-run organization that seeks to create an intellectual environment in which students from all disciplines can further their understanding of social phenomena, specifically the social processes that influence the speed and direction of social change.

So far this organization has presented two forums, the first was The Home Run Race, discussed by three panelists. Shannon Mayer from the Sociology Department, Steve Owen from Political Science and Allen Caldwell, Economics. The panelists analyzed the economic consequences of the racial, political and social implications of this season's "great American pastime", and how future generations may remember this time in which new heroes emerged.

The Second forum "Shame on You" was presented by Takako Nomi, Sociology Department, Mary Mobley, MPPA program and Arlen Egley, Ph.D. student in Criminal Justice. The panelists analyzed concern for how group identity-versus self-identity effect individual behavior, and American Guilt culture compares with the Japanese Shame culture. We had an outstanding turn out for both forums. An Evening at Mike and Min's rounded out this auspicious First Semester.

Next year we plan to present 6 forums on various topics and a guest lecture series. For continuous updates on Mannheim Park's activities see : http://www.umsl.edu/~mpsac

Alumni Giving

With the generous financial support of graduates and former students of the department, Alyanne Fricke received the Ray Collins Alumni Award, Jacqueline Grochowalski was recognized with the Honors Program Student Association Award, and Wendy Robertson received the Alumni Agent Scholarship.

The continued financial contributions by Alumni to our regular appeal for support of departmental activities is deeply appreciated by these students and the department. Perhaps you will consider raising your contribution from the present to a higher level the next time the department approaches you? With your support we can recognize excellence in our students and help them toward completing their studies.

Growth in Sociology Major

According to data received from the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences, the number of students increased who completed their studies with a sociology degree in 1988. These growth figures place the campus in line with trends in the nation. Our numbers have grown from four bachelor degrees in sociology in 1994/5 to twenty in the just completed academic year 1997/8. During the same time period Fall enrollments of undergraduate majors grew from 42 to 71. This trend is duplicated in our Graduate Program in which Fall enrollments doubled from 8 to 16 MA students during the same years. In the College of Arts and Sciences a chart from the Dean's Office shows that Sociology ranked seventh among departments gaining in student enrollments by 51% while other social sciences lost students (Political Science 10% ; Economics 40%).

UM-St. Louis Sociology Department in Historic Context

Herm Smith in a study on faculty productivity in relation ship to workloads employed data comparing our performance with the national scene. Past reputation of institutions, according to Keith and Babchuck's recent analysis (1998), is the critical property bearing on how departments are reviewed. Actual scholarship is found to be far less important than past reputation in securing prestige of a department.

Be that as it may, the article provides useful data for purposes of comparison (see below) of referred articles per capita and books per capita published over the three five-year-institutional review periods (1975-1979; 1981-1986;1992-1996) for the UM-SL Department of Sociology. Smith compared us with University of Akron, Missouri University, and the mean for all of the top departments of sociology in the U.S. The results indicate that our scholarly activity compares extremely favorably as early as the 1975 - 1979 period, and has increased substantially over the intervening period.

Data Comparisons of Sociology Faculty Publication/Productivity

Department prestige in the Keith and Babchuck article is founded primarily on the number of articles published more so than books in sociology. By these measures, the UM-St. Louis Sociology already in the 1970s, exceeded one standard deviation above the average for refereed articles at UM Columbia. Although Columbia has Carnegie I status and a Ph.D. program, our department far surpasses it in referred articles through out the past thirty years. The University of Akron, likewise, has a Ph.D. Program and draws from the comparable SMSA of Cleveland, yet our production of refereed articles far exceeds its output.

Over the period of 1992-1996 our productivity even increased 49% compared to the 1974-79 baseline. Similarly, book production increased 60% for the period 1981-86 compared to the 1974-79 period. Sociology Faculty presently average 1.5 refereed articles/book chapters each year and a book every six years.

Reference: B. Keith and N. Babchuk. 1998. The Quest for Institutional Recognition: A Longitudinal Analysis of Scholarly Productivity and Academic Prestige among Sociology Departments. Social Forces (June) 76: 1495.

Faculty Accomplishments

Harry. H. Bash -- published an article in a British scholarly journal which also was reprinted in an anthology dedicated to the history of sociology.

Herm Smith -- A year ago, with the end of a decade-long research program focused on the Japanese Mind, Herm Smith wrote an National Science Foundation grant application to extend his findings to China.   That grant was accepted in June, and will start being funded for two years starting January 1, 1999.

Because Japan has a two-thousand-year history of borrowing from China, Smith wonders whether the use of Chinese characters, Buddhism, and so on can be shown to mark a uniquely Northeastern culture, or if Japanese culture is truly unique. For example, Japanese rules of attribution strongly discourage displays of emotion by high-status persons and males. Japanese are also much more sensitive than Americans to the influence of where social interaction takes place on their impressions of others, and use much more complex rules for forming impression of self-actions like suicide than Westerners use.

Smith plans to replicate his Japanese research in Shanghai at Fudan University starting in the Winter Semester in search of an answer to this question. Smith expects to have some preliminary results ready for public dissemination by next Summer.

With Miranda Duncan, George McCall undertook six weeks of fieldwork this summer in Namibia's remote Bushmanland to study the culture of interpersonal disputing among the Ju/'hoansi (formerly known as !Kung San).

Frances Hoffmann --Is on leave as (acting) associate Dean of Faculty for Skidmore College.

Chikako Usui -- Returned from research leave in Japan.

Adinah Raskas - was featured in the October Issue of Saint Louis Magazine. She also joined the Board of Directors of Abused Women in Society.

Peter Etzkorn - presented findings on the Saint Louis Symphony's community outreach programs to the Commission on Music in Cultural, Educational and Mass Media Policies in Nairobi, Kenya.

Susan Tuteur spoke to "The Pioneers" on "The Significance of Joblessness on Inner City Ghetto Life."

Rocky Keel - In addition to receiving two outstanding awards (see above), was a major presenter with Don Jung and Larry Irons on "Interactivity in Distance Education" at the International Conference on the Social Impact of Information Technologies, October 1998. The trio also was awarded an additional grant by the Information Technology Research Committee to continue research on distance education.

Graduate Program News

George McCall, our Director of Graduate Studies reports that former students touched the department in various ways.

• Topping the news regarding our M.A. program in Sociology is our first Graduate Fellowship appointment, enabling Laura Miller to pursue full-time study this year with the assurance of assistantship support next fall. Laura is among the leaders within the largest and most promising entering cohorts this department has enjoyed in some years now.

• Other students serving as department assistants during this boom in student-support resources include Shannon Mayer, Shereen Siddiqui, and Sarah Kraus.

• Recently completing their M.A. degrees were Maria Duffy and Pamela Pontius.Expected to join them this January are Mary Daly and Sharon Kovac.

• Unexpectedly and momentarily gracing our offices again after an absence of nearly twenty years was former graduate student Kathy Hoppe.