Kansas as Cosmopolis

Sociology graduate programs operate in a context of national trends in education, of university policies, of local politics, and of changing disciplinary priorities. The 1960s and early 1970s were boom years for sociology, with considerable interest among undergraduate and graduate students, new programs starting, and established programs flourishing. A decade and a half of decline followed, the precipitous onset of which is illustrated by Lyman and Squires' observation: Between the time we began our graduate work and the time we finished, the job market for sociology PhDs simply nosedived (1978, p. 233). It now appears that there is renewed interest in sociology on many campuses: enrollments are increasing once again in undergraduate and graduate courses, and numbers of majors and graduate students are growing (from 54 to 134 and from 33 to 41 respectively at the University of Kansas, for example, in the past five years). Departments are eager to increase their standing in the national rankings: the thirtieth-ranked department wants to be in the top twenty and the twentieth seeks top ten status. At the same time, sociology as a discipline has made little progress in changing its public image, which is that of a discipline mired in liberalism, if not radicalism (Blalock 1990), jargon, and the obfuscation of common sense. Sociology also is often among the least respected departments in universities in national rankings (Wright 1990); on most campuses the sociology department is the least favored of the social sciences in the opinion of students and administrators alike (Blalock 1990). Fiscally hard-pressed universities may adopt policies of strengthening strong departments and eliminating weak ones. The recent closing of the sociology department at Washington University is an obvious example of what can happen when sociology departments, particularly in private universities, are perceived as weak

Graduate students · Pedagogy · Social science · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Innovative Teaching Methodologies in Social Sciences

• A Question of Priority

  Open Access•Alan Sica•Social Thought and Research•1990

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• Social Theory and Social Structure

  Robert King Merton•Social Theory and Social Structure•1968

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