Records of the Department of Sociology, including correspondence, reports, committee
minutes, program review files, syllabi, and other files. Much of the collection is comprised
of correspondence to and from the department chairs and chairs of the various programs
within the department, mostly documenting curricular and policy decisions. Also of interest
are program planning documents and files documenting 5-year reviews of the Masters Program
in Sociology, which provide snapshots of the state of the program and advice from the report
authors and external advisors as to the future direction of the program. A folder on
sabbatical proposals provides an overview of Sociology faculty research interests between
1991-2001. There are final reports of grant papers written by Sociology faculty included in
the collection: "Film Making in the Social Sciences," "The Origins of the South Atlantic
(Slave Plantation) System in the Portuguese Atlantic in the 15th Century," and "The Study of
Religion in Publicly Supported Colleges and Universities."
The records also include minutes from committees in the department, including the
Departmental Committee, which deals mostly with curricular and policy issues, and the
Executive Committee, which deals with questions of hiring, promotion, tenure, discipline,
and other sensitive matters. The minutes of these two committees span 1956 to 2000, although
coverage from 1956 to 1980 is spotty. Finally, the collection contains a large number of
syllabi files from 1989 to 2005.
