Sociology

• Certificate (Not Applicable)

   

• Associate Degree (Not Applicable)

   

• Bachelor Degree

  Program Goals:

  • Equip students with a broad sociological perspective (or the “sociological imagination”) by teaching
  • Provide knowledge and skills, both sociological (theory, research methods, data analysis) and general (critical thinking, writing), to pursue a broad range of careers and graduate degrees (e.g., in Sociology, Law, Public Administration). 
  • Prepare students to recognize a plurality of perspectives, including their own, to navigate today’s multicultural and global society.
  • Build a stimulating learning environment by using a variety of pedagogies, including collaboration, collective learning, and community engagement.

   

  At the end of their study at WSU, students completing the Bachelor of Science in Sociolgy or Sociology Teaching will:

  • Conduct research and analyze data
  • Communicate skillfully
  • Identify and explain the terms, concepts, and theories of the discipline of sociology
  • Practice critical thinking
  • Apply historical, cultural, and global perspectives to the interaction of groups and societies
  • Prepare a foundation for careers, graduate studies, and informed participation in a complex society
     

Sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social causes and consequences of human behavior. Sociologists investigate the structure of groups, organizations, and societies, and how people interact within these contexts. Since all human behavior is social, the subject matter of sociology includes, but is not limited to, street crime and delinquency, corporate downsizing, how people express emotions, welfare or education reform, how families differ and flourish, divisions of ethnicity, gender and social class, religious cults, medicine, media, and other social phenomena. Because sociology addresses the most challenging issues of our time, it is a rapidly expanding field whose potential is increasingly tapped by those who craft policies and create programs. Few fields have such broad scope and relevance for research, theory, and application of knowledge.

Sociology is a popular major for students planning futures in such professions as law, business, education, architecture, politics, public administration, urban planning and development, human services, and a myriad of other professions. It also provides a solid foundation for pursuing graduate degrees in related fields. Although a career as a sociologist requires a Master's Degree or PhD, an undergraduate education in sociology can be applied to almost any profession a student pursues.

Contact Information:
Dr. Marjukka Ollilainen
mollilainen@weber.edu 
1299 Edvalson St, Dept 1208
Ogden, UT 84408
(801) 626-6238

(Yr 2) AY 2017-18 (report by 11/15/2018)

• Program learning outcomes #1 and #2: (Required courses) SOC 1010, SOC 1020, SOC 3030, SOC 3600, SOC 3660, SOC 4030, SOC 4900 (Electives, Fall 2017) SOC 3130, SOC 3270
• (Electives, Spring 2018) SOC 3250, SOC 3300

(Yr 3) AY 2018-19 (report by Nov 15, 2019)

• Program learning outcomes #3 and #4: (Required courses) SOC 1010, SOC 1020, SOC 3030, SOC 3600, SOC 3660, SOC 4030, SOC 4900
• (Electives, Fall 2018) SOC 3260, SOC 3420
• (Electives, Spring 2019) SOC 3000, SOC 3010, SOC 3110

(Yr 4) AY 2019-20 (report by Nov 15, 2020)

• Program learning outcomes #5 and #6: (Required courses) SOC 1010, SOC 1020, SOC 3030, SOC 3600, SOC 3660, SOC 4030, SOC 4900
• (Electives, Fall 2019 SOC 3400, SOC 4410
• (Electives, Spring 2020) SOC 3410, SOC 3850

(Yr 5) AY 2020-21 Self-study, no assessment report

• (Electives, Fall 2020) SOC 3840, SOC 4550
• (Electives, Spring 2021) SOC 3550, SOC 4270
• Will be assessed for the Nov 15, 2021 assessment report
   

• 2021-2022

  1)    Review and comment on the trend of minority students enrolling in your classes (particularly lower-division, GEN Ed) and in your programs. 

  Answer:   Compared with Weber State University students’ ethnicity makeup, 74.4% are white, 11% Hispanic, 1.3 African Americans, and other combined ethnicities is 13% (WSU Report Gallery); sociology program during the fall 2019 to spring 2021, has 63.48% white, 19.66% Hispanic, and 4.49% African American students. Minority students’ percentage in our programs is much higher than that of the university average, especially Hispanic and African American students. Sociology Program has almost 20% Hispanic students (almost double the university percentage) and 4.9% A.A. students whereas the university is only 1.3% (more than three times of the university percentage).  This had something to do with our pro-active recruitment efforts: 
  1.    We actively participated in all the department, college and university level recruitment events. Our faculty actively participate in the WSU Annual Diversity Conferences. 
  2.    We continuously sent our faculty members to the lectures for the History Alliance Social Sciences Educational Center, with a purpose of increasing our visibility and reputation to the local K-12 school teachers. 
  3.    Several of our faculty members’ research projects are minority oriented, and they shared their research results to our GE classes, upper division classes, the communities and the WSU Trustee Board Meetings (such as Prof. Glass’s new book – Misplacing Ogden). 
  4.    During the Red-Carpet Events hosted by CSBS, we specifically targeted high school minority students, and let them know how sociology can help them to raise the minority issues and deliver social justice to minority groups. 

  Fall 2019 - Spring 2021(2020-2021)
  Students	numbers	percentage
  Total Students	178	100.00%
  Caucasian	113	63.48%
  African American	8	4.49%
  Asian	1	0.56%
  Hispanic	35	19.66%
  International	2	1.12%
  Native American	1	0.56%
  Pacific Islander	2	1.12%
  Two or more	7	3.93%
  Unknown	8	4.49%

  Ethnicities	Female	Male
  Caucasian	85	28
  All other ethnicities	43	22

  
  2)    What support (from enrollment services, advising, first-year transition office, access & diversity, etc.) do you need to help you recruit and retain students?

  Answer:   
  1.    We appreciate the efforts of all the supporting services to recruit students, but we hope that they should try to know sociology program better. 
  2.    Sociology is a very versatile degree, and it is misunderstood by many people. We have sent power point slides, sociology related job tables and fliers to the advising centers both at college and university levels, and we are willing to have meetings with all of them to clarify what kind of employment opportunities sociology degree can generate. 

  3)    We have invited you to re-think your program assessment. What strategies are you considering? What support or help would you like?

  Answer:  
  1.    Assessment is easy said than done. So far, course-based assessment method works effectively for us. More quantitative data from Report Gallery is always welcoming to us. We prefer more detailed data. 
  2.    The university exit survey doesn’t work for us. We have decided that sociology program will administrate our own exit survey starting from fall of 2021. Students feedback give us more information in terms of assessment. 
  3.    Via social media, we constantly invite our graduates to give us feedback about what we did well and we need to improve. Sociology Program hosts AKD club (a universal sociology club for life) inductive dinners every semester, and we invite all the local AKD club members and faculty to join. A lot of information and feedback were exchanged during these events. 

  4)    Finally, we are supporting our Concurrent Enrollment accreditation process. Does your program offer concurrent enrollment classes? If so, have you been able to submit the information requested from the Concurrent Enrollment office? Staff from OIE will reach out to you in the next few months to assist in finalizing that data submission as well as gather information for concurrent Gen Ed assessment.

  Answer: N/A
   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2019-2020

  1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:

  Any first-year students taking courses in your program (s). 

  • Our General Education courses SOC 1010: Introduction to Sociology and SOC 1020: Social problems are the only courses where we typically have first-year students enrolled. Although we do not have “specific mechanisms in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students,” faculty members ask in class about their status and are sensitive to first-year student issues, especially when they see them struggling. Interventions include inviting students to meet with them face-to-face to discuss their situation and performance in class and directing them to the appropriate resources.

   

  Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s) 

  • Very few students declare as sociology majors (or minors) during their first year (we wish they did, and are trying to get the word out to high schools through high school social studies teachers). Students typically declare sociology major as juniors or seniors. This is because they do not know what sociology is until they take a Gen Ed sociology course, after which the light bulb goes off in their mind to declare a major/minor.

   

  2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’. 

  • The program is continuously monitoring how it is doing with respect to enrollment and student success. As a small program, this information comes to us more informally over the academic year than through formal assessment. As for the annual (and now biannual) assessment reports, each faculty assesses their courses and reflects on the need for changes or improvements. Together we discuss reflections and assessments during meetings and retreats. This is an integral part of curriculum development. 

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2017

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • The findings from the program review provide a starting point for program revisions (see Appendix A). We have not found anything different or new since the self-study. The faculty continue to discuss and reflect on assessments and the program review to develop the program and to provide students with the best possible experience.

   

  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors or graduate students. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed. Finally, what were your findings from this past year’s graduates?

  • During AY 2016-17, the Sociology program has 133 declared majors and 103 minors. That academic year, the program graduated 12 Majors, 13 Minors, and 7 BIS minors.

   

  Grade point averages of graduating seniors (AY 2016-17):

  • Sociology major GPA – 3.64
  • WSU GPA – 3.49
  • Sociology GPAs of graduating seniors:
  • Core/required courses – Average 3.62, Median – 3.62
  • Elective courses – Average 3.66, Median – 3.55

   

  Number of students in Sociology CEL (Community Engaged Learning) courses (Su 2016-Sp2017):

  •      Summer 2016                            SOC 1020: Social Problems (1)                       25
  •      Fall 2016                                     SOC 1020: Social Problems (1),

                                                               SOC 3660: Sociological Research (1)             52

  •      Spring 2017                                SOC 1020: Social Problems (2)                      19

   

  • The department also gathers alumni data around job placement when available.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2016

  The Sociology Department conducted a 5 year program review with full self-study during the spring of 2016. Those results are presented in place of the Annual Assessment. Please reference those documents for information that includes data for the 2015/16academic year.

• 2015

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  • Based on the data in this report (from AY 2014-15), the Sociology program meets the threshold of 70% of students performing at 70% or better. In addition, the assessment of the other direct measures support our confidence in that the program is providing the students with the skills and educational experiences, including high impact learning opportunities, outlined in the program mission and goals.

  
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  • The program holds a retreat where the full-time faculty members review the past year’s assessment data and develop strategies to address the findings. Because this year’s report data are gathered shortly before the report due date, we will discuss the findings our spring program retreat.

   

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • The major revisions and updates have been made to the program goals and learning outcomes and the exit interview has been revised and moved online. An important goal for us is to further improve our strategies to maintain contact with alumni and harness their expertise and insights to help us continue developing the program. We also will work on offering evening courses and online courses which are more accessible for non-traditional students.
  • To enhance advising, and thereby program outcomes, we will offer a Career Building Seminar for students in Sociology and Anthropology beginning in Spring 2016. This cross-listed course will provide an opportunity for Sociology and Anthropology majors to be more mindful about choosing elective courses, understand how to market their skills, and learn about employment prospects. Next year’s assessment report will include the evaluation of the seminar against the Sociology program learning outcomes. Offering this seminar meets some of the comments students have made about not quite understanding what skills they have gained and how to market their degree after graduation.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2014
  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence.
   

  • The Sociology program, based on the data from the elective courses assessed for this report, meets the threshold of 70% of students performing at 70% or better. In addition, the assessment of the other direct measures support our confidence in that the program is providing the students with the skills and educational experiences, including high impact learning opportunities, outlined in the program mission and goals.

       
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
   

  • The program holds a retreat once a semester for this specific purpose. All six full-time faculty members in the program are part of reviewing assessment data from previous years and developing strategies to address shortcomings. In the past two years, the program has made substantive changes in curriculum, revised its mission statement, goals and learning outcomes, and improved methods of tracking out graduates (e.g., online exit survey, facebook page). While it may take some time for any major effects of these changes to manifest themselves in student learning outcomes, we the faculty are confident we are on the right track and continue to improve our program to strive for excellence. 

  
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
   

  • At this time, the major revisions and updates have been made to the program goals and learning outcomes and the exit interview has been revised and moved online. An important goal for us is to further improve our strategies to maintain contact with alumni and harness their expertise and insights to help us continue developing the program. We also will work on offering evening courses and online courses which are more accessible for non-traditional students. 
     

  Select this link to view the full report.

• 2013

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?

  • The Sociology program outcomes, based on the data presented here, parallel with the outcomes in the past years.
     

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  • The program holds a retreat once a semester for this specific purpose. All six full-time faculty members in the program are part of reviewing assessment data from previous years and developing strategies to address shortcomings. The program’s recent review and the subsequent changes made in the curriculum, mission statement, goals and learning outcomes as well as assessment data collection methods (either recently developed or still in progress) are not effective in this report. We are, however, confident that with a revised curriculum and new goals and measures, we will be able to report the results of the changes in next year’s program assessment report.

  
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • Changes that have been made already as well as the ones that are in progress are outlined in “Section D. Curriculum” above. In addition, a new exit interview is currently under development and systematic data collection with graduating seniors will begin in December 2013.
     

  To access the full report, select this link: Sociology 2012/13 Annual Assessment

2022-23

2016-17

2011-12