AY 2012/2013
Unit Strategic Planning Report
Unit:
Sociology
Reporting Authority:
Delores Cleary
Date: November 1, 2013
A: Please complete the column titled “Outcome Assessment” on your own Unit
Strategic Plan. Complete with as much detail as you can provide. Where you
cannot obtain data to complete the assessment, put “Data not available.” in
the space.
B. Please summarize each of the University’s Five Core Themes from your Unit
Strategic Plan Outcome Assessment report.
Core Theme 1: Teaching and Learning
The Sociology department has met University objective 1.1: Enhance student
success by continually improving the curricular, co-curricular and
extracurricular programs.
1.1.1: The department offers 16 Sociology courses that contribute to
general education and interdisciplinary curriculum. SOC 101,107, 305, ETS
101 and ETS 354 all contribute to general education. We contribute
sociology courses to the ETS program, WS minor, AIS minor LLAS minor,
Africana and Black Studies minor, which are all interdisciplinary courses.
In addition, we contribute to the Public Administration Masters program.
1.1.2: Ninety percent of students successfully complete SOC 489, the
capstone course, which emphasizes critical thinking and problems solving
skills gained in previous coursework.
The Sociology department has met university objective 1.2: Enhance the
effectiveness of student support services.
1.2.1: The American Sociological Association Survey conducted in Spring
2012 reported that 26.9% of students participated in club activities;
74.5% were satisfied with the advising of faculty in the Sociology
department and 61.5% were involved with co-curricular programming.
Membership in the Sociology student club varies from year to year
depending on student interest. The evidence suggests that there is a need
to expand the membership in the student club and market the club to
students. The faculty are working on mechanisms to increase club
membership and interest. This will be done in part, through combining
AKD and the Sociology club to work on various community projects,
speakers, and activism.
Core Theme II: Inclusivity and Diversity
University objective 2.3: Ensure that CWU has an inclusive and diverse
curriculum
2.3.1: Provide Social Justice/Inequality/Applied Program: The
Sociology faculty are working to identify processes, identify student
interest, identify faculty resources and develop curriculum to provide
the program. We have met with the graduate dean and are looking for
creative ways to develop a multi-modal program. We expect to bring
this proposal to the College of the Sciences Dean for preliminary
approval when student interest and employment prospects are
identified, as suggested in the review of Strategic Plan 2012-2013.
Core Theme III: Scholarship and Creative Expression
University Objective 3.1: Increase the emphasis on and the opportunities for
students, faculty and staff to participate in research, scholarship and creative
expression activities.
3.1.1: 75% of Tenured and Tenure Track faculty have
presented/published in professional venues, which demonstrates that
the Sociology faculty are excellent in scholarship. We are including in
our Strategic Plan 2013-14 student research presentation and
excellence.
University Objective 3.2: Increase external funding received for research,
scholarship, and creative expression by faculty, staff and students.
3.2.1: The tenured and tenure-track faculty submitted 1 external grant
application as part of the Hazards team. This grant went unfunded. The
Sociology faculty are faced with challenges to outside granting
organizations due to the lack of a MA program and the facilities
necessary to obtain external funding. In addressing the COTS dean
concerns, the faculty are applying for GSR/COTS summer research
funding to help facilitate the time necessary to apply for external grant
funding to promote research in a regional university set in a rural area.
Core Theme IV: Public Service and Community Engagement
4.1: Enhance the commitment and the level of cooperation between the
university and external committees.
4.1.1: All of the Tenured/Tenure Track faculty serve on local, regional
and/or national committees, which increases the level of cooperation
between the university and those organizations.
Core Theme V: Resource Development and Stewardship
5.2: Develop and implement enrollment management and marketing plans
that meet the enrollment objectives of the university.
5.2.1: Sociology has 251 Majors and 225 minors according to the
Realignment data provided by Lori Braunstein. The data provided by
Organizational Effectiveness combined majors and minors, which was
not conducive to our indicator for this outcome. Through advertising
strategies and advising strategies we have been able to maintain our
current enrollment. There is a expectation that the enrollment may
grow in the future both at the University centers, online and in person,
which may be a challenge considering our current level of
faculty/student ratios.
5.2.2: 79% of student majoring in sociology persist to graduation, this
has increased from Fall 2011 by 7.2%, though our advising strategies.
Students who major in Sociology tend to come from traditionally
underrepresented groups, first generation and non-traditional groups.
These students often require intensive advising, which our faculty have
a commitment to provide to these students.
5.3: Ensure the University has the human resources necessary to accomplish
all university objectives
5.3.1: Representation of faculty in service, research and other student
services ie. Advising, mentorship and club advising. According to the
Realignment data provided by Lori Braunstein, 50% of the sociology
faculty are non-tenure track up 4% from 2011. In the realignment
Sociology received one position, which has helped to alleviate this
issue. The COTS dean suggested that we look at the Douglas Honor’s
College as an option for Sociology students. The faculty sees some
challenges with the Douglas Honor’s College, first, are they going to be
on-board with this? Not that this couldn't be overcome, but there is a
question about whether the infrastructure exists to do this as the DHC
is currently constituted. Second, their students need to go through a
series of courses designed to allow them to earn an honor's designation.
This too seems to be a question of institutional organization more than
anything else. Third, the current organization of DHC doesn't seem well
suited for social science research. Instead, they seem to be well
positioned to help the "beaker and test tube" crowd and the humanities
but not a social scientist given the research classes they have on the
books. This, too, is likely an organizational issue that could be
overcome. So, at least at this point in time, it doesn’t seem like a good
fit.
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Toward which theme(s) did you make progress, and how are students
benefitting from this?
We have made significant progress in 4.1., the faculty is active in the
governance of the institution. This benefits our students by our
knowledge of the campus/community activities. In addition, our
students benefit from Sociology’s involvement in Theme II: Inclusivity
and Diversity. Sociology faculty have expertise in institutional, societal,
and community issues surrounding diversity and inclusion, so the
university as a whole benefits from that expertise. . Students benefit
from this as our service outside of the university enlarges our
knowledge base to bring back to the classroom.
Which theme(s) deserve special attention next year?
Special attention will be devoted to more than one theme next year.
2.3: The faculty is committed to establishing an applied Master’s
Program that would benefit the department, college, university,
students and the broader community. We would also like to continue to
advocate for ETS, Women and Gender Studies, ABS, and AIS to increase
student interest.
3.1: The faculty are committed to increasing Sociology student
participation in professional research presentations at SOURCE or a
professional venue.
C. How do you intend to utilize the data gathered this year to assist you in
developing stronger programs?
3.1: We did not include student research as an outcome or indicator so
lack data. We will use the lack of data as developing mechanisms to
promote student research. We also would argue that increasing
student research opportunities will increase persistence to graduation.
4.1: The data that we collect needs to be more specific on the types of
committees faculty serve on.
5.3: We are using the data from this indicator to lobby for increased
faculty, which will allow for increased time to devote to student
mentorship and other service activities.
D. Based on your learning from this first year report, what parts of your
strategic plan will you modify, add to, or omit for next year? (Please attach
an updated Strategic Plan with changes highlighted.)
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Based on the ease of gathering data to support objectives, minor
changes/deletions have been made, such as:
o 1.1.1: Change in indicator to FTEF
o Change in expected performance level to Total FTEF and Ratio
o Change in Budget and Resource Analysis to additional TT
position
o 1.2.1: Outcome changed, indicator changed, expected
performance level changed
o 2.3.2: Added outcome, indicator, expected performance level, etc.
o 2.3.3: Added outcome, indicator, etc.
o 2.3.4: Added outcome, indicator, etc.
o 3.1.2: Added outcome, indicator, etc
o 3.2.1: Added expected performance level and budget resource
o 4.1.1: Outcome change, indicator change, expected performance
level change, etc.
o 5.2.1: Outcome and indicator change
o 5.2.2: Budget Analysis change
Bulleted Listing of Data needed:
 Percentages rather than raw numbers
 FTE/FTEF
 Student FTE for general education courses
 Student FTE for Courses taught at centers and majors at Centers
 College FTE for general education courses
 FTES majors and minors (separate)
 Data from Faculty 180 that includes Teaching, Scholarship and Service