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Annual Reports

Here you will find yearly summaries of the activities, achievements, and issues of the departments of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work.  Please note that some of the more recent reports are PDF files.

Annual Reports
1999-2000

DEPENDING on one's reckoning, our department either closed or launched a millennium with our usual mix of fine teaching, productive research and scholarship, and strong service to the Skidmore community. This year we reconfigured our three curricula and assessed the same. We celebrated the tenuring and promotion of a valued colleague and we recruited well for next year and beyond. Department members published in major journals and served at the highest levels of professional associations. We developed courses, took part in workshops, served in faculty governance, and sponsored all-college events. We applauded one of our number as Commencement speaker. We have done all this with the amicability and goodwill that characterize our department.

Students
Our students did us and themselves proud again this year. Social work major Jenna Golub was chosen as Social Work Student of the Year by the New York State Social Work Association. Anthropology majors Sarah Bergh and Benjamin Miller and sociology majors Andrew Barnes, Carrie DiBiccaro, and Sarah Winslow were elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Some 30 department majors were inducted into the Periclean Society. Alpha Kappa Delta, the sociology honor society, welcomed 15 new members (joining nine continuing members).

Department faculty recognized outstanding student achievement with departmental prizes. Sarah Winslow received the Stonequist Award in sociology, Megan Przygoda the Rautenberg Award in sociology, Sarah Hennessey the Gallagher Prize in anthropology, and Hilary Budd the Betten and Betten Award in social work. Jonathan Woodring, a double major in sociology and government (but really a sociology major), received the Erwin C. Levine Prize for outstanding work in political theory.

Six students in Rory McVeigh's Senior Seminar in Sociology presented papers at the annual meetings of the Eastern Sociological Society–the fourth consecutive year of such participation. Anthropology majors Sarah Hennessey and Mark Mucha and social work major Caroline Bermant gave presentations at this spring's Academic Festival.

This summer several faculty are working with students on College-supported projects. Catherine Berheide and Melissa Arentshorst have a Skidmore Collaborative Research Grant to study trends in the gender and racial composition of government work forces. Renee Walker and Susana Columna have a Collaborative Grant to study a collection of ceremonial bone and shell objects from Native American burials in New York state. Jill Sweet and anthropology major Timothy Karis are developing an exhibit proposal on Native American images and the politics of representation for the new Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery.

After a slow start, the Anthropology-Sociology Club quickly regained its momentum as an active organization sponsoring a variety of events, including "Global Buffet 2000" in which anthropology and sociology majors who have studied abroad share their experiences, photo albums, and interesting international delicacies with students planning to go abroad. This event has become an annual tradition of the Anthropology-Sociology Club. The Club also held a fund-raising concert and shared affiliations with campus-wide events.

The Student Social Work Association sponsored a series of events, including lobbying state government in Albany on behalf of the poor and other disadvantaged groups. Social work students again led the way with their activities in Benef-Action and other service to the Skidmore and larger communities. They coordinated an HIV-testing program, co-founded the Skidmore chapter of Bacchus and Gamma to combat unsafe drug and sexual practices, led building clean-ups for local nonprofits, built homes for Habitat for Humanity, organized protests and meetings on campus labor relations . . . . This spring social work majors in Carla Sofka's SW 334/Social Work Practice organized around social issues confronting Saratoga Springs, eventually focusing on affordable housing. They studied issues, surveyed Saratogians, and then attended meetings, lobbied, wrote letters and opinion pieces in local papers, and raised about $800 for the Saratoga's Homeless Shelter.

Our students gave much of their time and talents to the College itself. Sociology major Sarah Strauss served as this year's Student Government Association president. Sociology major Megan Przygoda received a much deserved Presidents' Day Award for her embracing of "the educational mission and progressive spirit of the College through [her] exemplary commitment to personal excellence, campus pride, and community service."

No wonder, then, that department faculty are proud of our students and their many accomplishments.

Personnel Matters

Annus Mirabilis Standing out in this year of remarkable faculty achievement are John Brueggemann's tenuring and promotion to Associate Professor of Sociology. We all knew the strength of John's candidacy, so his tenure came as no surprise. However expected, though, tenure is never routine, and there was much rejoicing on the second floor of TLC (and many other places across campus) with news of John's success. John is a marvelous teacher, sociologist, and colleague–a key to the renaissance of our department.

John's wondrous year was punctuated by his selection by the senior class as faculty Commencement speaker. John drew on his sociology (Weber, DuBois, Mills, specifically) as well as his family background in urging students to "remember who you are" as they create their lives. The seniors' selection of John followed far more significant choices in John's life, for John and Christina McHugh became engaged last spring. It was quite a year for John.

Staying Our department reviewed Rory McVeigh for reappointment as Assistant Professor of Sociology. We sent a unanimous and enthusiastic recommendation for Rory's reappointment to the Dean, who readily concurred. Rory will be on a pre-tenure leave in Fall 2000 to complete several projects on social movements.

We carried out positive second-year reviews of David Karp and Michael Ennis-McMillan, "officially" notifying the Dean of the Faculty that we regard each as a strong candidate for a second three-year appointment. We will conduct their third-year reviews in Fall 2000.

Coming and Going Recruitment never stops in a department our size. This year we recruited for a three-year position in social work to replace colleagues on sabbatical and in the administration. The candidate pool was unusually strong, and we were delighted when Amy D'Aprix accepted our offer. Finishing her doctorate at Case Western Reserve University, Amy comes to us from the University of North Carolina, where she supervised field placements of MSW students. Amy has expertise in clinical and program evaluation as well as values and ethics in the social work profession, and she has experience leading social work students on study programs in Europe.

Rory McVeigh's upcoming leave and Catherine Berheide's course release as a Carnegie Fellow allowed us to recruit a sociologist for a fulltime position next year. Our national search brought us back home to our own Joanne Reger. This year Jo quickly proved an exceptionally strong teacher and respected colleague, and we are delighted that she will continue at Skidmore next year.

We have also recruited three excellent adjunct faculty, each to teach a course next fall. Stephanie Bennett, ABD with substantial teaching experience at the University at Albany, will teach SO 101/Sociological Perspectives. Thomas Mullaney, a therapist at Four Winds Psychiatric Center, will offer SW 219/Volunteerism, while Dr. Lawrence O'Toole, a therapist in private practice, will teach SW 225/Social Work with Children and Adolescents. We are pleased to have these adjunct faculty joining us.

We lose two colleagues. Michelle Napierski-Prancl leaves us after a year and a half teaching sociology. Michelle has been a dedicated, hardworking, conscientious colleague. She commuted some distance even to attend faculty meetings–now that's dedication! Michelle has taught courses on popular culture, the media, and sociology of sport that we would not otherwise have been able to offer. We wish her the very best as she continues her career at the Sage Colleges.

Carla Sofka is leaving Skidmore for a tenure-track position in social work at Siena College. Carla began work at Skidmore even before she was on the payroll, helping in crucial ways with reaccreditation of the Social Work Program by the Council on Social Work Education. Her contributions–and thoughtfulness–continued in diverse ways, from effective teaching to working on CSWE issues to organizing a baby shower. We will miss Carla and wish her continuing success at Siena.

Looking Ahead Two colleagues are on one-semester leaves next year–Rory McVeigh in the fall and Margaret Tacardon in the spring. As noted, Rory will work on social movements; Peg will work on a book that brings together two major professional interests, corrections and substance abuse. In the fall we will recruit a one-semester replacement for Peg. Next year we will also recruit a fulltime, one-year replacement for Jacqueline Azzarto, who will be on sabbatical in 2001-02.

Next year we will carry out third-year reviews of David Karp and Michael Ennis-McMillan. Assuming (as we all do) their reappointment, David and Michael will be on pretenure leaves in 2001-02, so next year we will recruit their replacements.

Anthropology faculty, especially Michael Ennis-McMillan and Jill Sweet (with a bit of help from Bill Fox), contributed mightily to a Skidmore proposal to the Luce Foundation to fund a new position in cultural anthropology, with expertise in Asian Studies, especially China and perhaps the Chinese diaspora. This position would serve the Asian Studies Program, of course, and perhaps American Studies too, and most certainly anthropology. The position would expand geographic area courses in anthropology (currently, we offer no anthropology courses on Asia). We think the Luce proposal is tight, so we anxiously but optimistically await word from the Foundation. If the position is funded, we would recruit next year for the following fall.

Once again, then, we look back on a year busy with personnel reviews and recruitment, and we look ahead to a year much the same.

Personnel Procedures and Practices This year our department reviewed its policies and practices for evaluation of faculty. This review paralleled–indeed, anticipated–Academic Staff's work on a "template" of such policies that would encourage reasonable uniformity across the College. We soon found that our own review of personnel policies needed to await the collegewide template. The Dean of the Faculty will deliver such a template this summer, and we should have revised department personnel policies and practices in place in early September.

Department Office Colleen Bodane, our department secretary, continued to improve office procedures, making them better organized and more efficient while always keeping people and their needs foremost in mind. To this end, Colleen attended workshops to improve her skills, especially in computing. Most importantly, Colleen maintained an office that is highly congenial for faculty, students, and visitors. Students comment that we have the friendliest office on campus, and they are right. Colleen is the reason.

Reconfiguration, Assessment, and Course Development

Our three programs' curricula have never stood still. This year was no exception.

Reconfiguration We did that. Three times, in fact–once for each of our three department curricula. We are proud that "Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work" is the answer to a Skidmore trivia question: "What were the first three programs to be officially reconfigured?"

Reconfiguration was no easy process, that's for sure. It took lots of work, too many meetings and memos, and megadoses of perseverance. Despite our best efforts, however, reconfiguration is not without problems. We are concerned, for example, about fewer electives, especially (but not only) in social work. Electives serve students and attract students who become majors. We are concerned, too, that reconfiguration may exacerbate enrollment pressures already evident in sociology and anthropology even before their reconfiguration. More on enrollment pressures shortly.

Still, we anticipate that reconfiguration will prove a net plus. Courses expanded to 4 credit hours will allow needed depth. Although we doubt that reconfiguration will much reduce faculty time and energy devoted to teaching, we expect that reduction of the number of courses we each offer will allow us to use our time and energy more effectively. Likewise for students as their academic programs become more focused. There will probably be some time and energy savings "at the margins"–in course planning and grading of papers and exams, for example.

The sociology reconfiguration plan is available on-line at:
hudson2.skidmore.edu/academics/sociology/policies/reconfig_menu.html

Program Assessment Program assessments based on our missions and goals continue. Social work introduced assessment procedures several years ago, responding to Council on Social Work Education accreditation standards and reflecting the program's own commitment to improvement. Social work assessment is an on-going process throughout the academic year. A Program Evaluation Committee of two sophomores, two juniors, and two seniors meets monthly with Jacqueline Azzarto as Director of the Social Work Program. Students set most of the agenda for these discussions of the program.

In addition, in late April and May Jacqueline Azzarto administers assessment questionnaires and conducts exit interviews with each graduating social work major. These sessions, too, provide information for the social work program's ongoing self-review.

Relative latecomers to assessment, sociology and anthropology introduced formal assessment procedures only two years ago. Shortly after exams in May, sociology faculty invite seniors to a discussion of the program. Fueled by pizza and soda and stimulated by a questionnaire asking students to assess the degree to which the program meets each of its stated goals, discussion centers on students' perceptions of the program's strengths and weaknesses and ways in which it can be improved. (At least we intend to proceed this way. With our assessment maven Susan Walzer on leave this year, we neglected our questionnaire. We will certainly reintroduce it next year.)

Anthropology ties program assessment to its AN 366/Seminar in Anthropology, taken by senior majors in the spring semester. Students write essays offering observations on the program and suggestions for change. These essays are read by anthropology faculty. Anthropologists also conduct exit interviews with senior majors. Jill Sweet and Michael Ennis-McMillan led these efforts this year.

Although not quite old hat, program assessment has quickly become something each of our programs does almost as routine, like preparing master schedules or evaluating individual courses. Clearly, however, we need to refine and extend our assessment methods. Exit interviews provoke our majors to reflect, one last time before graduation, on their Skidmore experiences, but we need to go beyond perceptions of graduating seniors. We may want, for example, to extend our assessment to include outcomes and information from alumni. Next year we will explore inclusion of items pertaining to our majors into surveys carried out by the Office of Institutional Research. The OIR may also be able to help us out with transcript analyses. However, we must–and will–protect our time and energy as we develop alternative procedures such as outcome assessment and alumni surveys. We assessment need procedures that are not only valid and reliable, but also highly efficient. After all, our goal is quality teaching, not assessment.

Course and Teaching Assessment Last fall we began taking a good look at our department's teaching and course evaluation form (the so-called "long form"), but this effort was soon overshadowed by a collegewide review of course assessment forms. Our department's initiative was put on hold pending this effort led by the Dean of the Faculty's office. Our department's current form, used by all three programs, is essentially open-ended, offering no more than some very general guidelines for students evaluating a course. We await the College's pretest of a revised evaluation form next fall, and then will again take up our department's evaluation form and procedures.

Responding to enrollment pressures, and as a pedagogical experiment, last fall Gerald Erchak offered a section of AN 101/Introduction to Cultural Anthropology with essentially no enrollment limit. Meeting 180-plus students in Gannet Auditorium, Gerry necessarily relied almost entirely on lecture, with little discussion–very unSkidmore. Susan Walzer carried out a careful assessment of this offering, with special attention to the effects of class size and format. Susan used both questionnaires and focus groups of randomly chosen students. Gerry as well as the anthropology program found Susan's assessment report valuable. Her assessment itself is a model of course assessment, while the ability of Susan and Gerry to collaborate on assessment is a model of collegiality between untenured and tenured faculty. The experiment with a large enrollment section of AN 101 may have had mixed results (positive on Gerry, less so on the course), but the assessment itself was certainly successful.

Course Development Reconfiguration entails redesigning individual courses, so we reconfigured some courses last spring, are busy reconfiguring still more this summer, and will reconfigure still others next year. Every continuing department member is involved in this effort. In addition to reconfiguring, we introduced new courses and substantially revised old ones.

Susan Walzer joined with Student Affairs staff and faculty from other departments to form the Student Cultures Project–AKA the Culture Club–to study student life from diverse perspectives. To this end, Susan introduced a special topics course on Studying Student Worlds, engaging students in research on Skidmore student cultures. The Curriculum Committee has approved this offering as a "regular" course in the sociology curriculum.

David Karp taught Liberal Studies 1 for the first time and revised his LS 2/Society and Human Responsibility course to include a team project involving collaboration with the Children's Defense Fund to publicize a state health insurance program for children. David also significantly revised his SO 201/Social Issues, SO 317/Criminology, and SO 314/Deviance courses with new student projects.

Rory McVeigh offered SO 375/Senior Seminar in Sociology and SO 227/Social Research Design for the first time (for Rory). Jo Reger offered a special topics seminar on gender and social movements as well as WS 101/Introduction to Women's Studies, a new course for her.

As noted, last fall Gerry Erchak bravely experimented with teaching AN 101/Introduction to Cultural Anthropology to more than 180 students. The anthropologists have been planning and are now designing a new course, AN 100/Anthropological Perspectives, to be introduced next Spring. AN 100 is intended for nonmajors, while AN 101 will be redirected toward students planning to major in the discipline.

Last fall Michael Ennis-McMillan introduced an Honors section of AN 101H/Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Michael also introduced AN 251N/Mexican Cultures last fall, and has since converted the course to a "regular" offering, AN 228N. Michael also received Curriculum Committee approval for AN 349/Medical Anthropology, formerly offered as a special topics course, and AN 344/Anthropology and Environmental Health, to be offered next Fall. Michael participated in the Foreign Languages Across the Curriculum project, funded by a grant to the International Affairs and Environmental Studies Programs, and had several students incorporate Spanish into their papers in his courses.

Renee Walker introduced significant use of Web sites in several archaeology courses last fall. In the spring Renee taught a new special topics course, Archaeology of Hunters and Gatherers.

Jacqueline Azzarto used e-mail discussion in all her classes this year. She also taught SW 338/Social Policy and Social Justice as an international affairs course for the first time. With SW 338 students, Jackie is continuing a pilot project on welfare reform. Results of this study were used to lobby Senator Joseph Bruno and Representative Bobby D'Andrea on Social Work Lobby Day. Working with Carla Sofka, Jackie Azzarto has developed SW 241/Research for the Human Services, a research methods course to be offered next Spring. This course will help relieve enrollment pressures on SO 226/Social Research Design, which has been serving social work as well as sociology majors.

Carla Sofka offered SW 224/Mental Health Issues for the first time and substantially revised the content of her SW 214/Death and Dying course. Carla's SW 333/Social Work Practice with Individuals and Families incorporated a Web page and CD-ROM technology, while her SW 334/Social Work Practice with Groups, Organizations, and Communities integrated a service learning project with the Economic Opportunity Council and Shelters of Saratoga.

This summer Peg Tacardon is offering a new course on Culture, Gender, and Violence for the UWW program.

Teaching-Related Grants David Karp has a Technology Innovation Grant to develop a course unit for SO 213/Criminology. Michael Ennis-McMillan received an International Affairs-Environmental Studies Initiative grant to develop a new course, AN 344/Anthropology and Environmental Health.

As noted, Jill Sweet is collaborating with anthropology major Timothy Karis to prepare an exhibit on Native American images and the politics of representation for the new Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery.

Educational Conferences and Pedagogy Workshops Our department is proud of its participation in monthly pedagogy workshops. We doubt that any department has our rate of participation. In addition, we take part in more specialized workshops and off-campus conferences on education.

John Brueggemann attended two national conferences on education and the liberal arts–an AAC&U- and ACAD-sponsored conference in Toronto on "Partners in Leadership" and "The Liberal Arts College in the 21st Century" at Trinity College in Connecticut.

Michael Ennis-McMillan joined in a February workshop on developing norms for evaluation of student writing offered by the All-College Writing Board. Michael took part also in a series of faculty development workshops sponsored by the International Affairs-Environmental Studies Initiative as well as the March workshop of the Honors Forum.

Michael also participated in workshops off-campus. He attended a workshop on the Integration of Community-Based Environmental Issues into the Undergraduate Curriculum, sponsored by the New England Consortium for Undergraduate Science Education and hosted by Smith College and Williams College. Michael participated, too, as a member of the Skidmore team for Project Kaleidoscope in a workshop on issues for new and expanding programs in environmental studies held at Brown University.

Carla Sofka participated in both an LS 2 workshop and an AT&T Learning Network Fellows seminar.

This summer finds several department faculty joining in Skidmore workshops. David Karp, interested in geographic information systems for his own teaching and research in criminology, uncovered similar interests in about ten other faculty scattered over several departments. David then led a faculty-CITS group that identified ArcView as the GIS software of choice and organized a two-day ArcView workshop for interested faculty. David himself took part in the workshop, of course, and was joined by Renee Walker and Susan Bender from anthropology.

Bill Fox took part in a summer workshop on Writing in the Disciplines that will lead soon to a Web site to assist students in writing sociology. The Web site will be integrated into the larger sociology Web site.

Professional and Scholarly Activities

Honors, Grants, Fellowships, and Professional Service Department members received recognition for their professional work and contributed their services to their professions. Faculty recognition and service are not unrelated.

The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) chose Catherine Berheide as a Pew-funded Scholar. The CASTL announcement reports that Kate joins "40 outstanding faculty from diverse fields who will work together to invent and share new conceptual models for teaching. . . . Carnegie Scholars are distinguished faculty who are contributing to an emerging scholarship of teaching and learning."

In addition, Kate Berheide serves on the Executive Council of the American Sociological Association, an important elected position rarely held by faculty from liberal arts colleges. Kate has also been selected as co-editor of a book on pedagogical and curricular strategies that promote success among students of color in sociology courses. Jointly sponsored by the ASA and the American Association for Higher Education, this volume is part of a larger AAHE project on Promoting the Success of Students of Color in the Disciplines.

Susan Bender was elected Secretary of the Society for American Archaeology, the world's largest organization of professional archaeologists. As secretary, Susan will serve on the SAA's Executive Committee and its Board of Directors. The latter is SAA's policy-making body.

Jacqueline Azzarto was elected Vice-President of the New York State Social Work Education Association. Jackie also serves as President of the Board of the Saratoga County Equal Opportunity Council.

This past spring Susan Walzer was a Radcliffe Fellow at the Henry A. Murray Research Center at Radcliffe College. Susan used Murray Center materials in her research on uncoupling narratives and post-marital relationships. She received a Faculty Development Grant to partially fund this work. Susan's Thinking About the Baby, published in 1998 by Temple University Press, was a finalist for the William J. Goode Book Award given by the American Sociological Association.

Michael Ennis-McMillan was accepted into a faculty development seminar on Mexico's transition to a free-market economy, to be hosted in Guadalajara. Unfortunately the workshop was postponed until next year.

Gerald Erchak received a Faculty Research Grant for research on cultural factors underlying condom use by adolescents in Brazil. Gerry joined an introductory Portuguese course to prepare for this research.

Jacqueline Azzarto was awarded a Skidmore Faculty Development Grant for her project on "tracking welfare clients.

Carla Sofka chairs both the Educational Opportunities and Exchanges Committee and the Technology Committee of the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Carla was awarded an ASE Grant for research in Great Britain–a study of reactions to the death of Princess Diana. (Carla declined the grant when she accepted a position at Siena College.)

Publications Department members wrote and published. David Karp was especially prolific. Westview Press published his Community Justice Ideal, co-edited with Todd Clear. David published two articles, "Sociological Communitarianism and the Just Community" in the Contemporary Justice Review and "Community Justice: Six Challenges" in the Journal of Community Psychology. David's earlier article, "Challenges in Community Justice," was translated into Dutch for Christian Democratic Explorations published by the Christian Democratic Party in the Netherlands.

David's "Video Research Project Discovers Thick and Thin Forms of Restorative Justice in Vermont's Reparative Probation Program" appears in the Offender Programs Report. David issued two technical reports, Vermont Community Boards and Juvenile Justice for the Vermont Department of Justice and A National Study of Community Justice (co-authored with Todd Clear and others) for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. David published his course syllabus for SO 313/Deviance in the American Sociological Association's Teaching the Sociology of Deviance.

Forthcoming are David's "Community Justice: A Conceptual Framework," with Todd Clear, in Criminal Justice 2000: Changing Boundaries in Criminal Justice Organizations; "Community Reparative Boards: Theory and Practice," with Lynne Walther, in Community and Restorative Justice edited by Gordon Bazemore and Mara Schiff; "The Community Justice Ideal in Practice" (with Todd Clear) in the National Institute for Justice Journal; "The New Debate About Shame in Criminal Justice" in the Justice System Journal; and an entry on values theory and research in the Encyclopedia of Sociology, edited by Edgar Borgatta.

John Brueggemann has three articles forthcoming. "The Power and Collapse of Paternalism: The Ford Motor Company and Black Workers, 1937-1941" has been accepted by Social Problems. "Strategic Labor Organizing in the Era of Industrial Transformation," co-authored with Cliff Brown, will appear in the Radical Review of Political Economics. And "The Deskilling of the Copper Mining Industry and Formation of Nationalist Labor Market Segmentation, 1880-1920," written with Terry Boswell, will be published in Research in Social Movements, Change, and Conflict.

Rory McVeigh published two articles this year. His "Expansion of Two-Year Colleges" (co-authored with Judith Blau and Kenneth Land) appeared in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Sociological Forum published Rory's "Who Protests in America? An Analysis of Three Alternatives–Inaction, Institutionalized Politics, or Protest" (co-authored with Christian Smith). Rory also has his article, "Power Devaluation, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Democratic Convention of 1924" forthcoming in Sociological Forum.

Joanne Reger has publications forthcoming. Her "Motherhood and the Construction of Feminist Identities" has been accepted by Sociological Inquiry, while her "More Than One Feminism: Organizational Structure, Ideology, and the Construction of Collective Identity" will appear in Social Movements: Identity, Culture, and the State, edited by Nancy Whittier and others. Jo will publish three entries in encyclopedias: "Woman's Movement: An Overview" in the Encyclopedia of American Studies and "Bookstores" and "National Organization for Women" in the Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Culture.

Amidst the chores and challenges of an Associate Dean, Susan Bender collaborated with George S. Smith to edit Teaching Archaeology in the 21st Century, published by the Society for American Archaeology. Michael Ennis-McMillan's "Suffering from Water: Social Origins of Bodily Distress in a Mexican Community" will appear in the Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Michael's "A Paradoxical Privatization: Challenges to a Community-Managed Drinking Water System in the Valley of Mexico" is forthcoming in The Privatization of Water Management in Mexico edited by Scott Whiteford and Roberto Melville.

Renee Walker published her study, "Early Holocene Ecological Adaptations at Dust Cave, Alabama," in Sustaining Appalachia's Environment: The Human Dimension, edited by Benita Howell. Renee has two pieces in press: an entry on archaic North American culture in the Encyclopedia of the Ancient World; and a report of investigations on subsistence strategies from the Late Paleoindian and Archaic contexts at Dust Cave, Alabama, for the University of Alabama Press.

Jacqueline Azzarto's article, "Teaching Practice Wisdom: What We Can Learn from Family Medicine," was accepted for publication in the Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work.

Carla Sofka edited the "News and Notes" column of Death Studies.

Department members published book reviews too. John Brueggemann's review of W.E.B. DuBois, Race and the City, edited by Michael B. Katz and Thomas J. Sugre, appeared in Contemporary Sociology, the discipline's premier review journal. David Karp reviewed Bruce Benson's To Serve and Protect for The Responsive Community. Rory McVeigh's review of Abby L. Ferber's Race, Gender, and White Supremacy was published in Social Forces. Gender and Society published Joanne Reger's review of Betty Farrell's The Family and Scott Coltrane's Gender and Families. Jo's review of Reworking Class, edited by John R. Hall was published by Mobilization. Social Science Quarterly published Susan Walzer's review of Mary Ann Mason's Custody Wars.

Presentations at Professional Meetings We spread the gospel, at least our versions, and preach to more than the choir.

John Brueggemann gave a paper on "Racial Considerations and Public Policy in the 1930s" at the American Sociological Association's annual meetings. At the same meetings John was an invited panelist on "Balancing Teaching and Research Expectations in the Early Faculty Career." John has certainly mastered that balancing act. At the ASA meetings he took part, too, on a panel on "The Future of Critical Sociology."

David Karp took part in seven professional conferences in three countries and four states over the past year. Last summer he spoke on restorative justice and structural issues at the meeting of the Justice Studies Association, then on a reparative board hearing for the Conference on Building Strong Partnerships for Restorative Justice, and then on community justice at the American Probation and Parole Association Annual Training Institute. November found David speaking in Toronto on "Community Meets Offender." In January David's collaborator Todd Clear was in London presenting their co-written paper on evidence-based practice and reintegrative community justice initiatives. Then Florida in February, literally with a police escort, to speak on community justice systems at the Advancing Community Justice Symposium. David was closer to home in April, speaking on community board members and criminal offenders at a conference at the University at Albany. David was an invited panelist on "Building Organizational Capacity in Corrections" at the National Institute of Corrections Northeast Rationalization Project, held at the University of New Hampshire Conference Center in May. Phew!

Rory McVeigh presented two papers this year: "The Structure of Role Call Voting in the United States Senate Before and During the Reagan Revolution" at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Society and "God, Politics, and Protest" (co-authored with David Sikkink) at the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.

Susan Walzer, a charter member of the Culture Club studying student life, joined fellow members in describing their project at the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Susan also presented her paper on "Gender in Uncoupling Accounts" (co-authored with Pat Oles) at the American Sociological Association annual meetings. Susan was the invited speaker at April's meeting of Sociologists for Women in Society at the University at Albany.

Collaborating with Kimberly Dugan, Joanne Reger spoke on "Collective Identity Salience in Grassroots Feminism and Contested Gay Politics" at the annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society.

Michael Ennis-McMillan presented a paper on social suffering, time, and drinking water quality in a Mexican community at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. He also chaired a session on "Facing Environmental Health Issues: Holistic Perspectives and the Search for Social Justice." In February Michael spoke on the social origins of bodily distress in a Mexican community at a colloquium at the University at Albany.

Renee Walker presented two papers: "An Examination of the Taphonomic Factors Affecting the Dust Cave Faunal Assemblage" at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Archaeology Conference; and "Hunting in the Late Paleoindian: Faunal Remains from Dust Cave, Alabama" at the Society for American Archaeology's annual meeting. Renee also sponsored a symposium, "From Mice to Mammoths: Studies in Subsistence During the Paleoindian," at the SAA meetings.

With social work major Jenna Golub, Jacqueline Azzarto presented a paper, "Tracking Welfare Clients: Class Assignment, Research Project, Advocacy Effort, Ethical Responsibility," at the annual conference of the New York State Education Association. Jackie also attended the NASW Social Work Lobby Day in Albany with 20 students and field instructors.

Margaret Tacardon was active in speaking at venues concerned with corrections. Peg collaborated with Marcy Taylor of the New York State Department of Correctional Services on a paper, "Understanding and Working with the Criminal Addict," presented (by Ms. Taylor) at the American Correctional Association conference. Peg made two presentations on "relationship addiction" to the inmates of the Hale Creek Correctional Facility, speaking each time to 250 inmates. She was an invited presenter on culture, gender, and violence at two Correctional Education Training Days, the first in Rochester and then at Lake George.

Peg spoke on ethics in the workplace and took part in a panel on criminal justice issues–all at a conference on "Recovery: Illumination of Hope" sponsored by New York State Correctional Services. Collaborating with Wayne Moore of North Carolina A&T State University, Peg also presented a paper on social work field education in the new millennium at the first annual Social Work Program Institute at Missouri Western State College.

At the annual meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, Carla Sofka gave a technology presentation on using a Web site as a resource to teach social work practice. Carla presented a two-day workshop on the foundations of Death and Dying at the annual conference of the Association for Death Education and Counseling in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Consulting Susan Walzer served as external reviewer for fellowship applications for the Murray Research Center at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies, Harvard University.

David Karp worked with the Vermont Department of Corrections to develop a training curriculum and was a technical consultant in a three-year evaluation of balanced and restorative justice in juvenile justice programs in Vermont.

Renee Walker is archaeological consultant for the Saratoga National Historical Park in Stillwater, New York.

Additional Professional Contributions Department members reviewed manuscripts for the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal of Family Issues, Qualitative Sociology, Mobilization, Contemporary Justice Review, Dance Research Journal, and the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography. Susan Walzer served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Family Issues.

With carefully planned long-distance commuting, Carla Sofka taught a course on Death and Dying for the School of Social Work at Washington University, all the while meeting her Skidmore obligations. Carla also guest lectured in two courses at the University at Albany.

Contributions to the Skidmore Community

As always, department members participated actively in college governance and service. Consider:  

Ad Hoc Committee on Faculty Evaluation Procedures	All-College Council on Reconfiguration
All-College Council Subcommittee on Alcohol and Controlled Substances	Athletic Council
Benefits Committee	CAPT Review Committee
Committee on Academic Freedom and Rights	Committee on Educational Policy and Planning
CEPP Subcommittee on Academic Standards and Expectations	Committee on Academic Standing (two members; Chair)
Committee on Faculty Governance	Curriculum Committee (Chair)
Curriculum Committee Subcommittee	Environmental Studies Steering Committee
Fulbright Adviser	Honor Code Discussion Group
Information Resources Council	Inauguration Committee (Co-Chair of Symposia Subcommittee)
Planning International Affairs Advisory Committee	Institutional Review Board
Middle States Planning Committee	Periclean Executive Committee
Phi Beta Kappa	Social Integrity Board
University Without Walls Committee

We contributed to the College in numerous other ways too, often drawing on our academic expertise in serving the collective enterprise.

As described earlier in this report, the senior class chose John Brueggemann as faculty speaker at this year's Commencement. (John was the third department member chosen as Commencement faculty speaker in nine years.) John took part in a President's Roundtable on Community Discourse as well as a discussion group on community morale and activism. John was a panelist in the Ally Training Workshop sponsored by SAFE (Students, Staff, and Faculty for Equality).

Several department members took part in the external review of the Law and Society Program. Bill Fox served as Fulbright advisor for students and helped a bit with recruitment visits of candidates for the Director of the Library. Susan Walzer is a member of the Student Cultures Project–faculty and Academic Affairs staff studying student cultures at Skidmore. Susan served on a faculty panel for the summer orientation of incoming HEOP students and was a presenter at the new faculty orientation. David Karp organized a public lecture by Rutgers criminologist George Kelling. David also participated in a panel at the Honor Code Town Meeting. Joanne Reger spoke to Network on "Understanding Homophobia, Racism, and Classism in the Women's Movement."

Michael Ennis-McMillan engaged in several activities for the college. He spoke on oil drilling and the indigenous people of Ecuador at a colloquium sponsored by the Environmental Action Club and Honors Forum. He brought Jennifer Hays of the University at Albany to speak on cultural representation and anthropological responsibility, drawing on her research with the San of Northern Botswana. Michael worked with Matthew Hockenos of the History Department to organize a luncheon roundtable discussion with David Stoll and Zlatko Izakovic on "Coming to Terms with Genocide and Human Rights Abuses." Michael also arranged for Dr. Stoll to visit anthropology classes. In conjunction with Latino Heritage Month, Michael collaborated with Lisa Aronson of Art History on a Day of the Dead exhibition in the Scriber library.

Michael didn't stop with arranging speakers. He also assisted the History Department in its search for a Latin American Historian. Michael helped interview candidates at the annual meetings of the American Historical Association in Chicago in January. He also served as internal referee for Faculty Research Initiative Grant applications.

Jill Sweet arranged a two-day visit by Ian McIntosh of Cultural Survival, Inc., a visit coordinated with International Week. Jill also arranged a visit by Joan Corez of the Santo Domingo Indian Reservation. Ms. Corez visited classes and interacted with students during her weeklong visit.

Renee Walker sponsored nationally-known specialist Larry Kinsella's lecture/demonstration of flintknapping, the process of making stone tools. Renee was also shadowed by two middle school students, introducing them to archaeology and discussing summer field opportunities.

In addition to events noted above, our department joined in sponsoring:

• Attallah Shabazz, Black History Month Keynote Lecture
• David Chevan and Warren Byrd, "Avadim Hayinu/Once We Were Slaves" (a concert celebrating diversity)Manning Marable, "Challenges to African-Americans in a Conservative America"
• Bruce Piasecki colloquium
• Bruce Piasecki colloquium
• Leslie Feinberg, "Transgenderism"
• Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Meme"

Department members gave guest lectures in one another's classes and Skidmore classes outside the department–far too many to detail here.

Sociologists, anthropologists, and social work faculty also contribute significantly to both the University Without Walls and the Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies. With Peg Tacardon leading the way, department faculty worked this year with over three dozen UWW students and over a dozen MALS students. Most of this work involved offering independent study courses or advising students in these programs, although this summer Peg Tacardon is also teaching a UWW course on Culture, Gender, and Violence

Yes, department faculty generously contribute their academic expertise and skills and time to the larger community. No slackers 'round here!

Special Issues and Problems

Our department and its component programs have a couple of issues and concerns beside reconfiguration and assessment noted earlier in this report.

Enrollment Pressures and Curricular Needs We are unable to serve all students who seek our courses and we are unable to offer a curricular range appropriate for a high-quality liberal arts college like Skidmore. Our situation is especially critical in anthropology and sociology.

Take anthropology first. Despite addition of an anthropology position a couple of years ago, we face severe enrollment pressures, especially but not only in AN 101/Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. The backlog of students, including wannabe majors, wanting–indeed, needing–AN 101 continues despite an extraordinary attempt to remedy the problem. As noted previously, last fall Gerry Erchak introduced, on a trial basis, an open-ended section of AN 101. (Actually, we intended an open-ended section but chickened out when enrollment hit 185.) Susan Walzer's careful assessment of this offering, including questionnaires and focus groups, concluded that a large enrollment, lecture-based approach to AN 101 is far less successful than traditional offerings with 35-40 students. We are unlikely to repeat the experiment even though we cannot serve all students who want to take AN 101.

But enrollment pressures in anthropology are at the 200- and 300-levels too. For each of the last four academic years, average class size in anthropology was highest of any departmental program at the College. A lot higher. Consider the details:

	Average Class Size
Year	Anthro	Next Highest	Rank*
Unadjusted 1999-2000	32.3	25.2	1
Adjusted 1999-2000	24.8	25.2	2
1998-99	24.6	20.8	1
1997-98	24.2	21.2	1
1996-97	26.5	20.6	1
*Among 20 department-based programs.

To be sure, anthropology's average class size last year–32.3–is distorted upward by Gerald Erchak's 185-student AN 101 class. But adjusting the average by assuming "only" 40 students (the cap) in Erchak's class, we find that anthropology classes still averaged 24.4 students per course. And the pattern has gone on for at least the last four years (the only years for which we have comparative statistics). In 1998-99, for example, anthropology classes averaged 24.6 students, 3.2 (17 percent!) more than the program with the second highest average. Anthropology was not separated out for data before 1996-97, but we imagine the pattern would show for several years then too.

The fact is that anthropology at Skidmore has been, is, and will remain a hot program.

What to do? That's easy in principle, tough in practice. Add another anthropology faculty member. Make that two or three, for we have unmet curricular needs too. If the Luce proposal is funded, we will add a cultural anthropologist with East Asian expertise. That would help with enrollment pressures and fill a significant curricular gap in cultural anthropology. But physical anthropology is an even larger curricular gap. A physical anthropologist is now our number one need in anthropology.

Sociology has enrollment pressures too, especially in required methods, theory, and senior seminar courses. We have wait lists for each of these courses. In fact, the wait list for SO 324/Developments in Social Theory has about 15 students on it.

We are coping (but only barely) with these problems by carefully tracking majors to plan offerings and by adding course sections (at the expense of electives) when required to deliver the sociology major. Enrollment problems will become intractable if the number of sociology majors grows much beyond its current 24 or so per class, and there are signs that majors will increase–indeed, are increasing already. The rising senior class has 29 sociology majors. Declarations of majors suggest that the rising junior class will have over 30 when declarations are complete. We will continue to monitor this enrollment problem closely.

Space Problems We repeat, once again, our lament from previous annual reports:

We call it a lounge, but the space is not for lounging. It's for discussion, interaction, engagement with one another, both students and faculty. Maybe we should call the space a "forum," for that's the sort of public area we seek. Classrooms are fine for a faculty member with a group of students. Faculty offices work OK for one-on-one student-faculty contact. But only a public space allows flows of students and faculty.

We had hoped that the retrofitting of Starbuck Center would free up space for classrooms elsewhere, which in turn would free up public space in TLC for students and faculty to get together more informally than classrooms or offices permit. That didn't happen. Silly us.

So nothing has changed in space allocation on the second floor of TLC. The lack of space for student and faculty interaction continues, and no one outside our department seems much concerned about the problem. We know space is tight at the College. Still, as we see spaces found for student-faculty interaction (and other uses) around the College, our deprivation continues and our sense of relative deprivation increases.

To compound our department's space problem: If the College's Luce Foundation proposal for an additional anthropologist with Asian expertise is successful, we must have an additional office on our floor. Surely we would not have the Luce Professor of Anthropology as our only department colleague housed elsewhere. Furthermore, space problems increase in the anthropology laboratory on the first floor as archaeological collections grow. Lab renovation last summer helped with the archaeology space crunch, but only bought some time.

Maybe Skidmore needs another classroom-office building or maybe we need greater utilization of existing space. Probably we need both, and maybe we will eventually get both. But in the meantime, our department is dismayed at the low priority that Skidmore's administration and staff assign our needs for space. Let's address this situation.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

With good planning and good luck (they're related), we have developed into a department central to Skidmore College's mission. We teach well, we have active research agendas, and we contribute mightily and responsibly to the Skidmore community. We also work together well within and across our three programs. Department faculty play active and effective roles in faculty governance. We are interdisciplinary by inclination and intellectual orientation, so we contribute generously and gladly to Liberal Studies and other interdisciplinary programs. Our department is central to Women's Studies; we are linked to the Honors Forum; our newest colleagues strengthen intellectual and curricular ties to the Environmental Studies, Law and Society, and International Affairs programs. A couple department colleagues have even left us, temporarily we hope, to assume major roles in the College's administration.

Yes, we are feeling good about ourselves, individually and collectively. But not complacent. Building on our strengths, we will continue to improve our programs. Specific items already on our agenda for next year are refinement of both program and teaching assessment procedures, completion of department personnel procedures, personnel reviews of untenured faculty, and recruitment of sabbatical replacements. Surely other matters will arise too as we respond to both problems and opportunities.

The past year was a fine one. We look forward to 2000-01.

Colleagues of the Department of Sociology,
   Anthropology, and Social Work

Tisch Learning Center, Second Floor

June 2000

Annual Reports
1998-1999

OUR department is winding up the second millennium in fine fashion, with excellent teaching, productive research and scholarship, and strong service to the Skidmore community. This year we revised our courses, published books and articles, served in faculty governance, joined in workshops, enhanced the Skidmore community with a variety of events, and further infiltrated the administration. We reaccredited our social work program. We carried out personnel reviews. We introduced assessment procedures and slouched towards reconfiguration. Most importantly, we welcomed four new colleagues into our department and a baby into the world. We have done all this with amicability and goodwill intact.

Students

Our students did us proud again this year. The Anthropology-Sociology Club continued as an active organization sponsoring panels and informational meetings. The Club's get-together in which students who have studied abroad meet with students planning to do so has become an annual event. The Club also hosted a fall semester dinner with faculty and a spring term potluck in honor of three Pueblo Indian women visiting Skidmore.

Meanwhile, social work students revived the Student Social Work Association. The SSWA sponsored a series of events, including a speaker about graduate school and lobbying in Albany on behalf of welfare clients. Social Work students again led the way with their activities in Benef-Action and other service to the larger community.

Four sociology majors--Shuk Yin Lee, Lani Radack, Juliet Scarpa, and Allison Washburn--were elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Department majors were elected to the Periclean Society; Alpha Kappa Delta, the sociology honor society, inducted fifteen new members (joining six continuing members). Department faculty recognized outstanding student achievement with departmental prizes. Shuk Yin Lee received the Stonequist Award in Sociology, Lani Radack the Rautenberg Award in Sociology, Daryl Somma the Gallagher Prize in Anthropology, and Abigail Trow the Betten and Betten Award in Social Work. Sociology major Lani Radack, with a joint major in Women's Studies, also received the E. Beverly Field Women's Studies Award.

Eleven students in Catherine Berheide's Senior Seminar in Sociology presented papers at the annual meetings of the Eastern Sociological Association–the third consecutive year of such participation. Invited by Michael Ennis-McMillan, anthropology students attended the annual meetings of the Northeastern Anthropological Association as well as a Russell Sage College's Philosophy Forum on Rigoberta Menchú's' controversial writing. Five anthropology majors presented projects at the inaugural Academic Festival in April and two anthropology majors joined with faculty in the Senior-week Consilience Symposium.

This summer several faculty are working with students on College-supported projects. David Karp and Ryan Fairly, '01, have a collaborative research grant to study Vermont reparative boards. Supported by AT&T Learning Network grants this summer, Catherine Berheide and Juliet Scarpa, '99, are teaming up to prepare exercises for SO 225/Quantifying Women, while Carla Sofka and Brian Kelley, '00, are developing an interactive web page for SW 333/Social Work Practice.

We are indeed proud of our students and their many accomplishments.

Staffing

We were joined this year by four new colleagues: David Karp in sociology; Michael Ennis-McMillan and Renee Walker in anthropology; and Carla Sofka in social work. Our new colleagues added to our curricula and invigorated our department.

These newcomers were made possible in part by our department's colonization of sizable chunks of administrative territory. Renee Walker replaced Susan Bender, who is again Associate Dean of the Faculty after serving a spring-semester hitch as Acting Dean of the Faculty. Carla Sofka is filling in for Thomas "Pat" Oles, interim Dean of Student Affairs.

Once again this year we were helped out by adjunct faculty. Stephen Darman, a PhD candidate at SUNY-Albany, taught a section SO 101/Sociological Perspectives last fall and Michelle Napierski-Prancl taught three sociology courses for us in the spring semester.

Although not formally associated with our department, Fran Hoffmann is in many ways one of us–she is a sociologist, after all, and she once chaired our department. We were delighted, then, that Fran Hoffmann returned to Skidmore's administration even if for but a year. Fran worked with us on recruitment and department members turned to Fran for advice, especially regarding assessment. With Pat Oles, Fran also convened the "Culture Club" to launch a study of student cultures. Susan Walzer is joining in this exciting project with a new course, Studying Student Worlds, next fall.

We conducted a positive third-year review of Susan Walzer and welcome her continuation at the College. We carried out a positive second-year review of Rory McVeigh and "officially" notified the Dean of the Faculty that we regard Rory as a candidate for a second three-year appointment. This spring we conducted first-year reviews of our four newbies, David Karp, Michael Ennis-McMillan, Renee Walker, and Carla Sofka.

Two colleagues will be on leave next year: Kate Berheide for the full year and Susan Walzer in the spring semester. They will be replaced by Michelle Napierski-Prancl and Joanne Reger, each joining us for the entire academic year. With her PhD from SUNY-Albany, Michelle is a Skidmore veteran, having taught with us fulltime this past spring. Jo has her PhD from Ohio State University and will bring special expertise in gender and social movements.

In early February Mary Ann Fitzgerald retired after 18 years of service at the College, the last few years as our department secretary. Sightings of Mary Ann since February find her immersed in local history and thoroughly enjoying her retirement. Mary Ann has a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to fund an oral history project and exhibit on Saratoga's West Side. The exhibit will open at the Saratoga Historical Society Museum in early September.

We are fortunate indeed that Colleen Bodane joined us in January as department secretary. Colleen quickly put her special stamp on our department, not the least by her quiet competence and generosity. Colleen's selfless spirit was exemplified early on by her raising funds for Kosovar relief efforts by Doctors Without Borders.

Looking ahead to this coming fall, John Brueggemann will stand for tenure and our department will review Rory McVeigh for reappointment. We will also carry out second-year reviews of Michael Ennis-McMillan, David Karp, Carla Sofka, and Renee Walker. This coming year our department will review its personnel procedures with special attention to assuring consistency of department polices and practices with those of the College.

We also look ahead to some leaves in 2000-20001. Jackie Azzarto and Peg Tacardon are scheduled for sabbatical leaves and, assuming reappointment, Rory McVeigh plans a pretenure leave. This coming year we will need to recruit sabbatical replacements to cover these colleagues' absences the following year.

Curriculum Development and Teaching Activities

Last December the Council on Social Work Education reaccredited Skidmore's social work program. Ta-da! Reaccreditation ("reaffirmation" in CSWE lingo) came after a lengthy and detailed self-study of the program led by Jacqueline Azzarto and an on-site visit by CSWE representatives last November. Supported throughout by the College and her social work colleagues, Jackie's hard work paid off. We were relieved (although not surprised) by CSWE's reaccreditation. We were especially pleased that reaccreditation was for a full eight-years cycle and raised only a few, relatively minor issues easily addressed. We know Skidmore's social work program is an excellent one and were delighted by CSWE's recognition of the program's quality. Very few selective liberal arts college's have CSWE-accredited social work programs.

Our three programs' curricula have never stood still. This year was no exception. We introduced new courses and substantially revised old ones. Indeed, with newcomers on board, we probably did more curricular development than ever before. (We also introduced assessment procedures and moved toward reconfiguration, but more on those matters later.)

Susan Walzer taught SO 304/Sociology of Emotions for the first time. Rory McVeigh introduced an Honors section of SO 101/Sociological Perspectives in the inaugural semester of the Honors Forum. Rory also taught SO 321/American Social Change and SO 328/Social Movements and Collective Action for the first time. David Karp introduced LS 2/Society and Social Responsibility, an offering with a significant service-learning component. Michael Ennis-McMillan introduced courses on Latin American Indians and Medical Anthropology and significantly revised Ecological Anthropology to meet the policy cluster requirements of the Environmental Studies program.

Bill Fox made extensive use of PowerPoint in SO 226/Social Research: Analysis for the first time. Gerry Erchak introduced student oral presentations into his AN 366/Seminar in Anthropology. Renee Walker continued Susan Bender's practice of incorporating pedagogical software in AN 105/Introduction to Archaeology and integrated web resources into several courses. Michael Ennis-McMillan arranged for David Stoll to meet with students and faculty to discuss his controversial critique of Rigoberta Menchú's work. Peg Tacardon converted her Prisons in America from LS II to LS 2 and in the process changed approaches to the course.

As noted above, Catherine Berheide and Juliet Scarpa, '99, are preparing exercises for SO 225/Quantifying Woman, and Carla Sofka and Brian Kelley, '00, are developing an interactive web page for SW 333/Social Work Practice–all this by supported AT&T Learning Network grants. Meanwhile, supported by a summer Technological Innovation Grant, Bill Fox is further integrating PowerPoint into and developing a web site for his SO 226/Social Research: Analysis course.

Professional and Scholarly Activities

Department members published several books this year. Temple University Press published Susan Walzer's Thinking About the Baby: Gender and Transitions into Parenthood. David Karp and Todd Clear's The Community Justice Ideal was published by Westview. David also edited Community Justice: An Emerging Field, published by Rowman and Littlefield. Gerry Erchak saw his Anthropology of Self and Behavior issued in a new paperback edition.

John Brueggemann co-authored articles offering a sociological approach to labor history in Work and Occupations and forthcoming in the Radical Review of Political Economics. David Karp published articles on community justice in the National Institute of Justice Journal, the Journal of Community Psychology, Correctional Management Quarterly, Crime & Delinquency, and The Responsive Community. That's quite a run(!), but David also managed to publish his Deviance course syllabus in a collection of syllabi issued by the American Sociological Association and write the selection on values theory and research in Edgar Borgatta's Encyclopedia of Sociology. Rory McVeigh published articles on power devaluation and the rise of the KKK in Social Forces and, switching gears, expansion of two-year colleges in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Jill Sweet published an article on Pueblo ritual dance in the 1920s in Performance de Santa Fe. Renee Walker has two papers based on her Dust Cave work in press. Michael Ennis-McMillan is awaiting publication of a chapter in a book dealing with the privatization of water management in Mexico. Carla Sofka published three pieces on death and dying, including an article in the Journal of Personal and Interpersonal Loss. An earlier work of Carla's was reprinted in a new edited work on dealing with grief. Carla also maintained the "News and Notes" section of Death Studies.

Department members published book reviews too. John Brueggemann reviewed Ronald Glassman's Middle Class and Democracy in Socio-Historical Perspective in Contemporary Sociology. Rory McVeigh offered a critique of Bert Klandermans' Social Psychology of Protest in Social Forces. Gerry Erchak reviewed David Lancy's Playing on the Mother-Ground in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

We spread the gospel, or at least our versions of same. David Karp lectured on community justice at Rutgers. Susan Walzer was an invited speaker at both a SUNY-Albany Sociologists for Women in Society meeting and the Skidmore Women's Studies annual dinner. Michael Ennis-McMillan spoke on culture and public health issues at SUNY-Albany. Gerry Erchak lectured (and surely expressed an opinion or two) on "Consilience and Postmodernism" at SUNY-Albany. Gerry also gave Skidmore's Anthropology-Sociology Club food for thought discussing "The Importance of Eating Meat." Carla Sofka taught a death and dying course at Washington University and guest lectured at SUNY-Albany.

Department colleagues reviewed manuscripts for the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal of Family Issues, Qualitative Sociology, Mobilization, Contemporary Justice Review, Teaching Sociology, and Journal of Contemporary Ethnography as well as Waveland Press and the American Sociological Association's Committee on Teaching.

John Brueggemann gave a paper on sources of interracial unionism at the American Sociological Association meetings. David Karp delivered papers on community justice at meetings of the Justice Studies Association and American Society of Criminology. Rory McVeigh gave papers on various aspects of social movements at annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Eastern Sociological Society. Susan Walzer discussed her research with Pat Oles at the American Sociological Association meetings. Michael Ennis-McMillan organized a session and presented a paper on the politics of water in Mexico at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association. Michael also chaired a session on gender at the Northeast Anthropology Association meetings. Renee Walker delivered papers based on her Dust Cave research at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference and meetings of the International Council for Archaeozoology and Society for American Archaeology. Jacqueline Azzarto chaired a session of student papers at the annual meetings of the Council on Social Work Education. Carla Sofka gave papers on thanatology and grief counseling at the annual meetings of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and a workshop of the New York State Crime Victims Board.

Kate Berheide serves on the American Sociological Association's Executive Council, an important elected position rarely held by a faculty member from a liberal arts college. John Brueggemann chairs the ASA's Teaching Committee, a delicate assignment as the ASA's organizational structure evolves.

David Karp received a National Institute of Justice grant to write a summary of the current state of knowledge about the criminal justice system. Susan Walzer has been accepted as a visiting scholar at Radcliffe College's Murray Research Center during her pretenure leave next spring.

Contributions to the Skidmore and Saratoga Communities

Department members participated actively across the committee system. Consider:

And we contributed to the College in numerous other ways too. Kate Berheide took on a new role for the year: Coordinator of the Women's Studies Program. John Brueggemann participated in ongoing discussions of religious pluralism on campus. Rory McVeigh spoke to new faculty about transition from graduate school to Skidmore. Rory also joined in a panel discussion of racial diversity at Skidmore. David Karp took part in the Honor Code discussion group. David also advised the Drug Awareness Theme House in Scribner Village. Carla Sofka participated in Diversity Committee meetings.

Sociologists, anthropologists, and social work faculty also contribute significantly to both the University Without Walls and the Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies. With Peg Tacardon leading the way, department faculty worked this year with over two dozen UWW students and over a dozen MALS students.

Faculty generously contribute their academic expertise and skills to the larger community. David Karp conducted training for the Ballston Spa Youth Court and for Vermont reparative boards. Renee Walker enjoyed being shadowed–job shadowed, that is–by two Ballston Spa Middle School students. Jackie Azzarto served as Board President of the Saratoga Economic Opportunity Council and advocated on behalf of welfare clients with the State Comptroller's Office. Peg Tacardon was a board member of Pathways to Independence providing resources for female ex-offenders. Peg also presented workshops for about 500 inmates at the Hale Creek Correctional Facility Alcohol and Substance Abuse Programs. As consultant to the NYS Correctional Services' Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Peg developed an in-depth curriculum guide to train educators working in the state's prisons. The guide is currently used by over 1,000 educators. Carla Sofka coordinated a Hospice Foundation teleconference. Carla also assisted with the campus vigil in remembrance of the Littleton High School tragedy. Gerry Erchak ran as fast as he could with the Skidmore team in this year's Chase Corporate Challenge.

Many department members–Bill Fox, John Brueggemann, Rory McVeigh, David Karp, Michael Ennis-McMillan, Renee Walker–were interviewed by the press on topics ranging from to the Littleton tragedy to presidential impeachment to student folklore.

Three contributions to the College by anthropologists merit special notice:

	Renee Walker arranged a major lecture by paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey.
	Jill Sweet brought three Pueblo Indian women to campus for several days to enrichanthropology, social work, and education classes and meet informally with students.
	Gerald Erchak proposed and coordinated a Senior-week symposium to discuss ideas in Edward O. Wilson's controversial new book Consilience.

 

 

 

 

Each of these contributions required much time, work, and coordination, and each was highly successful. Skidmore students and faculty are in debt to our anthropology colleagues for arranging these stimulating events.

Assessment

This year each of the three programs in our department introduced assessment procedures based on its mission and statement of goals. These procedures included, within each program, exit interviews along with questionnaires administered to graduating Seniors. Questionnaires were developed by Michael Ennis-McMillan, Susan Walzer, and Jacqueline Azzarto. These instruments and sessions not only provided information, but also stimulated discussion of program goals, ways in which goals may best be achieved, and the program's relation to the larger Skidmore curriculum and community. We think, too, that exit interviews provoked Skidmore students to reflect again, one last time before graduation, on their Skidmore experience.

The social work program, of course, underwent special scrutiny this year as part of the reaccreditation process by the Council on Social Work Education. CSWE itself identified aspects of the program that it believes should be corrected or improved (none serious or difficult to handle, thank goodness). The social work program has a Student Program Evaluation Committee in place to work with the Director and faculty in ongoing assessment of the program.

David Karp devised a special questionnaire to assess the service-learning component of his LS 2/Society and Social Responsibility course and the extent to which the course developed three "core abilities"–valuation, social interaction, and citizenship. David's assessment instrument may well serve as a model for others.

We will refine assessment procedures during the coming year. In particular, we need to be more inclusive in gathering information from Seniors. We need, too, to extend our assessment to include information from alumnae. We will explore inclusion of items pertaining to our majors into surveys carried out by the Office of Institutional Research. The Office of Institutional Research may also be able to help us out with transcript analyses.

We have agreed, as a department, to take a good look at our department's teaching and course evaluation form (the so-called "long form") this coming year. The current form is essentially open-ended, offering no more than some very general guidelines for students evaluating a course. We will review our form this coming year, perhaps in parallel with the collegewide faculty's review to the so-called "Dean's card."

Reconfiguration

Each of our department's three programs worked hard on reconfiguration this year. These efforts were at times complicated, even hindered, by uncertainty about collegewide policies governing reconfiguration. So, for example, we worked enthusiastically on curricula reconfigured with all 4-credit-hour courses only to have such plans rejected by the administration. A model with all 4-credit-hour courses had faculty members each teach nine courses over two years even as they maintained 36-credit-hour teaching loads over this period. We thought–in fact, we still think–such reconfiguration is both workable and desirable, and we regret the lack of dialogue seeking solutions to problems (e.g., offering enough courses) associated with this approach. Likewise, we regret lack of serious discussion of a course-unit rather than credit-hour system.

But we moved ahead despite and beyond such frustrations. The anthropology program, a little further along than sociology or social work, may submit its initial reconfiguration plan (a general model sans detailed course descriptions) for administrative review this summer. Sociology and social work will follow along with their plans in the fall. We anticipate that each of these reconfiguration plans will easily meet current administrative stipulations (e.g., number of hours required for major, continuing contributions to interdisciplinary programs).

 

Special Problems

Our department and its component programs have a couple of issues and concerns beside assessment and reconfiguration:

Enrollment Pressures. Despite a staffing increase in anthropology a couple years ago, enrollment pressures continue, especially for AN 101/Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. A backlog of students wanting AN 101, including wannabe majors, continues. To handle this demand, we are introducing, on a trial basis next fall, an open-ended section of AN 101 (to be taught by Gerry Erchak). We will carefully assess this approach to the course in a variety of ways, including questionnaires and tracing afterward of students who have taken the course.

We also face enrollment pressures in sociology, especially in required methods, theory, and senior seminar courses. We are coping (but only coping) with the problem by carefully tracking majors to plan offerings and adding course sections (at the expense of electives) when required to deliver the sociology major. The problem will become intractable if the number of sociology majors grows much beyond its current 24 or so per class, and there are signs that majors will indeed increase. We will continue to monitor this enrollment problem closely.

Space Problems. Last year's annual recalled that:

We have complained about the lack of comfortable space for student and faculty interaction–call it a lounge–since before we moved into the Learning Center. A College that prides itself on interaction and discourse needs to provide areas for getting together other than classrooms. For the most part, Skidmore doesn't. Granted, classroom space is tight. Still, the lounge problem needs addressed. We hope that the retrofitting of Starbuck Center will free up space for classrooms elsewhere, which in turn will free up TLC classroom space for conversion into a lounge to allow students and faculty to get together more informally than classrooms permit.

Nothing has changed. The problem of space for student and faculty interaction continues.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

With good planning and good luck over the years, we have developed into a department central to Skidmore College. We teach well, have active research agendas, and contribute mightily and responsibly to the Skidmore community. We also work well together as a department and within our three programs. Department faculty play extensive and active roles in faculty governance. We are interdisciplinary by inclination and intellectual orientation, and so we contribute generously and gladly to Liberal Studies and other interdisciplinary programs. Our department is central to Women's Studies, with Kate Berheide serving as program coordinator this past year and other department members contributing courses to the program. Rory McVeigh and Michael Ennis-McMillan already link us to the new Honors Forum. Our newest colleagues strengthen other links–Michael Ennis-McMillan to Environmental Studies and International Affairs and David Karp to Environmental Studies and Law and Society. Department colleagues–Susan Bender and Pat Oles–have taken on important roles in the administration.

Yes, we are feeling good about ourselves individually and collectively. But not complacent. Building on our strengths, we will continue to improve our programs. Specific items already on our agenda for next year are reconfiguration, refinement of assessment procedures, review of department personnel procedures, personnel reviews of untenured faculty, and (as always) recruitment of sabbatical replacements. We expect another good year.

Colleagues of the Department of Sociology,
   Anthropology, and Social Work
Second Floor
Tisch Learning Center
June 1999

Annual Reports
1997-1998

OUR department is winding up the second millennium in fine fashion, with excellent teaching, productive research and scholarship, and strong service to the Skidmore community. This year we revised our courses, published books and articles, served in faculty governance, joined in workshops, enhanced the Skidmore community with a variety of events, and further infiltrated the administration. We reaccredited our social work program. We carried out personnel reviews. We introduced assessment procedures and slouched towards reconfiguration. Most importantly, we welcomed four new colleagues into our department and a baby into the world. We have done all this with amicability and goodwill intact.

Students

Our students did us proud again this year. The Anthropology-Sociology Club continued as an active organization sponsoring panels and informational meetings. The Club's get-together in which students who have studied abroad meet with students planning to do so has become an annual event. The Club also hosted a fall semester dinner with faculty and a spring term potluck in honor of three Pueblo Indian women visiting Skidmore.

Meanwhile, social work students revived the Student Social Work Association. The SSWA sponsored a series of events, including a speaker about graduate school and lobbying in Albany on behalf of welfare clients. Social Work students again led the way with their activities in Benef-Action and other service to the larger community.

Four sociology majors--Shuk Yin Lee, Lani Radack, Juliet Scarpa, and Allison Washburn--were elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Department majors were elected to the Periclean Society; Alpha Kappa Delta, the sociology honor society, inducted fifteen new members (joining six continuing members). Department faculty recognized outstanding student achievement with departmental prizes. Shuk Yin Lee received the Stonequist Award in Sociology, Lani Radack the Rautenberg Award in Sociology, Daryl Somma the Gallagher Prize in Anthropology, and Abigail Trow the Betten and Betten Award in Social Work. Sociology major Lani Radack, with a joint major in Women's Studies, also received the E. Beverly Field Women's Studies Award.

Eleven students in Catherine Berheide's Senior Seminar in Sociology presented papers at the annual meetings of the Eastern Sociological Association–the third consecutive year of such participation. Invited by Michael Ennis-McMillan, anthropology students attended the annual meetings of the Northeastern Anthropological Association as well as a Russell Sage College's Philosophy Forum on Rigoberta Menchú's' controversial writing. Five anthropology majors presented projects at the inaugural Academic Festival in April and two anthropology majors joined with faculty in the Senior-week Consilience Symposium.

This summer several faculty are working with students on College-supported projects. David Karp and Ryan Fairly, '01, have a collaborative research grant to study Vermont reparative boards. Supported by AT&T Learning Network grants this summer, Catherine Berheide and Juliet Scarpa, '99, are teaming up to prepare exercises for SO 225/Quantifying Women, while Carla Sofka and Brian Kelley, '00, are developing an interactive web page for SW 333/Social Work Practice.

We are indeed proud of our students and their many accomplishments.

Staffing

We were joined this year by four new colleagues: David Karp in sociology; Michael Ennis-McMillan and Renee Walker in anthropology; and Carla Sofka in social work. Our new colleagues added to our curricula and invigorated our department.

These newcomers were made possible in part by our department's colonization of sizable chunks of administrative territory. Renee Walker replaced Susan Bender, who is again Associate Dean of the Faculty after serving a spring-semester hitch as Acting Dean of the Faculty. Carla Sofka is filling in for Thomas "Pat" Oles, interim Dean of Student Affairs.

Once again this year we were helped out by adjunct faculty. Stephen Darman, a PhD candidate at SUNY-Albany, taught a section SO 101/Sociological Perspectives last fall and Michelle Napierski-Prancl taught three sociology courses for us in the spring semester.

Although not formally associated with our department, Fran Hoffmann is in many ways one of us–she is a sociologist, after all, and she once chaired our department. We were delighted, then, that Fran Hoffmann returned to Skidmore's administration even if for but a year. Fran worked with us on recruitment and department members turned to Fran for advice, especially regarding assessment. With Pat Oles, Fran also convened the "Culture Club" to launch a study of student cultures. Susan Walzer is joining in this exciting project with a new course, Studying Student Worlds, next fall.

We conducted a positive third-year review of Susan Walzer and welcome her continuation at the College. We carried out a positive second-year review of Rory McVeigh and "officially" notified the Dean of the Faculty that we regard Rory as a candidate for a second three-year appointment. This spring we conducted first-year reviews of our four newbies, David Karp, Michael Ennis-McMillan, Renee Walker, and Carla Sofka.

Two colleagues will be on leave next year: Kate Berheide for the full year and Susan Walzer in the spring semester. They will be replaced by Michelle Napierski-Prancl and Joanne Reger, each joining us for the entire academic year. With her PhD from SUNY-Albany, Michelle is a Skidmore veteran, having taught with us fulltime this past spring. Jo has her PhD from Ohio State University and will bring special expertise in gender and social movements.

In early February Mary Ann Fitzgerald retired after 18 years of service at the College, the last few years as our department secretary. Sightings of Mary Ann since February find her immersed in local history and thoroughly enjoying her retirement. Mary Ann has a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts to fund an oral history project and exhibit on Saratoga's West Side. The exhibit will open at the Saratoga Historical Society Museum in early September.

We are fortunate indeed that Colleen Bodane joined us in January as department secretary. Colleen quickly put her special stamp on our department, not the least by her quiet competence and generosity. Colleen's selfless spirit was exemplified early on by her raising funds for Kosovar relief efforts by Doctors Without Borders.

Looking ahead to this coming fall, John Brueggemann will stand for tenure and our department will review Rory McVeigh for reappointment. We will also carry out second-year reviews of Michael Ennis-McMillan, David Karp, Carla Sofka, and Renee Walker. This coming year our department will review its personnel procedures with special attention to assuring consistency of department polices and practices with those of the College.

We also look ahead to some leaves in 2000-20001. Jackie Azzarto and Peg Tacardon are scheduled for sabbatical leaves and, assuming reappointment, Rory McVeigh plans a pretenure leave. This coming year we will need to recruit sabbatical replacements to cover these colleagues' absences the following year.

Curriculum Development and Teaching Activities

Last December the Council on Social Work Education reaccredited Skidmore's social work program. Ta-da! Reaccreditation ("reaffirmation" in CSWE lingo) came after a lengthy and detailed self-study of the program led by Jacqueline Azzarto and an on-site visit by CSWE representatives last November. Supported throughout by the College and her social work colleagues, Jackie's hard work paid off. We were relieved (although not surprised) by CSWE's reaccreditation. We were especially pleased that reaccreditation was for a full eight-years cycle and raised only a few, relatively minor issues easily addressed. We know Skidmore's social work program is an excellent one and were delighted by CSWE's recognition of the program's quality. Very few selective liberal arts college's have CSWE-accredited social work programs.

Our three programs' curricula have never stood still. This year was no exception. We introduced new courses and substantially revised old ones. Indeed, with newcomers on board, we probably did more curricular development than ever before. (We also introduced assessment procedures and moved toward reconfiguration, but more on those matters later.)

Susan Walzer taught SO 304/Sociology of Emotions for the first time. Rory McVeigh introduced an Honors section of SO 101/Sociological Perspectives in the inaugural semester of the Honors Forum. Rory also taught SO 321/American Social Change and SO 328/Social Movements and Collective Action for the first time. David Karp introduced LS 2/Society and Social Responsibility, an offering with a significant service-learning component. Michael Ennis-McMillan introduced courses on Latin American Indians and Medical Anthropology and significantly revised Ecological Anthropology to meet the policy cluster requirements of the Environmental Studies program.

Bill Fox made extensive use of PowerPoint in SO 226/Social Research: Analysis for the first time. Gerry Erchak introduced student oral presentations into his AN 366/Seminar in Anthropology. Renee Walker continued Susan Bender's practice of incorporating pedagogical software in AN 105/Introduction to Archaeology and integrated web resources into several courses. Michael Ennis-McMillan arranged for David Stoll to meet with students and faculty to discuss his controversial critique of Rigoberta Menchú's work. Peg Tacardon converted her Prisons in America from LS II to LS 2 and in the process changed approaches to the course.

As noted above, Catherine Berheide and Juliet Scarpa, '99, are preparing exercises for SO 225/Quantifying Woman, and Carla Sofka and Brian Kelley, '00, are developing an interactive web page for SW 333/Social Work Practice–all this by supported AT&T Learning Network grants. Meanwhile, supported by a summer Technological Innovation Grant, Bill Fox is further integrating PowerPoint into and developing a web site for his SO 226/Social Research: Analysis course.

Professional and Scholarly Activities

Department members published several books this year. Temple University Press published Susan Walzer's Thinking About the Baby: Gender and Transitions into Parenthood. David Karp and Todd Clear's The Community Justice Ideal was published by Westview. David also edited Community Justice: An Emerging Field, published by Rowman and Littlefield. Gerry Erchak saw his Anthropology of Self and Behavior issued in a new paperback edition.

John Brueggemann co-authored articles offering a sociological approach to labor history in Work and Occupations and forthcoming in the Radical Review of Political Economics. David Karp published articles on community justice in the National Institute of Justice Journal, the Journal of Community Psychology, Correctional Management Quarterly, Crime & Delinquency, and The Responsive Community. That's quite a run(!), but David also managed to publish his Deviance course syllabus in a collection of syllabi issued by the American Sociological Association and write the selection on values theory and research in Edgar Borgatta's Encyclopedia of Sociology. Rory McVeigh published articles on power devaluation and the rise of the KKK in Social Forces and, switching gears, expansion of two-year colleges in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Jill Sweet published an article on Pueblo ritual dance in the 1920s in Performance de Santa Fe. Renee Walker has two papers based on her Dust Cave work in press. Michael Ennis-McMillan is awaiting publication of a chapter in a book dealing with the privatization of water management in Mexico. Carla Sofka published three pieces on death and dying, including an article in the Journal of Personal and Interpersonal Loss. An earlier work of Carla's was reprinted in a new edited work on dealing with grief. Carla also maintained the "News and Notes" section of Death Studies.

Department members published book reviews too. John Brueggemann reviewed Ronald Glassman's Middle Class and Democracy in Socio-Historical Perspective in Contemporary Sociology. Rory McVeigh offered a critique of Bert Klandermans' Social Psychology of Protest in Social Forces. Gerry Erchak reviewed David Lancy's Playing on the Mother-Ground in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

We spread the gospel, or at least our versions of same. David Karp lectured on community justice at Rutgers. Susan Walzer was an invited speaker at both a SUNY-Albany Sociologists for Women in Society meeting and the Skidmore Women's Studies annual dinner. Michael Ennis-McMillan spoke on culture and public health issues at SUNY-Albany. Gerry Erchak lectured (and surely expressed an opinion or two) on "Consilience and Postmodernism" at SUNY-Albany. Gerry also gave Skidmore's Anthropology-Sociology Club food for thought discussing "The Importance of Eating Meat." Carla Sofka taught a death and dying course at Washington University and guest lectured at SUNY-Albany.

Department colleagues reviewed manuscripts for the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Journal of Family Issues, Qualitative Sociology, Mobilization, Contemporary Justice Review, Teaching Sociology, and Journal of Contemporary Ethnography as well as Waveland Press and the American Sociological Association's Committee on Teaching.

John Brueggemann gave a paper on sources of interracial unionism at the American Sociological Association meetings. David Karp delivered papers on community justice at meetings of the Justice Studies Association and American Society of Criminology. Rory McVeigh gave papers on various aspects of social movements at annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Eastern Sociological Society. Susan Walzer discussed her research with Pat Oles at the American Sociological Association meetings. Michael Ennis-McMillan organized a session and presented a paper on the politics of water in Mexico at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association. Michael also chaired a session on gender at the Northeast Anthropology Association meetings. Renee Walker delivered papers based on her Dust Cave research at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference and meetings of the International Council for Archaeozoology and Society for American Archaeology. Jacqueline Azzarto chaired a session of student papers at the annual meetings of the Council on Social Work Education. Carla Sofka gave papers on thanatology and grief counseling at the annual meetings of the Association for Death Education and Counseling and a workshop of the New York State Crime Victims Board.

Kate Berheide serves on the American Sociological Association's Executive Council, an important elected position rarely held by a faculty member from a liberal arts college. John Brueggemann chairs the ASA's Teaching Committee, a delicate assignment as the ASA's organizational structure evolves.

David Karp received a National Institute of Justice grant to write a summary of the current state of knowledge about the criminal justice system. Susan Walzer has been accepted as a visiting scholar at Radcliffe College's Murray Research Center during her pretenure leave next spring.

Contributions to the Skidmore and Saratoga Communities

Department members participated actively across the committee system. Consider:

And we contributed to the College in numerous other ways too. Kate Berheide took on a new role for the year: Coordinator of the Women's Studies Program. John Brueggemann participated in ongoing discussions of religious pluralism on campus. Rory McVeigh spoke to new faculty about transition from graduate school to Skidmore. Rory also joined in a panel discussion of racial diversity at Skidmore. David Karp took part in the Honor Code discussion group. David also advised the Drug Awareness Theme House in Scribner Village. Carla Sofka participated in Diversity Committee meetings.

Sociologists, anthropologists, and social work faculty also contribute significantly to both the University Without Walls and the Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies. With Peg Tacardon leading the way, department faculty worked this year with over two dozen UWW students and over a dozen MALS students.

Faculty generously contribute their academic expertise and skills to the larger community. David Karp conducted training for the Ballston Spa Youth Court and for Vermont reparative boards. Renee Walker enjoyed being shadowed–job shadowed, that is–by two Ballston Spa Middle School students. Jackie Azzarto served as Board President of the Saratoga Economic Opportunity Council and advocated on behalf of welfare clients with the State Comptroller's Office. Peg Tacardon was a board member of Pathways to Independence providing resources for female ex-offenders. Peg also presented workshops for about 500 inmates at the Hale Creek Correctional Facility Alcohol and Substance Abuse Programs. As consultant to the NYS Correctional Services' Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Peg developed an in-depth curriculum guide to train educators working in the state's prisons. The guide is currently used by over 1,000 educators. Carla Sofka coordinated a Hospice Foundation teleconference. Carla also assisted with the campus vigil in remembrance of the Littleton High School tragedy. Gerry Erchak ran as fast as he could with the Skidmore team in this year's Chase Corporate Challenge.

Many department members–Bill Fox, John Brueggemann, Rory McVeigh, David Karp, Michael Ennis-McMillan, Renee Walker–were interviewed by the press on topics ranging from to the Littleton tragedy to presidential impeachment to student folklore.

Three contributions to the College by anthropologists merit special notice:

	Renee Walker arranged a major lecture by paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey.
	Jill Sweet brought three Pueblo Indian women to campus for several days to enrichanthropology, social work, and education classes and meet informally with students.
	Gerald Erchak proposed and coordinated a Senior-week symposium to discuss ideas in Edward O. Wilson's controversial new book Consilience.

 

 

 

 

Each of these contributions required much time, work, and coordination, and each was highly successful. Skidmore students and faculty are in debt to our anthropology colleagues for arranging these stimulating events.

Assessment

This year each of the three programs in our department introduced assessment procedures based on its mission and statement of goals. These procedures included, within each program, exit interviews along with questionnaires administered to graduating Seniors. Questionnaires were developed by Michael Ennis-McMillan, Susan Walzer, and Jacqueline Azzarto. These instruments and sessions not only provided information, but also stimulated discussion of program goals, ways in which goals may best be achieved, and the program's relation to the larger Skidmore curriculum and community. We think, too, that exit interviews provoked Skidmore students to reflect again, one last time before graduation, on their Skidmore experience.

The social work program, of course, underwent special scrutiny this year as part of the reaccreditation process by the Council on Social Work Education. CSWE itself identified aspects of the program that it believes should be corrected or improved (none serious or difficult to handle, thank goodness). The social work program has a Student Program Evaluation Committee in place to work with the Director and faculty in ongoing assessment of the program.

David Karp devised a special questionnaire to assess the service-learning component of his LS 2/Society and Social Responsibility course and the extent to which the course developed three "core abilities"–valuation, social interaction, and citizenship. David's assessment instrument may well serve as a model for others.

We will refine assessment procedures during the coming year. In particular, we need to be more inclusive in gathering information from Seniors. We need, too, to extend our assessment to include information from alumnae. We will explore inclusion of items pertaining to our majors into surveys carried out by the Office of Institutional Research. The Office of Institutional Research may also be able to help us out with transcript analyses.

We have agreed, as a department, to take a good look at our department's teaching and course evaluation form (the so-called "long form") this coming year. The current form is essentially open-ended, offering no more than some very general guidelines for students evaluating a course. We will review our form this coming year, perhaps in parallel with the collegewide faculty's review to the so-called "Dean's card."

Reconfiguration

Each of our department's three programs worked hard on reconfiguration this year. These efforts were at times complicated, even hindered, by uncertainty about collegewide policies governing reconfiguration. So, for example, we worked enthusiastically on curricula reconfigured with all 4-credit-hour courses only to have such plans rejected by the administration. A model with all 4-credit-hour courses had faculty members each teach nine courses over two years even as they maintained 36-credit-hour teaching loads over this period. We thought–in fact, we still think–such reconfiguration is both workable and desirable, and we regret the lack of dialogue seeking solutions to problems (e.g., offering enough courses) associated with this approach. Likewise, we regret lack of serious discussion of a course-unit rather than credit-hour system.

But we moved ahead despite and beyond such frustrations. The anthropology program, a little further along than sociology or social work, may submit its initial reconfiguration plan (a general model sans detailed course descriptions) for administrative review this summer. Sociology and social work will follow along with their plans in the fall. We anticipate that each of these reconfiguration plans will easily meet current administrative stipulations (e.g., number of hours required for major, continuing contributions to interdisciplinary programs).

 

Special Problems

Our department and its component programs have a couple of issues and concerns beside assessment and reconfiguration:

Enrollment Pressures. Despite a staffing increase in anthropology a couple years ago, enrollment pressures continue, especially for AN 101/Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. A backlog of students wanting AN 101, including wannabe majors, continues. To handle this demand, we are introducing, on a trial basis next fall, an open-ended section of AN 101 (to be taught by Gerry Erchak). We will carefully assess this approach to the course in a variety of ways, including questionnaires and tracing afterward of students who have taken the course.

We also face enrollment pressures in sociology, especially in required methods, theory, and senior seminar courses. We are coping (but only coping) with the problem by carefully tracking majors to plan offerings and adding course sections (at the expense of electives) when required to deliver the sociology major. The problem will become intractable if the number of sociology majors grows much beyond its current 24 or so per class, and there are signs that majors will indeed increase. We will continue to monitor this enrollment problem closely.

Space Problems. Last year's annual recalled that:

We have complained about the lack of comfortable space for student and faculty interaction–call it a lounge–since before we moved into the Learning Center. A College that prides itself on interaction and discourse needs to provide areas for getting together other than classrooms. For the most part, Skidmore doesn't. Granted, classroom space is tight. Still, the lounge problem needs addressed. We hope that the retrofitting of Starbuck Center will free up space for classrooms elsewhere, which in turn will free up TLC classroom space for conversion into a lounge to allow students and faculty to get together more informally than classrooms permit.

Nothing has changed. The problem of space for student and faculty interaction continues.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

With good planning and good luck over the years, we have developed into a department central to Skidmore College. We teach well, have active research agendas, and contribute mightily and responsibly to the Skidmore community. We also work well together as a department and within our three programs. Department faculty play extensive and active roles in faculty governance. We are interdisciplinary by inclination and intellectual orientation, and so we contribute generously and gladly to Liberal Studies and other interdisciplinary programs. Our department is central to Women's Studies, with Kate Berheide serving as program coordinator this past year and other department members contributing courses to the program. Rory McVeigh and Michael Ennis-McMillan already link us to the new Honors Forum. Our newest colleagues strengthen other links–Michael Ennis-McMillan to Environmental Studies and International Affairs and David Karp to Environmental Studies and Law and Society. Department colleagues–Susan Bender and Pat Oles–have taken on important roles in the administration.

Yes, we are feeling good about ourselves individually and collectively. But not complacent. Building on our strengths, we will continue to improve our programs. Specific items already on our agenda for next year are reconfiguration, refinement of assessment procedures, review of department personnel procedures, personnel reviews of untenured faculty, and (as always) recruitment of sabbatical replacements. We expect another good year.

Colleagues of the Department of Sociology,
   Anthropology, and Social Work
Second Floor
Tisch Learning Center
June 1999