What if you were interested in increasing your knowledge of sociology beyond what is required for this course? Well, that's the idea of this Sociology Contract Unit. I intend to compile all the information you gather from the questions below, and make it available to you for your future benefit, and use it also as a resource for myself and future students.
 

Grading: This will take the place of the fourth exam which is specified on your SOC 100 syllabus. It is worth up to 25 per cent of your course grade (30% if you got all the extra credit). I will grade it on the basis of three criteria: 1)How much effort do I perceive that you made to put together an interesting essay or project (10%)? 2) How developed was your project or essay (10%) 3) What was the quality of the writing, in terms of the logical flow and the organization of the ideas, and your ability to express them (10%)?

What if I am NOT enrolled in the Sociology contract, but I am enrolled in one of the others? How will I get my grade for the Fourth Sociology Exam?    No problem. The other teacher will report to me what your grade is in his or her Contract Unit, and I will calculate that grade as a proportion of 25 per cent of your course grade. I would like to see what you have done in the other class's Contract project, and evaluate it for the quality of your sociological insights and connections to what we have studied in the sociology textbook and in class. But I will honor the other teacher's grade--which means I will translate it into up to 25% of your course grade.
 
 
 

Formal Requirements: Submit your materials by turning in to me either an actual, physical hard copy on the Monday after the Contract Unit ends, or an email. In your submission, you should consider (but you are not limited to) all aspects of the question you choose below. Write the whole question at the top. Please remember to include all information related to costs or fees so that anyone who reads your paper will know what to expect. Unfortunately, we are unable to re-imburse you for any expenses you incur. If you interview someone as a source of information, you must document who that person is, his position or title, and how I can get in touch with him to double-check what you are saying. If you are conducting a survey, you will not need to get information which identifies the person.

How to submit your materials or paper for evaluation:
1. You may turn in a hard-copy to me in RC 215.
2. Or you may cut and paste into this handy  email window which will open up when you click on this link.
 

When due: The day after the last day the Contract Unit is completed.
 

Topics:

(Go to bottom of page if you find you don't like any of the suggestions here.)

1. There is something very odd going on all over America. It sort of bridges history, the humanities, and the social sciences generally. People from all walks of life are participating in so-called "re-enactments" of historical events or periods. Most "re-enactors" are oriented to wars, but not all. Find out all you can about historical re-enactments in our area. Interview a re-enactor if possible. Take part in a reenactment, if possible. Is there a calendar of re-enactments for people who want to attend them? How about a computer bulletin board? How can I become a re-enactor?
 

2. Let's say I was interested in European travel to study lifestyles, social class structures, economic conditions, attitudes about women's rights, etc., but I wanted actually to go to Europe to see it, and I don't have a whole lot of money. What kinds of reasonably-priced international study-travel programs, mostly devoted to humanistic and social science disciplines, are available through colleges and universities in our area? Are there any study-travel programs which offer course credit for travel? Try to interview someone who has participated in one of these tours. (Hint: try Dr. John Wager, Triton College, x3327, for starters.)
 

3. What are the degree-granting institutions in the Chicago area which offer concentrations (or "majors") in the social sciences? Visit at least one school and talk to someone in the admissions department about admissions requirements, SAT scores, requirements for transfer from Triton, tuition, etc.

a.  If you can, find out what percentage of enrolled students in any particular area of the social sciences at the institution can be expected actually to finish their degrees.

b. Also try to find out what percentage of those who finish social science degrees actually find employment in their chosen area.
 

4. Discuss the "multi-cultural diversity" movement in general. What is it? (See Chapter 2) Is it a good thing for students of sociology or a bad thing? You might want to look at writings by a black author, Thomas Sowell.
 

5. Interview a sociologist. Find someone who has spent his life in some area of the social sciences full-time, and find out what this person's life is like. How did he choose the life he chose? What was his training? What study, article or research project is he most proud of? If he had it to do over, would he be a sociologist? What advice would he give to a person who is contemplating living his life in this way? Etc.
 

4. Find out about the C.A.S.A. program. I believe you can do this either through calling D.C.F.S. or the Cook Cty Criminal Justice Dept. What is it? What do they do? What is their mission? Who gets hired to work for them? How are they funded? Do they have any brochures, documents, statistics to indicate how successful they are? Etc.
 

5. Find out how you can become a foster parent. Then talk to a foster parent. Why did they get into it? What is the reward? What are the most difficult parts of becoming a foster parent? Etc.
 

6. Construct a family tree of your family. Go back as far as you can and be as comprehensive as possible. There are some really I have software available if you want to put it on disk. Then, write an autobiography of someone in your family tree whom you did not know, and who is no longer living. Write in the first person.
 

7. The Boy Scouts of America has been involved in a lot of controversy in the past few years. Find out everything you can about these controversies. Explain them. Try to talk to an adult who is involved in scouting and get his or her opinion on the Boy Scouts' troubles. Write an essay in which you answer the following questions with carefully reasoned and supported arguments: Will the Scouts survive? What will be their future role in the community?
 

8. The Catholic Church has been involved in several controversies both nationally and locally. Pedophile priests, the role of women in the church, and the abortion issue, to name a few, are taking a toll in many ways, not the least of which is declining membership. Research the current problems of the Catholic Church, U.S.A. What do Catholic and lay thinkers feel is causing such great upheaval in the church? What do they think the future holds? In our own local parrishes, what is the impact of the controversies. Does the Catholic Church contribute to local communities hereabouts? In what ways? What does it need from the community?
 

9. The Veterans Administration through Hines Hospital tries to do some research on the lifestyles and conditions of homeless and addicted vets. Find out all you can about this research project. How long has it been going on? What are they trying to accomplish by tracking these vets? Who funds them? What are some problems in running a study of this kind?
 

10. Go to Triton's Library. Check out Historic Illinois From the Air and Nature's Metropolis. Visit the Chicago Historical Society. Why is it correct to say that there has not been one Chicago, there have been many?
 

11. What are the different ethnic neighborhoods of Chicago? Which ones are "blended" (assimilated, to a greater or lesser extent, with the national culture?) Which could be described as "changing" (moving from one predominant type to another)? Find an "unblended" ethnic neighborhood. Try to find out why this neighborhood has resisted becoming absorbed into the larger U.S. culture.
 

12. Find out how a social scientist would describe a neighborhood. Do you find that definition useful? How do sociologists believe a neighborhood evolves? Talk to a long time resident of your neighborhood. What changes does this person feel have been significant ones in your neighborhood?
 

13. Find out everything you can about the National Opinion Research Corporation (NORC) located in Hyde Park, Chicago. What do they do? Do they employ sociologists? What use do sociologists make of the studies they produce? What kinds of studies are they currently involved in? Acquire a research study which was completed by N.O.R.C., such as the General Social Survey (G.S.S.) and try to draw some general conclusions about some aspect of society from the specific data it provides.
 

14. Speak to someone in the administrative level of Catholic Charities of Chicago: Do they consider themselves a "ministry" or a social service and welfare organization? What community needs do they try to serve? Do they feel they are successful? How organized? How funded? Is there a role for volunteers? Volunteer. What did you do? What were the people like? What do you think volunteering in this way does for the society?
 

15. See the video by Ken Burns which documents the history of baseball. Beyond the romanticism and commercial hype, what is it about the sport that causes people to call it the "national pastime?" What themes, good and bad, which are present in baseball are also present in the larger society? Has baseball ever been in the forefront of societal change? Explain.
 

16. Who was Jane Addams? What did she accomplish? Who were the "settlement house women"? What is Hull House? Visit Hull House and find out all about it.
 

17. Go to a university in the Chicago area which offers graduate school training (advanced degrees) in sociology. Find out about

a.requirements for admission

b. kinds of degrees offered (M.A.? Ph.D.?)

c. kinds of jobs a person is qualified for upon graduation

d. do they have information about how many people with advanced degrees in sociology actually find employment in the area they specialized in?

e. how the person you talked to would say his department differs from other sociology departments in the local area.

f. Costs of tuition, books, room & board, etc. for a year of graduate study.
 

18. What is the Illinois Labor Society? When founded? Why founded? Find out about the labor movement in Chicago and Illinois. Who was Emma Goldman? What was the Haymarket Riot? What were the issues which caused it? What are the major labor issues today?
 

19. If you go to a doctor's office today, you will notice that now there are special ways to dispose of medical waste, which is now deemed to be especially hazardous because of AIDS. In what other ways has AIDS affected the day-to-day practice of medicine at the local level, specifically in the way patients and doctors relate to each other. Are the changes merely superficial, like having new waste disposal techniques, or are they more profound, affecting the entire patient/doctor relationship? (For this question I am afraid you will have to talk to a doctor.)
 

20. How healthy is your town financially? Find out everything you can about your town's financial health. E.g., how many new businesses took out licenses last year? How many employees do they employ? How many businesses moved away? How many employees lost jobs or moved? Are housing prices climbing, stabilized, or stagnating in your town? Are taxes going up, stable, or (ha!) dropping? How many bankruptcies reported in your town? Attend a town meeting and ask a few questions about the budget, or anything else that concerns you, if they offer open-mike time.
 

21. What is the AMERICORPS program? Discuss this program in detail. What is their mission? How funded? How does one apply?
 

22. Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park offers a cemetery tour around Halloween.  Weather permitting, and if it is October when you do this assignment, take the tour by calling the Forest Park Historical Society. Are there any important figures buried there whose lives changed the society we live in? Explain in detail.
 

23. What is the Italian Cultural Center of Elmwood Park? Go there and find out all about it. For example, why was it founded? What is it for? Do they offer any scholarships, or language training for students? Etc.
 

24. Contact Miss Deborah Ford in the office at Triton College which handles matters for students with disabilities. Do disabled students comprise what we might call a distinct subculture within the larger student culture? Why? In what ways may they have a separate and distinguishable "identity" as disabled students? In what ways do they resist being lumped together as a special class of people? Interview a disabled/handicapped/challenged person and ask them them how they perceive society, and how they believe society perceives them.
 

25. Find out about the Native American Cultural Center. I believe it is located in Chicago's Uptown area. What is its mission? Who does it serve? Special programs? How is it funded?
 

26. The American Legion and VFW. Sometimes these groups are criticized as social clubs where ex-servicemen can drink. Is this characterization accurate? Find out all you can about this organization. How structured? Who joins? What do they consider their missions, both locally and nationally? How funded? Visit a meeting of a local chapter and talk to a member. Find out how he got involved.
 

27. The National Guard is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. But what is it like to be a member of a state militia unit? Try to see if you can attend a "Guard Weekend" when they go on maneuvers. Try to talk to one or more of the troops. Why did your informant(s) enroll in the National Guard? Do the members have a real sense of belonging to an identifiable community? Is there "small unit cohesion" and a sense of being part of a military "family" like there is in the regular army? Would your informant recommend joining?
 

28. Parole officers: what is their role in the world of corrections? Can you find one who will let you ride around with him in the, and find out all about his job? Ask about hours, pay, non-financial rewards, educational requirements, emotional requirements, degree of commitment necessary. Is the job sometimes heartbreaking when ex-cons fail to stay out of trouble? Would your informant do it over?
 

29. What activities is your local chapter of the NAACP involved in in the community? Local issues? Political campaigns? Describe and explain by attending a meeting. How does one become a member? How is the chapter organized in relation to the national NAACP? What impact did the controversy over Benjamin Chavis which rocked the convention in 1994 have on the local branches?
 

30. One of the problems faced by the elderly is loneliness. Another is boredom. What are some organizations in the community which can help to overcome these problems? How do they approach these problems? Attend and observe activities sponsored by at least one community organization. Do you feel the organization(s) and their activities are successful in providing a good environment for the elderly?
 

31. What is the Pacific Garden Mission? Find out everything you can about it, including

a. Who sponsors the Mission? Religious affiliation?

b. Apart from its long-term mission (salvation for lost souls), does PGM feel it has a more immediate, near-term mission? If so, what is that exactly?

c. How are they organized to fulfill that mission?

d. How is the Mission connected to various city agencies, e.g., those connected to rehab?

e. Do your informants at PGM feel they are succeeding in their immediate mission?
 

32. Visit the Harold Washington Public Library.

a. What does the library do besides check out books and collect fines?

b. Besides books, what else can I check out or use?

c. How is the system of libraries organized? What is the relationship of the new Harold Washington library to the branch libraries?

d. What kinds of programs in Chicago's neighborhoods does the Chicago Public Library offer.

e. How funded? (Just from fines?) How many employees? How many full-time professional librarians? Librarian assistants? What is the training for each? Starting salaries of each?

f. Can someone just walk in off the street and volunteer to read children's books in the kiddie corner?
 

33. We always think of The Wall Street Journal as a financial daily. And it is, of course. But it covers many other topics as well. Read the paper every day for at least two weeks, and report on some of the non-financial issues which they report on. That is, explain to me what they have to say in your own words. Then relate in detail your general opinion of the

a. topics selected

b. position taken by the reporter
 

34. Project in Social Science Research methods: The following survey will be useful if you want to look further into the problem addressed in the lesson on "Beauty" in Unit 3, which deals with inequality of gender.

It is just a sample. You will need to meet with me to refine it, and to work out how you administer it, and evaluate it once you have administered it.

1. Please indicate whether you are ____ male ______ female
 

2. In general, are you comfortable with your appearance and body image? ___ Y ____ N
 

3. Describe or give an example of your concept of the ideal physical appearance and body image in the space provided.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

4. Check one or more of the following if you have ever done them in order to change your physical or bodily appearance.

a. changed hair color or style ____

b. manicures/ pedicure or spa treatment ______

c. working out or following an exercise program _______

d. dieting ________
 

5. Have you ever been involved in activities designed to change your physical or bodily appearance, which might be considered unhealthy by a medical expert? _____ Y ____ N

35. Dr. SALZMAN, I DON'T LIKE ANY OF THE SUGGESTED TOPICS.  What Can I Do???
1. Work on your own topic, which you will clear with me before you begin.
2. Make an appointment to see me. We will explore your interests and come up with one together.