The Criminal Justice Studies Major Receives Final Approval!

The Criminal Justice Studies major is here! The Indiana Higher Learning Commission unanimously approved the major on November 14, 2008. Students can now declare their major as "Pre-CJS" or "CJS" by meeting with any department faculty if their GPA is 2.0 or higher.

All classes for the new major have been available for the last year, and we expect to graduate several students this spring with the CJS degree. If you are interested in this major, full program details, including the major check sheets, are available on this site.

Read the news release...

New Faces in the Department

A new professor, Greg Justis, has joined our faculty for the year.  He will be teaching courses in Policing, Media & Crime, and Terrorism.  His office is located in LA3013.

Dr. Nina Bambino will be teaching part-time in the area of medical sociology this year and is the Director of the Honors Program.

Marla Mosher has joined us once again to teach Marriage & the Family.  She will also help to organize our student clubs.  Contact her directly if you are interested in joining.

Dr. Anna Stroulia will once again provide her expertise in archaeology.  Her specialty is the archaeology of Greece.

Gregory Leach will also be teaching cultural anthropology for us part-time next semester and is a welcome addition to our anthropology faculty.

S.A.C. Club????

Did you know that the department has an undergraduate student club?  It used to be called just the “sociology club,” but has recently changed its name to represent all of our students (Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice = S.A.C.).
The SAC Club is a student-run organization which sets goals each year depending on the club members’ preferences.  Typically, the club is involved in raising money for non-profit organizations in the tri-state area.  However, the members usually plan a trip or two each year as well.  A popular destination is the Eddyville State Penitentiary.  Hopefully, none of our students aspire to end up as permanent residents of the facility.
If you would like to join the SAC Club or just need more information, contact the faculty sponsors: Dr. Mike Strezewski (mstrezewsk@usi.edu) and/or Marla Mosher (mkmosher@usi.edu).

Achievement Awards

The department selects three top students to receive achievement awards, one in each of our programs.  If you are interested in being considered for this award, please download and fill out the application and submit it to Ronda Priest or Pam Moore by December 11, 2008. (Download Application formats: PDF – RTF – DOC )

A New Name

Perhaps you’ve notice the Sociology Department is a thing of the past.  Our name has changed to reflect all three of our outstanding programs.  Officially, we are the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice Studies.  All three of our programs are growing and expanding.  Soon, we will be developing a major in Anthropology, the Criminal Justice Studies major should be approved shortly, and Sociology continues to thrive with new course offerings and faculty.

Check out the MySpace and Facebook department sites

The department sites have been created by students for students and alumni (although some professors are on Facebook and MySpace too).  The sites are under our old name still (USI SOCIOLOGY) but include all of our majors.  Regular updates and announcements will be posted there, along with a virtual meeting place for our students and the SAC student club.