UWG Terminates Their Sociology Graduate Program- Many Students Are Left Wondering What This Means for Their Future

By Abbie Klein

“If you want to serve, become an advocate, or effect change in your community, choose Sociology,” is the first sentence on a poster advertising Sociology on a bulletin board in the Pafford Social Science building at the University of West Georgia.

At the start of this semester, UWG made the tough decision to close their Graduate Sociology program. While still being offered on the undergraduate level through both major and minor programs, many students have felt discouraged at the news and worry about the future of sociology.

“Sociology is my minor,” said a UWG Honors student. “Sociology is an essential degree for people going into social work.”

Sociology is a program that prepares students for careers in fields like government, social services, human resources and non-profit organizations. It provides students with key skills to become service providers and advocates within their community. The employees in this field are imperative parts of our society, specifically in government programs that aim to help those in need.

“Kids in foster care need sociology, homeless people need sociology, people in poverty need sociology,” said the student. “Social services have saved countless lives. It’s what I want to do in the future, we need what sociology teaches us.”

UWG is not the first school to terminate their Sociology program. Social sciences and liberal arts programs have been experiencing declining enrollment since the mid 2000s. And schools across the nation have been forced to close programs due to budget cuts and failure to meet certain standards.

The pressure on these programs increased after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending DEI programs. As a result of this, on Jan 24 Florida eliminated sociology from core curriculums in public universities on the terms of prohibiting DEI spending. On a less extreme level, the University System of Georgia established neutrality on political issues and banned DEI policies at the end of last year. The institution passed several regulations that curb DEI initiatives across the 26 public universities attached to the institution. This could potentially have a correlation with UWG’s termination of the Sociology graduate program due to the content taught in a sociology degree.

“We continuously monitor programs for strength and unfortunately, Sociology’s MA program did not meet University System of Georgia (USG) standards,” said Interim Dean of

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Clint Samples. “We made the decision after careful consideration, conversations with faculty and reviewing data.”

Students are worried that with sociology now being such a controversial field of study the employment level in sociology related fields will decrease as well.

“Social workers are already underpaid and mistreated in [their] work environment. There’s already very few people willing to enter that field,” said the student.

While a large percentage of sociology majors make the decision to attend graduate school, many students are still able to be successful in their field with just a bachelor’s degree.

“At UWG we do have many students who enter careers directly from the bachelor’s degree program,” said the former Director of the Sociology Graduate program, Dr. Emily McKendry- Smith. “I would always tell a student to really think about what they want to do, look at job listings online and sort of evaluate do I need to go to graduate school or not.”

Sociology, like many other industries, carries the idea that better opportunities, such as higher salaries and more prestigious job titles, are more accessible with further education. However, for students who are interested in taking this route, there are a number of options available for a graduate education.

“For students who are interested in going to graduate schools I think what we are seeing is that sociology is sort of a foundational discipline for a number of other graduate degrees, like social work, public health and even some criminology programs are even housed in sociology,” said McKendry-Smith. “I think that the landscape of where they can go to graduate school is changing. They still have good opportunities to pursue graduate education, it’s just looking different than it did when I was in graduate school.”

Despite the landscape of graduate education changing for sociology students, McKendry-Smith reassured that she doesn’t believe sociology on an undergraduate level is at risk.

“It’s always hard to predict a little bit what’s going to happen in higher education, but sociology provides students with skills that are relevant to so many different fields that I think that at the undergraduate level I wouldn’t expect to see many changes, because even students who want to go to med school are encouraged to take sociology classes,” said McKendry-Smith. “I think the nature of graduate education that employers expect people to get are changing, but at the undergraduate level I would not expect that.”

Sociology is an extremely versatile degree that is rooted in teaching critical thinking and social analysis. This foundation can fortunately be utilized in several different fields when it comes to graduate education. Despite the discouragement students may currently feel, this is not the end of sociology.

“I do think that some of our students did feel discouraged, like students who are currently in our master’s program that we are teaching out,” said McKendry-Smith. “I, and the other sociology faculty are trying to work really close with them to make sure they get the support they need. We are very committed to making sure they still have everything they need even though the program is being deactivated.”

While the deactivation of this program came as quite a shock to many, UWG is doing its best to help students through this tough transition. McKendry-Smith noted that UWG is connected to several other schools that are still offering MAs in Sociology and can help students get in touch with those schools.

“If there’s anything I could say to students it’s come and talk to us, we can help you figure things out,” said McKendry-Smith.