Editor's Note

The content we teach our students, the design of our assignments, and how we present material in lectures all have significant consequences. We are each only one of the many educators a student has in their lifetime, and each of us teaches a tiny fraction of the college student population. Yet, the 2019 college student population was 19.6 million in the US alone.¹ Further, in the decade between 2007 and 2017, we were the primary educators for 324 million graduates with bachelor's degrees in sociology.² And that's just our majors, many non-majors also sat and sit in our classes.

I don't mention these statistics to be dramatic (ok, maybe a little). I mention these numbers because I find them useful. I remind myself of them when I'm searching for energy to design engaging courses, provide supportive and constructive feedback on assignments, work on a lecture that is already prepped but can be improved. It's what I remind myself when I give up a sunny summer day to engage in more training, workshops, and conferences with the hopes of improving as an instructor. Chasing perfection is undoubtedly unhealthy, but some areas justify exerting extra effort. I count Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) among those worthy areas.

This edition of the newsletter is dedicated to discussing how to enhance DEI. Improvements in DEI are not easy and necessarily involve constant reflection and reform. Further, not all of our students will love us for making it a priority, as is eloquently described and illustrated in the Chair's Corner by Dr. Medley-Rath. Yet as broad discussions over police reform, curriculum reform, and the role of politics in education take place across the country, I can't help but feel that the nature of Sociology demands we lead the way in making DEI a priority.

In January of this year, a Georgia State representative requested that the University System of Georgia provide information on every public university class that teaches about privilege. To understand the representative's intent, he characterized privilege in his request as

"teaching [that] students who identify as white, male, heterosexual, or Christian are intrinsically privileged and

oppressive, which is defined as "malicious or unjust" and "wrong?"³

I was equally anxious and proud that Sociology courses were well represented on the list at my university and across the State. Our heavy representation on that list shows the central role we can play and indeed already play in being leaders in DEI. Thus, if we can't improve the equity and inclusion of diversity in our classes, how can we expect disciplines and professions where DEI is not a focus to make improvements?

There is some tangible advice on ways to improve DEI in your courses in this newsletter edition. The first article by Sarah Hoiland, Connecting Classroom to Community During COVID-19, discusses inspired ways to engage community-service learning in online-only environments like those experienced during COVID. This approach respects student diversity by offering different ways of learning and engaging course material. Building on this theme, the second article by James Braun, Using Personal Learning Goals to Cultivate Inclusive Teaching, thoroughly outlines a unique way to help transition course learning objectives to individual learning goals. The individual goals allow students to identify their preferences and ambitions in the course. It also allows them to communicate their learning needs and desires to their instructors better.

The article, Deliberate Acts of Communicating, DEI, and Discussion Boards, by Petina JD Powers, discusses a thoughtful way of using discussion boards to build toward a final course paper. The approach teaches students the technical details of academic writing like citations and exposes student ideas to diverse views from their classmates. Students are thus allowed to learn and grow in a low-stakes environment before preparing their course papers. Finally, the last article, Teaching & Mentoring for Doctoral Students, by Janet Zollinger Giele, discusses ways to improve graduate student mentorship and the thesis process. With a 50% dropout rate in Ph.D. programs and the substantial time and effort students dedicate to their programs, the significance of this topic cannot be understated. The article ends with a call to hear from others about ways to improve the graduate student experience and graduate programs. We do not often receive submissions on this topic, and I encourage those who wish to write on it to submit articles to future editions of the newsletter.

I hope you find the articles contained in this edition as enjoyable and insightful as I have. I also wish everyone the best heading into what I pray is a restful and rejuvenating summer for us all.