{"id":3260,"date":"2025-07-07T10:06:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/csh\/?p=3260"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:57:53","slug":"letter-from-the-chair-of-sociology-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/csh\/2025\/07\/07\/letter-from-the-chair-of-sociology-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the Chair of Sociology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:30%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"290\" height=\"310\" data-attachment-id=\"3262\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/csh\/2025\/07\/07\/letter-from-the-chair-of-sociology-2\/picture1-6\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bsu-wpe-blogs.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/07\/07095104\/Picture1-1.jpg?fit=290%2C310&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"290,310\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Picture1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bsu-wpe-blogs.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/07\/07095104\/Picture1-1.jpg?fit=290%2C310&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bsu-wpe-blogs.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/07\/07095104\/Picture1-1.jpg?resize=290%2C310&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3262\" style=\"width:213px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bsu-wpe-blogs.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/07\/07095104\/Picture1-1.jpg 290w, https:\/\/bsu-wpe-blogs.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2025\/07\/07095104\/Picture1-1.jpg 281w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-stretch is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:70%\">\n<p><strong>Greetings from Ball State!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you know how much your engagement matters to the Department of Sociology? Thanks to your continued support, the 2024\u20132025 academic year was another outstanding one for our department. Here are just a few of the ways your engagement has helped us advance our mission of preparing students for meaningful careers and lives:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Thirty-four students<\/strong> were involved in <strong>ten community engagement activities<\/strong>, including immersive collaborations with Hancock County Drug Court, Second Harvest, the MLK Dream Team, and others. These hands-on learning experiences helped students apply their sociological training in ways that truly mattered to our partners and their communities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Twenty-four students<\/strong> presented their research at the <strong>Immersive Learning Showcase<\/strong>, and <strong>15 students<\/strong> attended the <strong>North Central Sociological Association\u2019s<\/strong> annual conference\u201413 of whom gave formal presentations. These achievements were supported in part by <strong>your contributions<\/strong> and by an <strong>AKD student travel grant<\/strong>, awarded to our chapter this year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We resumed <strong>study abroad programming<\/strong>, with nine students participating in a faculty-led trip to Costa Rica. This was just one of the many high-impact learning experiences <strong>made possible with Foundation funds<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Our students completed <strong>internships<\/strong> with campus units like Human Resources and Financial Services, as well as external organizations such as the Muncie Non-Profit Support Network. In our graduate program, students contributed to high-level analysis in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bsu.edu\/about\/administrativeoffices\/oirds\"><strong>Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support<\/strong><\/a><strong> <\/strong>and in Dr. Cassidy\u2019s Research Design Studio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The quality of our instruction, curriculum, and student outcomes continues to be recognized on campus and nationally. Our innovative work on <strong>career readiness<\/strong> was featured in a forthcoming article in Teaching Sociology, the discipline\u2019s flagship teaching journal. Our faculty also published six journal articles, a book, and four book chapters, and were honored repeatedly for their scholarship, service, and mentorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to a component of a <strong>$10 million gift from the Lilly Endowment to the Gregory S. Fehribach Center<\/strong>, our department is launching a multi-year collaboration to support students with disabilities in their transition to employment\u2014an effort co-led by Greg Fehribach and Dr. Melinda Messineo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ve also grown our digital presence: Instagram and Facebook engagement reached all-time highs, and we now connect with <strong>over 90 alumni<\/strong> through <strong>Cardinals Connect<\/strong> and <strong>hundreds more on LinkedIn<\/strong>, helping us track outcomes, share opportunities, and build professional networks for our students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are poised for continued growth and impact\u2014but we cannot do it without you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you would like to contribute to this momentum\u2014<strong>by mentoring a student, offering input on our curriculum, joining our Alumni Advisory Committee<\/strong>, or <strong>making a donation<\/strong>, we would love to hear from you. Please contact Dr. Melinda Messineo (<a href=\"mailto:mmessine@bsu.edu\">mmessine@bsu.edu<\/a>), our Alumni Liaison, or me directly (<a href=\"mailto:clmenning@bsu.edu\">clmenning@bsu.edu<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>To make a gift that directly supports our students, please click <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bsu.edu\/academics\/collegesanddepartments\/csh\/alumni-friends\/give-csh#accordion_sociologydepartment\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a><strong> to donate.<\/strong> Every dollar helps us provide immersive learning experiences, conference travel, scholarships, and career-readiness programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you for being part of our community. We hope you enjoy this year\u2019s newsletter and feel as proud as we do of what we\u2019ve achieved\u2014together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>With warmest regards,<br><\/em>Chadwick L. Menning, PhD<br>Professor and Chair<br>Department of Sociology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings from Ball State! Do you know how much your engagement matters to the Department of Sociology? Thanks to your continued support, the 2024\u20132025 academic year was another outstanding one for our department. Here are just a few of the ways your engagement has helped us advance our mission of preparing students for meaningful careers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,48,6,35],"tags":[608,78],"class_list":["post-3260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-letter-from-the-chair","category-social-sciences","category-sociology","tag-letters-from-the-chair","tag-sociology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Letter from the Chair of Sociology - College of Sciences &amp; Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A letter from Dr. Chadwick L. 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