The social sciences at Great Basin College include the following disciplines: Anthropology, counseling and guidance, criminal justice, cultural geography, U.S. and world history, political science, psychology, sociology, social work, and women’s studies.
General education requirements call for students to take a wide variety of social science courses.Faculty and other advisers can use this diversity to encourage students to explore a range of interests. This distribution provides students with an interdisciplinary study of human society.

The social sciences are used to fulfill requirements for all degrees offered at GBC, ranging from the AAS (Associate of Applied Science), AA/AS (Associate of Arts/Associate of Science), the BA (Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education), BAS (Bachelor of Applied Science), and the recently approved BAIPS (Bachelor of Arts in Integrative and Professional Studies).

Like other institutions, the GBC social science enrollments—as a department—usually top other departments college-wide, comprising roughly 12-14 percent of the student FTE.

Faculty. The six full-time faculty members represent a broad spectrum of experience and expertise; five have doctorates, one is ABD, and one has a master’s degrees. They come from different geographical locations: Iowa, Ohio, Texas, Scotland, Idaho, and Nevada. Three have been hired within the last five years, and the rest have varying years of service from 10-20 years. These professors have had experiences outside academia such as serving in state legislatures, serving as instructors in the armed forces, having private practice experiences in counseling, and one has done field work with the Navajo nation. Dr. Jack Smith is a political historian with expertise in U.S., European, and Mexican history, and he also teaches humanities, political science, and world religions. Dr. Joel Shrock is a cultural and social historian whose expertise is in U.S. and world history, particularly the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Cyd McMullen is a social historian with U.S. fields in the West, landscape history, and gender. Dr. Eric Henderson is a cultural anthropologist who also has expertise in legal anthropology, medical anthropology, native peoples of North America, and politics, having worked as a lawyer in the Arizona legislature. Dr. Shirley Rombough is a sociologist who has vast experience in the field of social work. Karen Martin’s expertise is psychology with a particular focus on subcultures in the United States. Every member of the department takes considerable pride in the academic rigor of the classes that come out of the social sciences, and everyone strives to be an excellent teacher. Dr. Jack Smith and Karen Martin have won UCCSN system and college awards

for their teaching. In addition to full-time instructors, the department utilizes approximately three or four part-time adjuncts each semester on the college’s branch campuses and satellite centers. A master’s degree in the appropriate discipline is the minimum requirement to teach any transferable, college-parallel course. The department has excellent adjuncts: lawyers, both elementary and secondary school personnel, clinical counselors, and other appropriately credentialed professionals.

Resources. There is one support-staff person assigned to this department, and the budget for operating expenses is approximately $1,800 per year. The Social Science Department has a scanner and maintains an equipment room that contains a wide selection of maps, almost one hundred videos, two portable overhead projectors, equipment for previewing videos, and a variety of miscellaneous resources such as historical documents and anthropoid skulls. The department has worked diligently to spend its modest budget wisely. By procuring these resources, the department has enhanced its ability to fulfill its teaching mission.

Significant Changes
General education. The department was an active participant in the College’s general education revision with the following courses meeting the requirements for communication skills, critical thinking, personal and cultural awareness, personal wellness, and technological understanding:
Anthropology 101, Economics 101, Geography 106, Sociology 101, Psychology 101, History 101,
History 102, HDFS 274, Integrative Seminar 339, Integrative Seminar 349.

Departmental Structure. In the change from division structure in academic affairs to departments, the Social Science Department has developed a set of departmental objectives. The five broad student objectives for the social sciences follow:
• Evaluate and assess data from various sources and disciplines within the social sciences.
• Recognize the historical basis of sociopolitical structures (family, education, religion, politics, economics).
• Recognize how social structure affects individual experiences and “life chances.”
• Recognize the variations of social and cultural practices among the world’s societies
• Analyze the relationships between humans and their physical environments.
In efforts to focus on outcomes, the department is developing its “outcome map.” Each of the five objectives above has been further analyzed into more specific outcomes and examples of ways the outcomes will be assessed. For example, the fourth objective above has the following sample outcomes and sample assessments.
Objective #4: Students will recognize the variations of social and cultural practices among the world’s societies.
Outcomes: Apply concepts such as ethnocentrism and cultural relativity to historical events and social practices in their own cultures.

Examples:
1. Evaluate the “discovery” of the New World from the perspective of a Native American inhabitant.
2. Describe the opening of the American West from Mexican, Native American, Chinese, and white emigrant perspectives.
3. After reading Horace Miner’s Rituals of the Nacirema, apply an alien’s point of view to a common social practice (i.e., brushing teeth).

Recommendations from the accreditation report (1992-93). A departmental recommendation from the 1992-1993 accreditation report was to obtain a position for the Criminal Justice program. However, the Associate of Applied Science in Criminal Justice has not grown in subsequent years. Due to funding priorities and low student enrollments, there is no full-time criminal justice faculty shepherding this program. Dr. Eric Henderson has worked part-time to provide students with a coherent program and has been the main adviser for the CRJ students. Even though there is an advisory board and Dr. Henderson is working part-time on the program, this is an area that the department needs to continue to develop. However, through the Continuing Education Office, Great Basin College is investigating the feasibility of partnering with the Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) program to offer their intermediate and advanced certificate courses via the Internet. At this time, the POST program efforts are not part of the Social Science Department’s planning.

Another issue pointed out by the Commission on Colleges and Universities report was that Early Childhood Education was encouraged to provide a childcare program to serve the evening enrollments. This was attempted several years ago before the current director was hired. Informal surveys indicated a need for this, but the actual attendance proved otherwise. However, within the past two years the child center has been able to offer extended care as part of the preschool program, though not in the evenings. (See ECE section in this study.)

Another concern in the 1992-1993 report was the limited exposure of students created by the breadth of offerings from a single instructor. With the increase in the number of full-time faculty the limited exposure is much less of an issue than it was ten years ago.

Baccalaureate courses and programs. The department has energetically supported the new bachelor degree programs for elementary education, applied science, and integrated studies. The department has developed or is in the process of developing the following courses during the period of this review: Anthropology 301, 311, and 400; Anthropology/Sociology 351; History 406, 413, 414A, and 441; Political Science 320 and 421; Sociology 416; Psychology 307 and 441; and the Integrative Social Science Seminar 339, which is offered on different topics every semester. Early Childhood Education. The department recommended this discipline be moved over to Elementary Education because of its obvious alignment with the new Elementary Education program, and this change was accomplished in Fall 2002.

Analysis
Design and implementation of curriculum. Individual faculty are ultimately responsible for their courses, but there is still discussion and suggestions in department meetings about books used, assignments given, etc. In this way, there is some agreement across similar classes (the six sections of History 101, for example) with enough flexibility for personal modes of delivery and lecture style.

There are integrative seminars offered that present some challenges, and at the same time, present a great deal of excitement for students as well as instructors. In these upper-division courses, the focus is on the integration of different disciplines to foster an understanding of the complexities of the society and world at large. These courses require instructors (often two who team-teach) to blend information in a different way and to look at an issue or subject from many different angles. Faculty meet every semester to discuss a previous year’s classes and to assess them for outcome changes. These are challenging classes with a great deal of planning because of the team-teaching and the seminar style which relies upon student discussion and paper writing; as a result, these courses require a tremendous amount of instructor preparation.

Distance education. The department plays a significant role in distance education by offering a large number of courses via interactive video. The new bachelor’s degrees demand a substantial number of courses be broadcast on interactive video, and the department has been at the forefront of this delivery method.

The Social Science Department currently is considering online offerings. Several important issues regarding online classes have been resolved, particularly intellectual property rights. The department continues to debate important issues regarding on-line delivery of courses and to stimulate debate because of the many issues involved in this form of distance education. Teaching professionals embrace the outreach concept when there is no detriment to the quality and depth of instruction. The Social Science Department continues to commit itself to a student-oriented analysis of interactive and online class offerings that are discipline-appropriate and that provide students with a satisfying academic experience.

Scheduling and delivery to off-campus sites presents one of GBC’s most significant challenges: how to serve far-flung places which have facilities for receiving classes via interactive-video but who are“ wanting” more and more classes. The college does have an interactive video coordinator, which is essential to managing the incredible amount of paperwork and technical problems generated by a single class. One class might have four other sites connected, which presents serious challenges to any instructor trying to get tests, quizzes, homework, and papers to and from sites. The college has developed a workable system, but more could be done to streamline the process.

Student outcomes and evaluation planning. In the process of developing departmental goals, there was also an attempt to list ways that would indicate evidence of student success in each goal. (See“ Significant Changes” above for a listing of the goals and outcomes.)

Some methods used by the department include standardized tests, individually developed tests, preand post-tests, journals and portfolios, classroom participation in group projects, written personal application papers, and research projects. For the BAIPS, for which the department plays a significant role in leadership, internships are being developed which will be excellent tools for measuring student outcomes.

In the process of using some of these techniques, anticipated improvements in student learning will be measured by students’ 1) mastery of theory, 2) application of theory, 3) ability to evaluate information, 4) employment of critical thinking in problem-solving, 5) ability to see relationships and make connections, and last, but not least, 6) taking responsibility for life-long learning.

Social Work. Faculty and administrative officers at both Great Basin College and the University of Nevada, Reno have entered into a dialogue to pursue the possibility of Great Basin College offering courses leading to the completion of the bachelor’s of social work degree at UNR. Presently GBC is able to offer certain courses leading to the BSW (Bachelor of Social Work degree), specifically SW 220, SW 310, SW 321, and possibly SW 311.

Before the joint agreement can be considered official, the social work faculty at UNR have said that they need to complete a document that specifies the respective rights and responsibilities of each entity—Great Basin College and the University of Nevada, Reno. When UNR faculty and administrative personnel have completed their part of the agreement document, GBC will have an opportunity to contribute to that document as well. After mutual negotiations at that point, the joint agreement will be completed and presented to the Board of Regents for official approval.

STRENGTHS
• Large number of students in the classes offered by the department.
• Successful planning by the department for scheduling.
• Tremendous commitment to developing new upper-division courses for baccalaureate programs.
• Leadership role in developing baccalaureate programs, particularly in planning the proposed degree in secondary education.
• Strong faculty who are oriented to effective student learning at all levels.

CHALLENGES
• Need to organize classes in a more efficient way, eliminating very small enrollment sections by incorporating them into other classes through better planning.
• Supervision of adjunct faculty on other sites, particularly in the implementation of general education requirements.
• Large number of course preparations each semester.
• Breaking from tradition in order to maximize course offerings.

RECOMMENDATIONS/ACTION ITEMS
• Conduct exit interviews with graduating AA/AS students as a way of evaluating departmental programs.
• Determine prerequisites for 300-400 level classes to ensure uniformity and consistency.
• Continue to promote the implementation of the social work bachelor degree.
• Further develop the Social Studies endorsement area for Secondary Education.
• Refine outcome maps by continuing to develop reliable assessment tools for the department.
• Continue discussions that have already started about assessment on the college level, particularly regarding a general writing rubric for the entire college.
• Further develop social science ties to the other departments (such as math and English) to ensure that all general education requirements are met in departmental courses.
• Provide departmental expertise to other departments to facilitate their development of the cultural and social awareness standard in the general education requirements.