Another Faculty Meeting Update:

The faculty met on February 17 (Friday) for its regular monthly 
meeting.  Here are the highlights and what affects us as grad. 
students.  There were some pretty important items, so take a moment 
to look.

MFT -- Connie Ahrons reported that the preliminary report from the 
MMFT accreditation board identified concerns about our program, but 
she stressed that they were very favorably impressed by both the 
students and the faculty who met with them during their visit.  So 
she wants to thank all those who participated.  She also seemed 
optimistic about getting at least provisional accreditation, although 
the decision has not yet been made.  But she said "it looks good."    

Awards -- The Awards Committee is sponsoring a USC Sociology Graduate 
Student Paper Award.  This award is for the best grad. student paper 
written in the past year.  The paper can be 
qual/quant/historical/empirical/theoretical.  In other words, it's an 
open competition.  We will have a more formal announcement when it is 
available, but first prize is $100 and second prize is $50.

Qualifying Exams -- The Graduate Committee proposed that the quals be 
changed to allow students to bring in notes.  Here is the text of the 
final proposal:

"The present 'closed book' format of the exam should be replaced by 
an 'open note' format.  Specifically, we are suggesting that each 
student be allowed to bring to the exam one loose-leaf, up to 3" 
notebook.  This would make the exam process more consistent with the 
kind of professional writing that students are being prepared to do." 

What goes in the notebook is up to you, as long as there are no 
electronic media (computer disks).  The faculty voted 14-1 in favor 
of the change, which will begin next semester (FALL 1996).  For more 
info, please contact me (Peter), one of your reps, or Mike Messner, 
who is chair of the qual. subcommittee.

General Education -- While the specifics are complicated, the changes 
in General Education that will affect grad. students are 
(potentially) going to happen on a much smaller scale than was 
earlier proposed.  This is still in process, and it is unclear how it 
will all work.  If you would like to know more info., please contact 
me, your rep, or Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, who is the chair of the 
undergraduate committee.

Korean Studies Candidate -- The Korean Studies program is 
interviewing candidates, including one candidate through Sociology.  
Hyun Sook Kim will be giving her job talk on Thursday, February 22, 
at 5:00PM in KAP 145.  Her talk is entitled, "Theorizing Violence, 
Culture and the Politics of Korean Women's Location."  Her Vita and 
an abstract for her talk are available in the Sociology Office.  We 
are all welcome and encouraged to come.


Peter Levin
Department of Sociology
University of Southern California
tel: 213-740-3540
e-mail: plevin@usc.edu