Vision Statement

The University of Oregon Department of Sociology is guided by this broad vision statement:

The faculty of the University of Oregon Sociology Department are united in seeking to provide a high quality educational program for our undergraduate and graduate students. We seek to equip students with a sound academic foundation that helps them to question critically, think logically, communicate clearly, act resourcefully, and live ethically. Our graduate program further aims to develop thinkers, leaders, and innovators whose subsequent efforts will benefit the human social world and life on the planet. Our research ranges from broad, global sweeps of social change to micro-level social interaction, using an array of theories and methods. We generate new knowledge through our scholarship. The results of our research help people to understand the evolving social, political, economic, technological, and physical environment, to respect the dignity and essential worth of all individuals, to value a diversity of opinions and ideas, and to formulate public policies that reject discrimination, bigotry, and violence.

This vision statement connects sociology to both UO's Mission Statement and its Affirmation of Community Standards (see respectively http://www.uoregon.edu/~uosenate/UOmissionstatement.html and http://policies.uoregon.edu/ch1affirmation.html).