Dear Friends, As 2025 comes to an end, I want to take a moment to thank you for being a part of our community and to wish you all happy and healthy holidays! We acknowledge that these are trying times, both on campus and off—but we continue to focus on the good, remain committed to overcoming the challenges we face, and look forward with hope for a better future. The Good News Our undergraduate program continues to excel. We teach more than 4,000 undergraduate students per year, providing them with opportunities to develop advanced research skills through our intensive and highly respected Honors Program and through collaboration with faculty and graduate students. Central to our department identity is a unique focus on research that benefits our community, state, and world. Recent research has helped to inform reforms to our state’s criminal justice system, worked on data to develop new policies for housing assistance and foster care programs, identified opportunities to improve community access to new public transportation options, led a team of researchers to develop new methods to assess the size, demographics, health, and social support networks of people experiencing homelessness., and offered our skills and labor in support of Native nations working to reclaim and own their history. Current Challenges The UW Department of Sociology, like many other departments at universities around the country, is experiencing significant change as a result of administration and funding challenges at the university and state levels brought on, in part, by federal actions. These changes have not been easy, but we remain committed to ensuring that our students build the skills necessary to address thorny problems, support our community, and articulate the value of the change they are making in our world. A panel of internal and external reviewers recently conducted an extensive review of the department’s educational programs and administrative processes and awarded the department remarkably high marks. We remain committed to upholding these important programs even in the face of significant reductions in resources. Our department remains highly productive – producing innovative research and high-quality educational programs -- even though we face serious challenges associated with changes to the size and composition of our faculty and staff. Prior to a hiring freeze, we welcomed new academics into the fold including Audrey Dorelien, Patrick Greiner, Andrew Messamore, and Hyungmin Cha. We also celebrated the contributions of faculty who earned much deserved retirements including Katherine Stovel, Jerry Herting, Adrian Raftery, and Bill Lavely. Sadly, we also mourned those we lost including Stewart Tolnay, a much-loved professor, mentor, and previous Chair of the department. Hope for the future With demand for social scientists with strong analytical skills on the rise, we remain committed to our longstanding efforts to building a graduate program that trains students in the sociological approach to data analysis with skills tailored for positions both inside and outside of academia. This academic year alone, we had 6 students successfully defend their MA theses. Three more completed their dissertation and moved on from the program to teach at universities including Hofstra, City University of New York and Gonzaga University. While we have had to shrink our cohorts, we continue to be a much sought after and competitive program with 200 students applying for our graduate program for fall entry in 2026. We also continue to look for innovative ideas and opportunities to train our students as they enter the workforce. To this end, we are developing a new Master of Science in Social Data Analytics degree, which will provide postgraduate training in social data analytics. This program, which is currently under review by the university, promises to fill an important educational niche and will further expand the value of, and revenue to, our program. These successes show that we are utilizing our limited resources in very productive ways. But the Department of Sociology faces the challenge of maintaining excellence and a position of leadership in education, research, and service with shrinking funds. To meet these challenges, we depend upon the contributions and commitment of alumni and friends like you. The University of Washington receives less than one third of its funding from the State of Washington, and currently, state funding is at an all-time low. Units across the College of Arts and Sciences, including Sociology, face significant budgetary challenges that make private support more critical than ever before. Your gift today directly empowers the important work we are doing. Please consider supporting our mission to conduct innovative, community-oriented research and train students who will shape the future. One of the greatest ways to give is to the Friends of Sociology Fund which offers unrestricted support to our department and allows the Chair to direct funds where the need is greatest. Endowed funds are also an important way for our department to celebrate and award funds to students who excel and represent the promise and potential of sociologists in our world. We are deeply grateful for you, on behalf of our students, thank you for your support! Sincerely, Kyle Crowder Department Chair
Blumstein-Jordan Professor of Sociology | 
