From the Editor
Dr. Mike Carlie

Welcome home ... to your academic department's new online newsletter. This year's issue is packed with interesting comments and observations from our current students, graduates, and faculty.

To read this newsletter in its entirety, simply click on "Next Page" at the bottom of this and all other pages. If you'd prefer the quicker loading - but not nearly as picturesque - version, click here for the text-only edition.

The purpose of the newsletter is to reach out to our current students and graduates in order to keep in touch and share information. Your feedback concerning the newsletter would be greatly appreciated. We hope each issue is an improvement upon the last.

My predecessor, Dr. Marvin Prosono, created our first online newsletter. You can still read the Fall, 2003, issue of The Social Climber, as it was then called. In addition, you can read about the long and eventful history of our department. It's filled with interesting stories and lots of pictures. And, if you are so inclined, you can read about the variety of alumni events sponsored by the university every year.

If you'd like to write something for the next issue of the newsletter, email your submission to me (Dr. Carlie) at  (mkc096f@missouristate.edu).

Many thanks to the students, graduates, and faculty who contributed to this issue, to my fellow Alumni Committee members (Drs. Robin Amonker, Gary Brinker, Diane Leamy, and Bill Meadows), and to Sharon Walter for her excellent editing.

Wishing you and yours a Prosperous, Healthy, and Peaceful New Year,

Dr. Carlie

From the Head
Dr. Karl Kunkel

I hope you enjoy the current version of our Department newsletter! Missouri State is celebrating its 100^th birthday and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology is growing and experiencing many exciting happenings. 

During the past year we awarded three newly established scholarships for undergraduate students - the Donald D. Landon Public Affairs Scholarship, the Lloyd R. Young Scholarship, and the Scholarship for Societal Studies. These awards are in addition to the Cralle Scholarship established in the early 1980s. 

Several of our faculty won awards this past year for teaching, scholarship, service, and advising. The Department currently has over 400 majors and 150 minors in Anthropology, Sociology, and Crime & Society. We also are participating in the University’s strategic planning process by proposing our first “stand-alone” graduate programs in Cultural Heritage Studies (a product of our Anthropology Program) and Criminology (an enhancement of our Crime and Society Program). 

The Department Alumni Relations Committee is working very hard to contact as many current students and alumni as possible with this, our newly refurbished online newsletter. The links on this site provide a wealth of recent information on events in our programs, and “happenings” among faculty, students, and graduates. 

We believe a significant amount of our success as an academic unit is measured by our students' achievements and we take pride in the activities of both current students and alumni. Please keep in touch with the Department by letting us know what you are doing by either selecting the “Contact Us” button at the bottom of this page, or clicking here to complete a brief alumni information form.  We hope to hear from you.
 

Congratulations Sarah Anno!

Our contest winner for naming the department newsletter is Sara Anno, who suggested we call it The Public Affair. That's an excellent name in that it speaks to the mission of the university (public affairs), the name of the college in which our department is housed, and the nature of sociological and anthropological studies.