Distinguished Contributions to Teaching Award

William G. Roy, University of California-Los Angeles

William Roy’s primary “institutional mission” for the last several years has been to facilitate the commitment of the ASA to graduate teaching. His commitment to graduate education in general and the ASA Ad Hoc Committee on Graduate Education in particular, has provided exemplary leadership for a new direction at the national level for the ASA. Graduate areas of concern looked at during Professor Roy’s tenure as chair of the committee include mentoring, placement, sociological practice, the teaching of teaching, ethnic and racial diversity, qualifying exams, ethics, time to graduation, admissions, the role of Director of Graduate Studies, and methods training. In each case committee members convened a task force to work on a particular issue and through campus visits, surveys or small scale interviews tried to bring together some of the strengths and weakness of the delivery of these various graduate services at the present time at the national level. The committee, under his leadership produced reports on the following topics:

·  Teaching Graduate Students to Teach

·  What Directors of Graduate Education Do

·  Models for Placement of Graduate Students

·  Successful Practices in Master’s Programs in Sociology

·  Models for the Professional Socialization of Graduate Students

·  The Nature and Status of Qualifying Examinations in Sociology

·  Students with Special Needs

·  Sociological Practice Programs

·  Racial and Ethnic Diversity

·  Admissions

There are other contributions to the association, Professor Roy prepared for the ASA Teaching Resources Center “Comparative-Historical Sociology: Teaching Materials and Bibliography.” He served three years on the Teaching Sociology editorial board and participated in ASA teaching workshops on topics like “Teaching Introductory Sociology for the First Time.” He also served a stint on the committee formerly known as the ASA Teaching Committee. In addition to the national level, Roy has contributed to the development of graduate training at UCLA. He contributed to the development of UCLA’s TA training program, which is generally regarded as one of the best sociology programs in the country. His commitment to the professional development of graduate students is evident by the professional workshops he developed on such topics as grants, publications, doing the ASA meetings, placements, etc., as part of graduate training at UCLA.