4. EXECUTIVE OFFICE INITIATIVES

Under the leadership of Executive Officer Sally Hillsman, the Executive Office activities relating to programs and functions are being institutionalized in six departments: (1) Operations and Meeting Services, (2) Publications and Membership, (3) Governance, Sections, and Archives (4) Research and Development, (5) Public Affairs and Public Information, and (6) Information Services and Technology.

In addition, three key ASA Programs—the Academic and Professional Affairs Program (APAP), the Minority Affairs Program (MAP), and the Spivack Program in Applied Social Research and Social Policy—continue to serve the membership. The MAP Program Director now also oversees some student activities of the Association, including the ASA Honors Program and the Student Forum.

ASA Departments manage programs and provide services to the Association, its members, and the wider public. Departmental functions encompass the core of programmatic activities in given areas (e.g., the Publications and Membership Department continues to manage the publication program of the ASA, and the Public Affairs and Public Information Department conducts media outreach to raise the visibility of sociology and the Association). However in some areas functional activities were expanded or modified: The Operations and Meeting Services Department coordinates office administration and human resources functions in addition to all functions relating to Association meetings; the Publications and Membership Department directs the publications program of the ASA, and also handles all membership services and conducts outreach beyond the Association. In addition to coordinating activities relating to the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline (FAD), the Research and Development Department provides expanded services to ASA Council, committees, and task forces. (See Appendix 29.)

ASA Departmental Activity: 2002–4

Publications and Membership Department
The internet continues to expand and offer new opportunities for disseminating scholarship in sociology. In 2004, ASA began to provide online as well as print access to all ASA journals through Ingenta, a database and access system to scholarly journals. The Association set a goal in 2003 of having “online access to all ASA journal content—past and current—through the JSTOR/Ingenta combination compete within two years. By the 2006 volume year, 2004 and later issues will be available through Ingenta, and 2003 and earlier issues will be available through JSTOR.” (Council Minutes, August 19, 2003). This increased access to online journals was made possible by Council’s decision to adjust the “moving wall” on ASA journals in JSTOR from five years to two years by 2004.

Sociological Methodology and Sociological Theory became available on JSTOR in 2002. In 2003, Council also voted to return all typesetting and editorial functions of ASR to the Executive Office by 2004.

Both Contexts , the new general perspectives magazine of the ASA, and City and Community , a journal of the Community and Urban Sociology Section (CUSS), began publication in 2002 and have been well received. In 2003, Contexts was named the best journal in the social sciences by the Association of American Publishers’ (AAP) Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division, and as one of the ten “Best New Magazines of 2002” by the Library Journal .

After several years of testing, the ASA introduced the Journal Builder software for use by the editorial offices of the ASA journals in 2004. Journal Builder is an online manuscript tracking system that keeps track (and produces reports) on manuscript submission, editorial and production lags, and final decisions on acceptance of manuscripts for publication.

New technologies have also created new challenges in the publication program. In August 2002, ASA Council appointed a Subcommittee of Council and the Committee on Publications on Electronic Publishing consisting of Carol Heimer (Chair), Bernice Pescosolido, William Bielby, Robert Crutchfield, Arne Kalleberg, and Sally Hillsman to examine some of these issues (e.g., the applicability of copyright laws in electronic versions of articles posted on websites, the implications of open access to journals) and ASA policies regarding electronic publication. The Subcommittee presented a preliminary report in February 2003, and continues its work.

Research and Development Department
The Research Department conducted a new survey of sociology departments in 2002 and continued to track a 1996 cohort of 634 PhDs with respect to careers and job opportunities. A Membership Data File has been extracted annually in recent years from the ASA NOAH membership database and continues to provide vital information on membership activities and trends. In addition, the Department compiles information and conducts analyses on sociology and sociologists from other sources (such as the National Science Foundation). Research reports, research briefs, as well as data from these secondary sources are published regularly in various formats by the ASA (see Appendix 24).

ASA’s research staff is also developing other projects to advance understanding of the profession and discipline of sociology, for example, a survey of sociologists working outside the academy. Research Department staff has also been working with the National Science Foundation and the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology to provide data and analyses for federal efforts to promote the recruitment and retention of women and minorities in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce.

FUND FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE DISCIPLINE (FAD)

The Program on the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline (FAD) was placed under the Department of Research and Development in 2002. FAD is a small grants program designed to support innovative, groundbreaking research and other scientific research projects, and to create new networks of scientific collaboration. FAD is funded jointly by the Sociology Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the ASA (see Chapters 1 and 2). The maximum amount of each award in 2004 is $7,000.

In 2004, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a three-year grant of $165,000 to the American Sociological Association (ASA) to support FAD from August 2004 through July 2007. The current award includes for the first time, funding to disseminate more broadly the work of the FAD grantees.

Public Affairs and Public Information Department
Through its Public Affairs and Public Information Department, ASA promotes and gives visibility to sociology and the Association by participating in the national science policymaking arena, monitoring key national legislative and policy developments affecting sociological research and sociologists, and engaging in efforts to enhance opportunities for sociologists’ contributions to policy. The Public Affairs Office also manages the editorial and pre-production of the Footnotes newsletter. Public Affairs activities of the Association from 2002 through 2004 included:

• Sponsoring Congressional briefings, aimed at educating policymakers and the wider public. These included briefings on reactions to terrorism (June 2002), the collection of racial and ethnic data (May 2003), human dimensions of disasters (October 2003), and immigration policy (April 2004) (see Appendix 25).
  
• Supporting exhibits through the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), an alliance of organizations concerned with the future of the sciences, and the increased federal investment in the National Science Foundation’s research and education programs. In 2004, the ASA sponsored the research of Bruce Western and Devah Pager at the CNSF exhibit held each spring on Capitol Hill.
  
• Participating in the Decade of Behavior initiated in 2000 to bring policymaker and public attention to the importance of behavioral and social science research. The National Advisory Committee selected ASA’s nominee, David R. Williams, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, for the Decade of Behavior’s inaugural Research Award. The Decade will sponsor a Congressional briefing in which Williams participates.
  
• Representing sociology and the social science community on the Secretary of Commerce’s Census Advisory Committee. Executive Officer Sally Hillsman represents ASA on the Committee and is participating in efforts to ensure the scientific quality of the 2010 Census, the American Communities Survey, and the further protection of data on vulnerable populations (such as Arab-Americans). Sociologists Robert Hill and Corinne Kirchner are also members of this and related Bureau of the Census committees focusing on issues of racial and ethnic classifications and the inclusion in the census of persons with disabilities.
  
• Monitoring key national (and some state-level) legislative and policy developments affecting sociological research, sociologists, and the ASA. For example:
  
• In November 2004, the ASA provided comments in response to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) draft proposal for Enhanced Public Access to NIH Research Information . In response to pressure from various sources to provide timely access to publications emanating from government-funded health research, the NIH developed an “open access” plan that would post peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts on NIH’s PubMed Central database six months after journal publication. In its comments, the ASA raised a number of questions about the underlying premises of the proposal as well as the overall process through which it was developed. In coordination with other scholarly societies, ASA offered a series of recommendations to NIH for the implementation of the proposed public access plan.
  
• In September 2003, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act , with serious implications for the ASA publishing program. These Acts and their amendments were interpreted by OFAC “as meaning that publishers may only publish materials from embargoed countries [e.g., Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Libya] if they are in camera-ready form and are not subject to ‘substantial alteration’ which would include peer review, copy editing, design or translation.” (Council Minutes, August 17, 2004) Executive Officer Hillsman met with OFAC officials in the fall of 2004 to express the concern of the Association as a publisher of scientific materials, and to urge a reversal of the decision on these restraints on publication. At the end of 2004, OFAC reversed its decision in the area that most threatened ASA by recognizing that journal submissions from embargoed countries that had been peer reviewed and edited by U.S. publications were indeed exempt from embargo. However, legal suits and other actions taken by publishers and authors’ associations continue to seek changes to the government’s position with regard to other media, such as film.
  
• Engaging in efforts to advance sociologists’ contributions to policy—especially at the national level and across federal agencies and other executive offices. For example, based on efforts by the Public Affairs Office, sociologists Lee Clarke, Kathleen Tierney, and Mansoor Moaddel have been invited by the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to make presentations on ASA’s behalf to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other public audiences, and to staff of the President’s National Science and Technology Council.
  
• Working with nearly 10 Washington, DC-based coalitions to advance the cause of social science through advocacy efforts.
  

Information Services and Technology Department
The Information Services and Technology Department manages the ASA Information Technology (IT) systems and infrastructure. In 2003, ASA Council approved a project to redesign the ASA website to coincide with ASA Centennial year publications and projects. Upgrades were also made to the ASA computer and information system in 2003 and 2004: (1) In late 2003, the internal document management system was upgraded with considerable improvements in storage and retrieval of documents, (2) Throughout 2004, ASA worked with JL Systems to develop an e-commerce system, permitting members to purchase ASA publications and other products directly from the website, and (3) Computer system performance was greatly improved by replacement of both the network server and the servers that provide support for all ASA listservs. (Appendix 29 contains a description of the technical specifications of the new hardware.)

Highlights from Programs of the ASA: 2002–4

The Association continues to serve sociology and Association members through its programs on Academic and Professional Affairs (APAP), Minority Affairs (MAP), and the Spivack Program on Applied Social Research and Social Policy.

Academic and Professional Affairs Program (APAP)
The Academic and Professional Affairs Program (APAP) continues to focus on advancing the discipline of sociology by working with academic departments and department chairs through the Department Affiliate Initiative, the Departmental Resources Group, Chairlink, the Annual Chairs Conferences, and the various continuing education programs at the Annual Meeting. APAP also continues to add to the extensive collection of resource materials produced by members and the Executive Office and distributed through the ASA’s Teaching Resources Center (see Appendix 22).

In addition, a High School Affiliate Program was established in 2003 to link high school social studies departments to the ASA similar to department affiliates. From 2002 to 2005, APAP led the NSF-funded project, Integrating Data Analysis (IDA), an effort to build the quantitative literacy and research skills of sociology undergraduate students throughout the entire sociology curriculum of a department. This project was a collaborative initiative with the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN) at the University of Michigan (see Chapter 2).

In addition to these core activities, APAP was substantially involved in the Task Force on the Advanced Placement Course in Sociology for High Schools, and the Task Force on the Assessment of the Undergraduate Major, both of which delivered fi nal reports to Council on August 18, 2004. The APAP also continued a program of outreach to community colleges and began an initiative on the professional MA degree.

The Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) project was formally completed by APAP with a three-day Capstone Conference on December 5–6, 2002. For more than two years, four sociology departments (along with three other social science disciplines) participated in the PFF project, which was designed to produce various training models and enhance the graduate experience in preparation for faculty careers.

Minority Affairs Program (MAP)
The Minority Affairs Program (MAP) encompasses the core Minority Fellowship Program (MFP), as well as the other programs that provide support to students and minorities, or those that relate to health issues more broadly. The Minority Fellowship Program (MFP), which was established in 1974 with funding primarily from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), continued its program of support to minority sociology doctoral students, with the 31st cohort of students now participating (Appendix 23). In April 2005, the ASA was awarded a continuation of the grant by NIMH for the MFP Program covering the period 2005 to 2010. Also, ASA Council voted unanimously to approve funding for one additional non-NIMH MFP Fellow in 2005 and 2006 from the ASA’s general operating funds. With the consolidation of programmatic activities into departments, the Honors Program and the Student Forum were placed under the direction of the MAP Program Director (along with other student-related activities of ASA).

The Association has long emphasized programs and activities that focus on student members. The ASA Honors Program (see Chapters 1 and 2) and other activities centered on the Annual Meeting, the Dissertation award, employment and career materials specifically designed for students, and special incentives for students to join the ASA have been created over the past twenty-five years.

In 1999, Council approved the institution of a Student Forum to “strengthen students’ connections to the American Sociological Association and the discipline.” ( Footnotes April, 1999:3) Students who join the ASA automatically became a part of the Student Forum and receive special mailings and electronic communications to encourage their participation. These services have been greatly enhanced with a special section for students on the ASA homepage, which, in addition to the Student Forum, now includes newsletters and other special features designed for students.

Spivack Program on Applied Social Research & Social Policy
The Spivack Program continues to sponsor Congressional briefings, and each year, to provide funding to support a Congressional Fellow, and several projects under the Community Action Research Initiative (CARI). Congressional briefings were held on “Reactions to Terrorism: Attitudes and Anxieties” (June 2002), “Racial and Ethnic Data: Why We Collect it; How We Use It in Public Policy” (May 2003), “The Human Dimensions of Disasters: How Social Science Research Can Improve Preparedness, Response, and Recovery” (October 2003), and “A Nation of Immigrants: Current Policy Debates Meet New Social Science Research” (April 2004) (see Appendix 25).

Other Programs and Activities

Support for Individual Sociologists
Over the past several decades, funding opportunities have been available to individual sociologists through a variety of programs offered by the ASA. Funding for these programs was obtained primarily from NSF, various programs of the NIMH, other restricted funds of the ASA (such as the American Sociological Foundation), and ASA membership drives. Over the years smaller amounts (typically for travel and special events) have also been obtained from other sources (e.g., the MacArthur Foundation and the Smithsonian). These programs generally have been administered by ASA in a competitive, peer-reviewed process.

In addition to funding through the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP), the ASA provides support to individual sociologists through the Spivack Program Congressional Fellowships and the Community Action Research Initiative grants (CARI), the Fund for the Advancement of the Discipline (FAD), and the Teaching Enhancement Fund (TEF).

International Activities
On August 19, 2003, the Task Force on the International Focus of American Sociology submitted its final report to Council. The Report noted that while Annual Meeting Programs and committee activities generally showed increased attention to international issues, levels of participation in ASA meetings by foreign sociologists (especially by non-Europeans) were low, in part due to the lack of available funding. Also, the Task Force found that ASA teaching materials generally had a low level of international content (see Chapter 2).

The Association continues to place a high priority on activities on international issues, including human rights. ASA was actively engaged in the case of the Egyptian-American sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim who was sentenced on July 29, 2002, by the Egyptian State Security Court to seven years in prison on charges widely believed to be politically motivated (see Chapter 2). ASA worked closely with AAAS’s Human Rights Action Network, sent letters of protest to Egyptian officials, and provided information on the case on the ASA website. Saad Eddin Ibrahim was released in December 2002 and acquitted in March 2003. He was a special guest at the 2003 ASA Annual Meeting in Atlanta. As noted in Chapter 2, in 2002, ASA again obtained a travel grant from NSF to support sociologists participating in the International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress Meeting, held in Brisbane Australia from July 7–13, 2002. The grant supported partial travel expenses for 33 persons to attend the meeting.

A panel discussion at the ISA entitled “The Internationalization of American Sociology: A Centennial Challenge for the ASA in 2005 and Beyond,” featured Craig Calhoun (Social Science Research Council and ASA Council member), Executive Officer Sally Hillsman, Secretary Arne Kalleberg, A. Douglas Kincaid (the ASA representative to the ISA), and Immanuel Wallerstein (Yale University). The session was designed to generate discussion and ideas for a Centennial event featuring an ISA component. At the presidential session on the last day of the ISA meeting. Neil Smelser (University of California-Berkeley) was awarded the ISA’s first Mattei Dogan Foundation Prize for a distinguished career in sociology.

In 2004, a grant was obtained from the Ford Foundation to bring public sociologists and activists from developing countries and the former Soviet Union to the 2004 Annual Meeting. The grant provided support for 25 persons from more than a dozen countries to attend the meeting.