Chapter 2

The 1980s—Critical Challenges and New Resolve

1. Introduction

Background and Context

The 1980s opened to critical challenges for the discipline and the Association. The period of “decline and retrenchment” which began in the mid-1970s continued well into the 1980s. The recession of 1978 to 1982 severely reduced employment opportunities for sociologists, the pool of research funds contracted, and the number of sociology majors dropped dramatically between 1974 and 1985. To many, these conditions created a generally pessimistic picture for the future of sociology.

These crises affected the Association as well. In 1982, William Form observed that, “ASA has gone into debt even as members call for more and more expensive services….Some Sections of the Association think that they are being done in by the Program Committee. Traditionalists insist that the Association should focus exclusively on academic concerns while others think that more emphasis should be given to teaching. Attendance at the annual meetings is down and the costs of meetings are rising.” (Footnotes, August 1982:1) President Alice Rossi wrote in 1983 that the profession “may have ‘crested’ in terms of numerical size” resulting in potentially new complexities in balancing goals and providing services to ASA membership in the future (Footnotes, December 1983:3). ASA priorities were also shifting as graduate enrollments in sociology declined, and an increasing number of people holding sociology degrees found employment in non-academic settings.

The Association responded to these challenges with determination and focus.

The changing needs of sociologists were addressed by enhancing existing programs and designing and implementing new initiatives. Organizational and governance structures of the Association were improved to better serve the membership. A major change occurred in 1984 when the Executive Office was restructured , leading to more effective and efficient operations. Council and the Executive Office also worked aggressively to achieve fiscal stability for the ASA—even as they sought to improve and expand services for the membership. The Executive Office operations were greatly enhanced in this respect by new information technologies and systems, which facilitated the continuing professionalization of services provided by ASA.

Special attention during the 1980s was focused on the needs of sociologists who were facing hardships as a result of the economic downturn. The ASA sponsored a major workshop on applied sociology in late 1981 that signaled its new interest and commitment to sociologists working in non-academic settings. In January 1982, Edna Bonancich presented a statement to Council on the “Crisis in the Occupation of Sociology,” with recommendations on how to respond to this serious challenge. A high priority on professional opportunities for un- and underemployed and the “independent scholar” was also expressed through initiatives advancing sociological practice, and through various committees with mandates on related issues (e.g., the Committee on Employment, which was established to deal specifically with problems of unemployment and underemployment of sociologists).

To a considerable extent, shifts in public policies and societal and global changes of the 1980s exacerbated the difficulties which sociology was experiencing. Under the Reagan administration, federal agencies reduced levels of support for research and scholarship in the social sciences, and NIMH proposed eliminating social research altogether. Some agencies, like the National Institute of Education (NIE) were heavily shaped by political agendas, and others, such as the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) had their very existence threatened. Budget cuts in social programs, increasing social inequality, homelessness, racism, discrimination, and policies on education and the environment posed serious challenges. Public support for dealing with AIDS and its consequences was slow in coming. Human rights violations, which continued to threaten the lives of many around the world, resulted in the persecution or death of sociologists in several countries, most notably in El Salvador.

By the mid-1980s, prospects for employment opportunities for sociologists had improved somewhat, membership in the Association was climbing again, attendance was up at the Annual Meetings, and by 1990, the ASA had four straight years of budget surplus. ASA worked closely with the Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA), the National Humanities Alliance (NHA), and the Council of Professional Associations for Federal Statistics (COPAFS), which contributed substantially to reversing or reducing the effects of cutbacks in federal funding programs. New relationships were forged with sociologists in China and other places around the world and old ties were strengthened through various initiatives. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 made possible new collaborations with colleagues in Eastern Europe.

By the end of the decade, new challenges appeared in the form of movements to downsize or eliminate departments of sociology. As in other disciplines, some departments confronted challenges from external factors; at other times, they rejected altering faculty due to internal conflicts within a department, among faculty, or resulting from insufficient planning. The issue emerged earlier in 1981 with the public inquiry that threatened to lead to the closing of the sociology department at Duke University. In 1990, the Department of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis was closed over protests and considerable efforts by ASA, sociologists nationwide, and other social science organizations to encourage a reversal of the decision.

ASA Priorities in the 1980s

The major focus of the Association during the 1980s was to accomplish its major objectives by (1) supporting basic research and publications, (2) advancing programs to support sociological practice, and (3) enhancing the teaching of sociology. These goals were achieved through committees and initiatives of ASA Council as well as a variety of programs—such as the Professional Development Program (PDP), the Certification Program, the Public Information Program, and the Teaching Services Program (TSP)—carried out by the Executive Office.

Council determined the major focus of attention for the ASA during the 1980s, with the role of the Executive Office being to implement the policies designed to achieve these goals. Council kept the major energy of the Association focused on its main goals—despite serious challenges in the forms of federal cuts in research funding, a depressed job market, and declines in numbers of undergraduate majors. Council, however, acting on its own, through its committees, or the Executive Office consistently took intentional actions in response to issues that critically affected ASA membership, the profession, or the Association.

Promoting Diversity and Inclusivity

ASA also continued its strong commitment to promoting diversity in the discipline and the profession through support of the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) and other policies and initiatives aimed at greater representation and inclusivity. The Status committees of ASA Council—the Committee on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Sociology (CSREMS), and the Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology (CSWS) worked to promote awareness of and improve the situation for minorities and women in the ASA and in sociology. Both CSREMS and CSWS, for example, strongly urged that minorities and women have a larger role in the activities and programs of the ASA, that data be collected on such activities, and that analytic reports be published periodically about these issues (for a list of reports published in Footnotes, see Appendix 24).

Discrimination against homosexuals was also a recurring theme in Council meetings since the mid-1970s, and Council consistently showed support for rights of homosexuals. In 1979, Council created a Task Group to examine the situation of homosexuals in academia, and in 1982, ASA published the Report of the ASA’s Task Group on Homosexuality in The American Sociologist (TAS). In accepting the Report, Council also appointed a new task force to make recommendations on how to combat discrimination against homosexuals. The Committee on Society and Persons with Disabilities also became a standing committee in February 1985 and contributed to ASA policies and practices for improvements with respect to persons with disabilities in the Association, in the profession, and in the discipline.

Committees of Council also urged that a greater effort should be made to include in ASA activities members who are affiliated with smaller colleges and universities, private and governmental agencies, and foundations. In sum, throughout the 1980s, t here were intentional efforts to work toward greater inclusiveness at all levels of ASA with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and employment status and context.