Social Science Faculty Panel

Hello everyone, how are you?

Thanks for joining us today an it's four o'clock anuar here at the social science faculty panel. I'm Linda Clune on the senior associate director in the admissions office and welcome everyone. As everyone starts joining us, I would like to give some time as people are still hopping on to the broadcast to let everyone use the chat that you will find on the web and R.

To introduce yourself and let us know a little bit about where you're joining us from today.

Yes, definitely. So let me explain a little bit more about how the web and R will work today on, uh, we will. We actually have a a moderate are and so as you type your questions, and as you're typing now at your name and where you're from, Katie is the moderator and she'll be behind the scenes today.

Although she's playing a very important role because what she's doing is kind of controlling your questions so that we don't get flooded with 25 questions all at once so that we can paste the panel a little bit better. An everyone can have a little bit more semblance of order and organization within the panel so that we can answer as many questions as possible. So continue to use the chat, but also if you are having any audio or technical issues.

What I would ask you to do is sign of- or refresh your computer and then sign back on an. That usually helps a little bit so it looks like there are Shannon had said there was someone from Mexico and it looks like there's a large breath of diversity with where people are joining us from. I also believe that we have a mixture of students who are seniors who are making their final decisions an also students who are younger that are just starting.

So thank you everyone for taking time out to join us today. We're really excited to have you learn a little bit more about social Sciences at Allegheny.

So as we start love to be to the panelists, tell us your name and the Department from where you teach and also possibly your favorite class. Or maybe your research area.

So Shannon, if you can go first, that would be great.

Yeah thanks thanks Linda. How everyone? My name is Steve O'Neal. Uhm I teach in the economics Department and I'm also the chair of the Department. I come from Africa, Nigeria. I've been here since 1992. I did my pH D at the University of Connecticut and taught at a couple of universities before I came to Meadville in 2001.

Uhm, I love teaching at Allegany for a number of reasons. One is the small class sizes. Uhm, I really appreciate the fact that, uh, my get to know my students. All of my students within a couple of weeks of the semester and also having a small class size has enabled me to do a number of things. I really enjoy doing, having class discussions and debating a hot button issues.

And taking my students out of the classroom on field trips? Uh, recently we went visiting a company in Meadville that manufacturers spear pass for the aerospace industry and that was the first time in many of my students. We're stepping out to see a manufacturing firm, so I really do enjoy that. And also the opportunity to get to know them to get to know the history where they're coming from and what the aspirations are.

Finally, I wanted to talk about the classes. I really enjoy teaching. I enjoy teaching a class called business. An SOC uh. This class has enabled me to demonstrate to students. That being a business major or Nikon major is not all about making money is also about society. You know business is a subset of society and business cannot drive without a healthy society so business has to be socially responsible.

Uh, it has to support their society and, uh, has to be sensitive to the Nissan aspiration of their customers. They are workers and also disadvantage people, so the other class I enjoy teaching is international business. This is a very good time to talk about international business with covet my team. The impact on businesses and how the government is trying to support businesses.

And so it's amazing to see what I teach in the classroom being applied to the real world. So that's one thing that I enjoyed.

Thank you Steve and Ken.

You want me to jump in?

Yeah.

Yeah, why don't you jump in Steve? I know you address it a little bit in your introduction, so if you can just expand a little bit that would be great.

Yes, uh, I want to address the second part of the question, why Allegany?

Um?

One of the things I like about early getting is the fact that the college are supported.

Am I?

Teaching and research. I love the idea of the teachers corner model, which is what Allegany sorry about that we are not only expected to be excellent teachers to be innovative teachers to use innovative pedagogies in our classrooms, but also to do so within the context of own scholarship of our own research. That's why I came here, I.

Really didn't want to go to a college where, you know, teaching excellence is good is we appreciate that. But I also want to go to a place where that teaching is blended with research, becausr, teaching and research are very symbiotic. They feed on each other and the college has tremendous resources.

How to support faculty in not already a research but, uh, the India exploration of.

Teaching pedagogies that benefit students along those lines.

I love the faculty student collaboration.

Since I came here.

I want virtually every summer I work with students on a number of research projects, sometimes 2, sometimes three students. We go out to meet. Will we design service? We collect data, we analyze the data, then we write reports. We write articles in the newspapers we students. So that's amazing. You know, before I came to me, I'll aghani. I thought that big universities where I did not have the opportunity to. I even never knew my students not to talk about.

Collaborating with them in research so that has been a very value added For me at Allegheny. And also the fact that um alligin is like a family. We are very small and we know each other. We hold some meetings together. We have lunches together so that that's really amazing, so it's not only a place where you work is also a place where you you meet friends and you make colleagues.

Who collaborate with you to achieve a specific goals so that has got me for the past almost 20 years? Not are you gaining becausw of that quality?

OK.

I I want to just pick up on just one thing, um, that that, Steve said that I think is really important and that is you were in a rural area.

In northwest Pennsylvania, as you know, and what that means for us is that very few of our faculty members actually commute from other cities. That is to say, we are are, uh, pretty, self sufficient community here, and I think that that was something that I didn't fully appreciate when I first came, because I teach a class on mega cities. I really love cities, an I I. To this day, you know, I, I think of myself as kind of a city person and.

That kind of a city school is very different from us. A school in a in a small town like Meadville, in that we as faculty depend on one another very much. As Steve says, we, we are community, an work community by choice, but also by necessity. and I think that necessity is really brought us together in ways that I think are pretty unique. The students to were not distracted by the big city lights, so to speak. So we're really were really a residential community and I think.

I've been thinking as probably many of you have about about place a lot in this time of confinement, and it turns out that small towns in communities have a really, I think has taken on a really special kind of meaning in this current period because they can be very safe spaces for people, and I think that the strong community that we have, both educational, intellectual as well as actually just geographical.

Have really formed this place and I think unique and as I'm appreciating even more now really extraordinary ways.

Just one follow just a quick little follow-up to that. This is really a shout out to our our two guests from Mexico that I have a student this semester who's graduating who did a senior project on Mexican politics. He himself is uhm is originally from Mexico.

And you know when he handed in his senior project to us. Of course, on line just a couple weeks ago, he he, he wrote it outside. This is my greatest accomplishment to date, and he actually went way above and beyond. I think what he had, even what he had done at Alleghanian. So not only do you see growth, but then it's sometimes these amazing spurts of growth that I that is, as can say, just incredibly gratifying. You know, we have students of a wide range of ability all.

Obviously really good students, but even among good students there's a range of ability, and I think we bring them far in four years, and that's really gratifying to see.

Hey.

Yeah.

OK, here I mean, well thank you can. Uhm what type of classes would be taught to a major in political science? And so Shannon, could you address that?

Absolutely, um, so introductory classes would be the place where we would encourage first year students to start. So we teach for introductory classes that stand the subfields in our discipline. So class, like intro to American politics, intro to international relations to compare topologist political theory. Those are our base classes and then students take a variety of different electives. Again, could be on the path of American politics.

Could be on the path of international politics, more international global relations or digging into the politics of a particular region of the world. Save Latin American politics or European politics or Chinese politics.

So we had those are the are are are left if classes. Students then move on to Research Seminars as is true across the campus. By their third year and so that's really getting them ready to write a significant piece of work. The senior comprehensive project, which they would write in their senior year, but to give you a couple of examples of different kinds of electives on here, is a class that one of my colleagues teaches an American.

On politics called tragedy of the of the few and he's talking there about, uhm, American politics, an involvement or lack of involvement in the institutional structures that we have. He looks a lot of political parties classes on immigration. I mention my class and Immigration. Middle Eastern politics.

Constitutional law, so those I would say the biggest distinction in our in our Department is between the American politics folks and the rest of the world, which is how political science is kind of organized. And then within that there are some other subfields like political philosophy for example.

Or more a specific focus on, say, judicial politics.

OK, thank you another question. What makes Alleghenys Pre legal tracks special or how does it stand out compared to other colleges?

I would also just mention that I think the law and policy program but wow, that is how we are Center for political participation, is a unique program. I know when we started it some four years ago, there didn't appear to be another kind of program that we knew up. Maybe sense than other schools have have gotten on board vote. The idea is this that over the course of a student's career in Allegany.

They can be. They can sign up, be part of this.

Cohort of students that take classes. Certain classes that deal with the fields of law and policy, which are many, many, many as as as can just mention Bing attend talks of practitioners in the field. So folks that are working broadly in areas of the law folks that are doing policymaking work in Washington, or Harris Burg or other important political centers. The students get points that they can accumulate overtime.

So as to make an argument at the end of the four years in a portfolio that they drop that they have a kind of focus on Apolosi area on a particular legal pathway, and that can be pretty powerful as they are writing letters of ignition for Graduate School on that program. Includes an exit interview. As I mentioned a portfolio, so we think of it as a kind of a hands-on, applied way of understanding some of the ideas that are circulating through so many of our classes.

In that that will serve students well as they develop analytical thinking skills, critical reading, writing and speaking skills. So I think that program is pretty unique. Um, at Allegany.

Great thank you for addressing that the next question deals with research and internships, so I'm wondering if you could give some examples of some other collaborative research that you've done with your students or what they've done, and also some internship opportunities in your fields or also in psychology, which is also part of our social science area.

Yeah, so Allegany is known as a.

It college that values undergraduate research. So undergraduate research is central to a curriculum and mission.

And the centrality, uh, has been manifested at different levels. One basic level is the senior project that is required of all students. So compared to other colleges, Allegany is one of the few colleges that requires.

The senior project as a graduation requirement and it's a long process that starts with a junior seminar where students learn the different methodological approaches in the image is where they get to read articles. Jenner, attic, ilsan, box and learn how to do literature review and then the capstone of that initiative is when they're ideas in your project and also defend it before 2 professors who.

Grill them with questions by the research and so it's a document that our students are very proud of is not uncommon for you to see, and Allegheny Alarm who graduated 30 years ago. Bragging about the as seen your projects about the accounts. That's the only thing they talk about. The remember you know this in your project is something that has become traditionally valuable here.

Then another level of research is Wendy collaborate with professors mainly during this summer. The provers office has a big chunk of funding to support faculty student research, and I know that almost all the students who are interested in collaborating with their professors on the research projects get funded. They get a stipend to still campus during the summer. They get subsidized housing.

Are they work with their professors on specific projects for the past 15 years or so? I've worked with students almost every summer, uh, on projects around the middle area. I said I talked about it earlier today and we produce a document that is widely shared amongst business communities in midfield. So research is very important in this summer tool we have is undergraduate research seminars.

We are students who are conducting research in this seminar. They come together at lunch time. They share the research ideas and outcomes. By the way, we have a director of undergraduate research who helps coordinate this collaborations between faculty and students. So internship.

Internships? Uh, uh. Also very very important we have the career education unit that help students identify internship opportunities in different areas.

So what happens is that students meet with staff in this office 1 on one, the expressed their interest and this stuff then reach out to alarm network. We have a platform where students can identify some alarms in the areas of interest.

And they reach out to them, and they have them find internships.

Uh, the college. Supposing students with internships by way of Skype. And so if you have an internship in NYC or in Washington DC, this our cities that are very, very expensive and students are unable to support themselves in those intentions. So the college steps in.

To have students defray some of the expenses they incur in those internships in my Department, we have play students in internships ranging from banking consulting, not for profit organizations, manufacturing enterprises, and in our business major program. We have experiential learning and internships as requirements, and we have the resources the for supporting.

Students to succeed with the internships.

Jim.

I have an internship. I'd like to talk.

Yeah, thank you, just a quick internship. Um plug here we have at Allegany of in, particularly in the Political Science Department of very strong relationship with the Robert Jackson Center, which is here a couple hours away. An hour and a half in Jamestown, NY, Robert Jackson was a Supreme Court Justice in the United States.

Uh, during and after World War Two period and he was also the chief prosecutor for the Nuremberg Trials. after World War Two. He is a major figure in American jurisprudence and his he was born and raised in Jamestown on there's a center there that a study for of international and and US law. And so we have a guaranteed three at least three to force internships this summer with the Jackson Center. We do a lot of collaborative programs with them.

They've been really involved in work on with the International Criminal Court and special tribunals that take place after moments of incredible political violence. There involved, and so this has been a great resource for US politics students as well As for international politics students. So it's a really fabulous resource. And like I said, we we have a very strong, unique connection with the Jackson Center, not least because several of their.

Hum.

Recent and past directeurs have been allocated rats from our from our Department so.

Thank you for letting us know that Shannon go ahead, Ken.

Yes, yes, yes. Uh, that's uh, easy question. Uh, so you come in first semester, you take introduction to microeconomics or introduction to microeconomics with an A.

Uh, so introduction to microeconomics deals with how households firms.

Kaitum scarce resources. So we talked about things such as opportunity costs, demand and supply. We talk about production cause theory of the firm monopolies, monopolistic competition.

And, uh, we also do some game theory in that particular class.

I saw because, um, I intro class is an upper level classes have some quantitative stuff in them, we do encourage.

Our first year students to take a calculus class.

So depending on where you place during the math placement tests you get into math 140 or Matt UH-150 one, uh, some students come with 80 miles, so they already to go. So basically we want you to be able to know simple or jailbreak manipulation. You know what AY axis is an X axis, and then you can.

Take the derivatives of a polynomial function. You know it function with two variables, so we want our students to be able to be comfort rible in those environments, and therefore we require them to go to the math Department to take that busy calculus class.

And sometimes when they come in and they are not and their mantissa get a bit rusty. So the professor teaching the intro tool Micro Class can quickly, you know, brush students who I get a bit behind up, give them some hands and explain those basic quantitative concepts. So if you start with intro to micro and then it calculus class.

Then in the second semester in the spring semester, you transition into intro to macro class.

I'm probably also take a 200 level elective, uh, in economics or business, or you can take human resource management. You can take, uh, marketing. You can take a business, an SOC. You can take economics of poverty. You can take environmental economics, so we have a long list of electives, international economics, health, economics, finance, money and banking.

In addition to the intro to macro in the spring semester. So by the time you're done with your first year of the major.

You would have done anywhere between 324 E con classes. And remember we also interdisciplinary you. You major in economics. You have two minor in something else outside of the social Sciences.

So typically maybe student will major in Economics and minor in philosophy.

I saw in that first year too. They have to take at least one class. That's what I advised. My advice is to do. Try one class and I feel that you think might be your minor. So you try philosophy. Or you may try communication ads. You may try religious studies or English, and if you don't like it then in your second here you jump into another one and so you keep trying until you find your niche and say, yeah, this is where I'm going to minor in.

So the way it works out is that by your junior year.

Most of our students are already done with the classes for their major so that they began to take other classes in their minors or just to take things they enjoy taking like music and dance. And you know other classes that.

Trusted it.

Georgia State that quick comment about the FS program. Because I think that's really important. Um, for students and an and their parents to to to know about. It's really neat that Allegany has this set of building block classes that really focus on the acquisition of skills, right? In addition to different kinds of ideas and concepts and frames, students in these classes are doing, uh.

Lot of writing and a lot of speaking very deliberately. And we do this in our other classes. These passages very deliberately and intensely focus on writing and speaking, and so students take one of those classes each semester, their first year, and then the 201. The second level is taken more in their major area, getting them ready to specialize more than a research seminar in their major area, and then finally culminating with the senior project, which is Steve said is is a pretty unique thing I think. Just maybe it doesn't or.

Perhaps a couple dozen schools in the United States continue to have a senior comprehensive project or an undergraduate thesis, so it's a really neat project. It's a really neat program, and I think that one of the things that distinguishes liberal arts colleges like Allegany from other schools is that a lot of us really love teaching outside of our disciplines, right? We really look forward to those FS classes. I just finished one, a new one for me the first time, the second semester, first year, and it's a really marvelous opportunity.

To bring in non specialists into a series of ideas that they might never have been exposed to and before this and never again right? And you're really focused on the communication of ideas about those those themes. So it's a really neat program and I think in general we all really like teaching in it.

Yeah, that's great I I'll first mention the title of my FS 101, which is that first semester class. It's one I've taught maybe 11 times in my 20 years at Allegany, and it's called the politics of memory.

So we look at what countries do in the aftermath of egregious political violence. Some hold truth commissions, trials. They memorialize in some ways.

This is a class that I really, really enjoy teaching and a man I haven't ever changed the theme because I love it so much and I haven't found another way to teach it outside of the FS 101. So that's the FS 101 and then the FS102. I hadn't taught that particular class. This was think my title was revolution and.

I, I think if it is US Latin American relations, but I tried to think of a much nicer title and that it was something called Revolution revolt in the in the Americas. And so it basically dealt with UM moments of intervention in Latin America by the US, which also happens to be almost like social tumult in the America. So it was a lot of fun to teach. I enjoyed it.

Yes, OK, go ahead.

Yes, I've talked to deter EFS is FS101 which I focused on. Explore the beauty of Africa. That's what I call that FS we are. We never talked anything about economics. Ironically we talked about African culture history.

And, uh, so, so let's get to know about a different culture, or that Andy's becausr one goal of the FS is for students to learn how to speak, to write, to interact with one another in the class. So I use that as a team. That's not only enables them to accomplish those soft skills, but also to learn about the different culture than my other FS. Is that the FS2 one? Is tide to the political economy of Africa and the manner region?

Here we talk about, uh, the economic situations in Africa and some Middle East countries. We talked about the economic policies, how they're colonia history has impacted on their contemporary economic situations, things like poverty for innate, that the role of the World Bank, and the IMF on this country's political instability. And also we talked about the impact of COVID-19 on these countries and how the address in.

Those are challenges.

Yummy sounds something like. Let me just put something on the table here that many students don't really appreciate. You know when you go to a liberal arts college, sometimes it's not what you major in that will determine your career path.

We have had um alarms. Who majored in, say, English? The ended up being CEO of major corporations. We have alarms who majored in political science? They became analysts on Wall Street. We have people who majored the.

In a psychology, they became, uh, the marketing V, PS4, HP and so on and so forth. So while disciplines a nice we should not be carried away too much about the role of disciplines, especially if you study at the Liberals College and we do talk to our alarms, who employ graduates? We say what is it that you only want when you hire?

People without bachelors degree this end up.

I want students who can communicate very effectively. I wanted students who can think critically.

I want a student with very soft skills who can work as a team.

I want to creative thinker.

I can train anybody in what we do in my company, so we need all this of skills and when the person gets here then we can train them in some of the functions in the company. So the reason I'm saying This is that if you social scientists this guy is your limit.

As long as you have all these soft skills you can fit into many careers, but um, to be more specific, we've had, uh, students who majored in Economics and Business, ending up with major banks like PNC Bank. We've had them work in a West Fargo Bank of America.

Consulting companies we have many in not for profit organizations. We have our alarms, many of them in Washington DC walking with government agencies. the Treasury, the State Department, the FDIC and they go into all these disciplines with all these professions with different disciplines. So what I want to suggest is that whatever you major in be open minded.

And embrace as many career paths as possible. Be cause you are not limited by it. What you made your end, especially if it's from the liberal. Escalate like Allegany.

Yeah, I would say absolutely underscore what Steve is saying and I also appreciate that.

As human beings, we like to have certainty right. We want to feel like, OK, this is an area and I will tell you this, that while it is true that our our alums find themselves sometimes doing things that they didn't imagine right there, problem solvers, their creative job markets change. I would say that it's political science, and I also note this in economics is well. We have a lot of students who get really excited and engaged by policy making like they really want to be involved in the world of policy making soap.

I find that a lot of our lungs are involved either with in government but also in consulting areas that consult on institutions and organizations that are involved in policymaking, and I also would say even on the municipal level we had an alarm in in late February was a city planner in Philadelphia, and those are the kinds of jobs where the really important. We often don't think about the local city planners and local leaders.

So I I think our students. I guess I would just say in in political science and economics. Sometimes you see your real inner lot of energy around policy and so that can be in both the private and the public sector.

Sure, yeah. What brings this year? We're on a national job market, so I think what brings us here is hey, this is a liberal arts college. He wanted to be a liberal arts colleges in Allegany and we coincided at the right moment. The the bigger question is why do we stay right? And for me on that combination of eager students.

But I can help let me put it this way, but the kind of growth that can talked about you can see that in our students and for me the the the more elite schools from Allegany. I felt like I I was at base college for your that maybe I wasn't helping the students as much as I do here. I feel like here is the perfect combination between really engage smart students who are open but that I have something to give them. And that's really satisfying. Because of course we all want to feel like.

We have something to given that we can get and so that along with a really supportive community, it's a very Humane place to be. Um, has kept me here and happy all these years.

Yes, some what brought me here is the fact that since I was six years old, I've always wanted to teach nothing else and so my previous institution where was I?

Teaching was not well valued here. I thought he was talking about research. I'm somebody who likes. I enjoy teaching, but I also like to do research. So I've been busy searching for the right college that values both. So sometimes you go to a place. He song about research you go to, another place is sorry about teaching.

So when I came here to interview at all again in 2000 and one I say yes, I finally got it. I found a college that values both and that supports faculty in doing boats and that's why we say we have the teachers color model at Allegany. We not only said the college does, it provides resources for faculty to travel internationally to do research to present.

And back home here their resources to develop innovative, innovative pedagogies in the classroom. So that's what brought me here. That's what has also kept me here and also the small size, the community nature of the college. Everybody knows everybody, everybody supposed one another, and that's that's a great thing for me.

Trouble?

Take care everyone chow.