Fostering student involvement at small Us - environ. soc.

[envsoc]

I am a new faculty at a small university, and I am struggling with fostering student involvement in extra curricular stuff. In this particular case, I have a student that is particularly interested in environmental sociology. Like most of us, I got my PhD at a large university. When I taught there, it was always easy to find ways to get students involved in things they were interested in. There were tons of clubs, student organizations, and faculty looking for students to participate in their research. As such, if a student expressed additional interest in any particular topic it was always easy to get them involved in something. At my current institution, my department has 4 faculty members, and we might graduate 10 students a semester. So there is no easily available club/professor/on campus organization that I can simply refer the student to.

I've offered to conduct an independent study with this student, but since it is not my area, all I can do at this point is really just google things together.

So with this in mind, I'd like to ask SJMF folks to share any experience they might have with:

- Fostering student activity and interest at institutions that might not have the same resources as the big research 1s

- In particular, any ways to help a student who is interested in environ. soc. get involved in the field at the undergrad level.

[Connections]

Is there a larger university in the area that might have faculty or students groups that the student could connect with? We (and our students) tend to get so entrenched in our own campuses, that we can forget one way to find like-minded others is look beyond institutional boundaries.

Alternatively, perhaps the student could find majors in other departments interested in environmental issues and start a new club of their own. Reaching out to faculty in other departments to see if they think their majors would have any interest could be a way for you to get better connected to other departments as well.

[agreed]

I agree with connections--environmental stuff should be interdisciplinary. It's a good opportunity not only to get your student interested in the science-y aspects of environmental studies, but also to get students from those departments involved in environmental sociology. That said, the feasibility of this may depend on the inter-departmental politics of your university.

[asa section]

I am not a member, but have you thought about checking the ASA section on environmental sociology? The sections I belong to normally have a bunch of information on that.

Other than that, I am afraid that that is the nature of the beast at smaller institutions: unless you have other universities nearby, it will fall on you to get students involved.

[broad]

In the case of a small, isolated university, I'd encourage you to think broadly. Environmental sociology can be very broadly defined. So maybe there is no environmental soc group there, but are there groups related to, say, farming? City planning? Even comparative and international soc? I once had a student who was interested in environmental issues and as a result participated in a bunch of model UN and similar types of activities where they had to focus on the international cooperation part of many issues, including the environment.