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The first course designated as sociology carried the title Sociology and Statistics. It was taught in 1897-98, by Dr. Frederick Converse Clark who was named Chairman of a new Department of Economics and Sociology established in that year.
He was the sole member of the Departmental faculty until 1901, dividing his time between the courses in sociology and economics. When Dr. James E. Hagerty was named Assistant Professor in 1901; his teaching duties, too, were divided between the two fields. Professor Hagerty, who succeeded Professor Clark as Chairman in 1903, remained in this position until 1922, when the Department of Economics and Sociology was divided into five departments. He then became Chairman of the Department of Sociology until 1932, also serving as Dean of the College of Commerce and Journalism from 1916 to 1921 and of the College of Commerce and Administration, which replaced it, until 1926.
Professor Hagerty's interest in the practical applications of knowledge brought about the early development of programs for training social service workers and business administrators which were first announced in a departmental bulletin issued in 1906. The degree, Bachelor of Social Administration, was introduced in 1916, and a School of Social Administration was organized in 1926 under Hagerty’s directorship. Administrative separation of sociology and social work became more clearly defined in 1932, when Professor Charles C. Stillman was appointed Director of the School of Social Administration, and Dr. Hagerty assumed the title of Professor of Social Administration. His teaching spanned the fields of criminology offered in Sociology and Penology in social work.
The first master's degree was granted in 1905, to Thomas L. Harris, who went on to earn the doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin. During the period 1905-09, four Master's degrees were granted in sociology; growth in graduate enrollment was slow until the decade of the 1920's, when it increased very sharply. There were 38 masters degrees granted in 1925-29, as well as three doctoral degrees in sociology in the same period. The first Ph.D. degree in sociology at this University was granted in 1914 to Daniel J. Williams. The Department of Economics and Sociology had so wide a range of offerings that it might better have been described as a Department of the Social Sciences.
Anthropology was among the offerings dating to 1901 when Hagerty taught a course entitled Primitive Societies. Anthropology remained administratively allied to sociology until 1967, when it became a separate department in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Curricular developments in the administration placed emphasis on social change, social planning, and social control. Educational sociology became a major field of departmental activity; Professor Lloyd A. Cook's pioneering in this field brought national recognition to the Department.
After his retirement in 1945, Professor Lumley spent his remaining years in Ontario, Canada where he died on July 26, 1954. A bequest from Mrs. Margaretta Lumley in 1963 established The Frederick Lumley Memorial Fund, providing a fellowship in sociology. Professor Perry P. Denune followed Professor Lumley as Chairman of the Department, serving in this position from 1940 to 1950. Dr. Denune had earned the Ph.D. in this Department in 1927, and had served in the various ranks from Teaching Assistant to Professor between 1921 and the date of his appointment as Chairman. Rural-Urban Sociology, The Family, and Sociology of Religion were among the fields in which he taught and had a special interest. During the early years of Dr. Denune's administration, the outbreak of World War II brought a sharp reduction in enrollment and loss of many faculty members to the armed services and war-related governmental agencies.
The end of the war brought so large an influx of veterans under the "G.I. Bill" that it was difficult to recruit enough faculty members to cope with the increase. Crowding in offices and classrooms was a serious problem until 1950, when an addition to Hagerty Hall was completed. Further student influx caused by the post-WWII “baby boom” necessitated a large expansion of the faculty, and conversion of many discussion classes to lectures. Crowded conditions in classrooms and offices again became a problem; the University and the Department were beset by budgetary difficulties accompanying this expansion. Anticipating that a severe national shortage of college teachers would occur when the "tidal wave" arrived, the Department undertook to achieve a large increase in its graduate output.
In the period from 1950 to 1962, this Department ranked fifth among all universities in the number trained to the Ph.D. level, and ranked first among the State Universities in this regard. Since graduate students must be provided with sources of financial support, it became imperative to initiate research programs in which they could be employed part-time, and to obtain funds for graduate fellowships. The number of graduate students subsidized through teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and fellowships was increased approximately ten-fold during Professor Sletto's administration to approximately one hundred annually. Expansion of research led to the creation of several new organizations. The largest of these was The Disaster Research Center under the joint direction of Professors Russell Dynes, J. Eugene Haas, and Henry Quarantelli, and The Ohio State Juvenile Delinquency Research project, established in 1955 under the direction of Professor Walter Reckless and Simon Dinitz. The Department cooperated closely with the Personnel Research Board to bring about the establishment of the Behavioral Science Research Laboratory in 1964; Professor Haas served as its first Director on a part-time basis.
The Department was instrumental in bringing about the establishment of the Center for Community and Regional Development in 1963 within the framework of the College of Commerce and Administration. Dr. Byron Munson served as Director of this Center while continuing to teach part-time in the Department. Close cooperative research relationships between the Department and the Columbus Psychiatric Institute, under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Pasamanyk, resulted in many research studies by our faculty members and graduate students. Dr. Simon Dinitz held a part-time appointment at the Institute and was co-author of several notable studies in the mental health field. A major study of social change in all of Ohio's counties between 1950 and 1960 was conducted by Professor C.T. Jonassen in cooperation with the Kellogg Research Center of The College of Education.
Professor Ronald A. Corwin made major studies of conflict in school systems under grants from the U.S. Office of Education. During Professor Sletto's administration a gift from members of the Lazarus family of Columbus established the Robert Lazarus Professorship in Population Studies. Dr. Gunnar Myrdal was the first holder of this position, as a visiting Professor in the Spring Quarter of 1967. Dr. William Petersen was appointed to this Professorship in the Autumn of 1967. Dr. Hans L. Zetterberg became Chairman of the Department on October 1, 1967 when Dr. Sletto resigned from this position. Professor Zetterberg earned the -7- doctoral degree at the University of Uppsala, and had been on the faculty of Columbia University before becoming Director of a large sociological research foundation affiliated with the Bank of Sweden. He held the latter position at the time of his appointment to a Visiting Professorship in this Department in the Spring Quarter of 1967.
Excerpt taken from A Brief History of the Sociology Department, written by Dr. Raymond F. Sletto July 1, 1969
