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Salient. Victoria University Students' Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 23. September 20, 1976

sociology — Political Scientist Comments on Sosc

sociology

Political Scientist Comments on Sosc

Dear John,

I see that Professor Hill wishes to keep the Sosc debate out of the colunns of Salient on the somwhat specious grounds that your gentle ministrations might short-circuit communications.

If you appear in his nightmares as a latter-day Luddites bent on destroying his departmental machinery then I guess he deserves our sympathies - and perhaps even a shoulder to cry on.

But even as he weeps we must also point out the error of his ways. Scoiology is not his property alone, nor that of his department even when it is taken as including all his students.

Rather, it is the concern of the whole university community. This for two reasons ate least. First, the content of Sociology courses and the manner in which they are taught is of concern not only to those currently being processed by the department, but to all students who are thinking of taking a Sosc course.

They cannot be part of the departmental dialogue but have a real and vital interest in it. Professor Hill and his department, if they have any sense of the responsibility the university owes its student body are bound to acknowledge that the Sosc debate must take place in the hearing of potential, as well as actual, students.

The second reason is more important. Sociology, as one of the social sciences, deals in the very stuff of human existence. In amongst the horde of credit seeking meal ticketeers are a few students who are taking Sosc courses because of genuine social concern. They are social science students, because they want to gain some understanding of how man as a social animal ticks. They want to develop their powers of socia a their powers of social analysis, to discuss why some people remain rich while others are poor, some have two houses while others have none and so on.

Not all such students are Sosc majors some, for example, are in Pols. We ahre a common concern; that the quality of teaching and the content of courses will build on our interest, and enthuse others who are there just for the ride so that there may be some real possiblity of investigating radical alternatives to the conservative mess that is New Zealand in the 70s.

It is of vital importance to me and to every other student who has any doubts about 'New Zealand the way you want it' that Sosc courses inspire their students and given them the skills required for effective analysis.

Professor Hill's claim that he is entitled to bury this issue in a departmental morass is a claim that only he and his chosen few have any interest in the future of New Zealand society - the view should be treated with the contempt it deserves; the professor, I hope, deserves better.

Man wearing suit with a badge reading 'win' next to a student wearing a badge reading 'lose'

Yours from the Pols side of the fence,

Peter McKinlay

(I think- typesetter).