Department of Social Sciences
The Social Sciences Department affirms its long-standing mission/function statements:
1) To provide the most effective instruction possible in the courses by the five disciplines that comprise the Social Sciences Department. The stated function for each of the disciplines are as follows:
a) AMERICAN CIVILIZATION provides an integrated view of American society from a historical, cultural, political, artistic and literary perspective.
b) ECONOMICS provides the necessary insights for the individual to effectively understand the increasingly interrelated national and international economic world of today.
c) HISTORY provides an examination of human activities from prehistoric times to the present, allowing students to acquire a sophisticated knowledge of the multi-faceted nature of the world's many and diverse cultures as well as to study intellectual, economic, and political history. The study of history also imparts a thought process which develops a student's ability to think critically about the past as well as the present.
d) PHILOSOPHY trains students in the skills of conceptual analysis and argument comprehension, construction, and evaluation; it directs students in the application of these skills to the fundamental problems involved in building reliable theoretical knowledge and formulating sound ethical judgments; it provides an intensive introduction to the science of logic, with emphasis on the concept of proof and symbolic systems for calculating truth-value relationships, and theories of the philosophical-scientific tradition from its ancient beginnings to its contemporary developments.
e) POLITICAL SCIENCE provides students with a critical awareness and
understanding of the theory and practice of politics at the national, state, and local levels in the United States and in foreign and international political systems. The discipline also includes in its mission preparation for responsible, intelligent, and active participation in politics as voting citizens and/or otherwise engaged persons in the United States or globally. This discipline also imparts a general and critical understanding of a wide range of foreign political systems and also analyzes national and international political theories.
2) To provide university parallel transfer courses for both the major and non-major, designed to enable students to enter the four-year colleges and universities as upper division students.
3) To provide general education survey courses to meet the general education graduation requirement for the AA/AS degree. (Our courses are included in the areas of Analytical Thinking, Social Sciences, Humanities, United States History and Government, and Ethnic/Gender/Gay-Lesbian Studies).
4) To provide general education courses designed to meet the breadth requirements for graduating from the University of California system and/or the California State University system.
5) To provide academic instruction that will encourage the development of critical thinking.
6) To develop new courses in an effort to provide relevant, current, and updated instruction.
7) To provide counseling, advice, and guidance to help students adopt and achieve realistic educational objectives (with a special emphasis on providing students with discipline-related information on majors, transfer institutions, job/career possibilities, etc).
8) To provide students with appropriate services/curriculum to help them explore and further their educational, vocational, and personal goals.
9) To provide direction and general skills pursuing careers in fields related to the Social Sciences Department's varied disciplines.
10) To provide and support appropriate staff development activities to enable faculty to keep current in their disciplines.
11) To utilize both traditional and imaginative teaching techniques in imparting knowledge to a diverse student population.
12) To serve as a source of information to the community on historical matters, economic issues, current events and or areas of local, state, national, and international governmental/political concern.
13) To maintain the cost-effectiveness of the Social Sciences program.
14) To continue and to foster the Social Sciences Department's long-standing dedication to excellence in teaching and excellence in scholarship.