Social Sciences

  

Five Disciplines of Social Science

Mission

The Social Sciences Department affirms these 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. See their pages for function statements.
  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 inscholarship.