Giving Opportunities

Thank you for your support!

You can support the Sociology Department first by keeping in contact and letting us know about your successes and achievements. We will post them to the Alumni news page.

Also financial gifts enhance our programs by providing support for educational materials, scholarships, and student and faculty development.

• Your gift is tax deductible as defined by law
• Many companies and firms have matching gift programs. Please contact the department if you would like to know more about the matching gift programs
• Please make gift payable to UW Foundation . Giving online is also available through the UW Foundation. Be sure to indicate your gift is made to the Department of Sociology under Further instructions about your gift of the giving online form

Again, thank you for all your support!

Chet Meeks Memorial Fund

We are sad to report the death of one of our alumni. Chet Meeks died on January 11, 2008 from colon cancer. Chet graduated from our department in 1995 and received a Ph.D. from SUNY-Albany. He was Assistant Professor of Sociology at Georgia State University.

The Chet Meeks Memorial Fund has been established by Oliver and Sidney Walter of the UW College of Arts & Sciences and their sons Brett and Andy Walter.  Income from the fund will be used to administer a graduate scholarship in the Sociology Department that will enable the recipient to conduct thesis research in the summer. For those of you who knew Chet, we ask that you consider donating to this fund.

View recipients of the Chet Meeks Summer Research Fund.

Flittie Scholarship Fund

Edwin Flittie was head of the Sociology Department for 15 years. The Flittie Scholarship Fund was established by Audie Blevins and Kathy Jensen after Flittie's death in 1987. As a testament to the long-term influence of a teacher, students of Ed Flittie are still contributing to this fund. We are proud to report that this fund has reached endowment level. Consequently, the principle is protected and scholarships are now funded solely through investment returns. Thus the fund will be available in perpetuity for the purpose of awarding scholarships to our top students.

Each year the Department of Sociology awards the Edwin G. Flittie Scholarship ($500) to one or more outstanding undergraduate students.  The criteria for the scholarship are:

• 1. A minimum of 90 credit hours earned
• 2. An overall minimum GPA of 3.5 in sociology courses
• 3. Completion of the 2000-3000 level foundation courses (SOC/STAT 2070; SOC 3900)

The department reviews the eligible students and awards the scholarship at its graduation-and-honors banquet near the end of the spring semester of each year.

View the recipients of the Flittie Scholarship.

Wilbourne Excellence Fund

Amy Johnson (now Wilbourne) was a student in our undergraduate program in the mid-1990s and earned her Masters in Sociology in 1997. She and her husband John Wilbourne established the Wilbourne Excellence Fund for our department, which has been a wonderful resource to help us fund educational enrichment activities both of our faculty and our students. Beginning in 2013, the department will award Wilbourne Excellence scholarships to majors who graduate with Honors in Sociology. To graduate with Honors, majors must have a 3.2 overall GPA, a 3.5 GPA in sociology courses, and one graduate-level (5000-level) sociology course.