Things to consider about the minor in methods

Here's our policy on getting a minor in research methods in the PhD program:

Students in any major area may choose Research Methods and Statistics as a minor area if they complete 3 Methods/Statistics courses beyond the standard requirements and receive permission from the Graduate Director.

And what are these required courses, you ask? Good question. For incoming students, they are:

SYA5345 (Research Methods), SYA5455 (Social Statistics and Data Analysis), SYA5406 (Multivariate Analysis), SYA 5407 (Advanced Quantitative Methods), and "a qualitative methods course offered in the sociology department, such as SYA5313 (Qualitative Research in Sociology), or SYA5355 (Comparative Historical Methods), or other qualitative offering in the department" (2006 Grad Studies Guide, p. 6).

So, what can a sociology graduate student take to get a methods minor? Generally, they will need to take BOTH qualitative research and comparative historical, meeting the qualitative degree requirement and giving them one of the three additional methods courses they need. Another methods course that will be offered soon is qualitative analysis (on the books for Fall 2007, from what I hear). That leaves one more, which could be epidemiologic methods or techniques of population analysis.

What about courses outside the department? In the past, they've only been permitted in exceptional situations. E.g., David Russell took a ISS survey research course w/ Mary Stutzman last summer to complete his methods minor. Rarely would we let a course count outside the department. The reason this is discouraged is that it is unwise to let students use College of Social Science waivers to take courses in other colleges. You can imagine the dean saying, "Me no likey." And our department lets students apply only two outside-the-dept courses toward their PhD course requirements.

So the question is this: Have we set up a methods minor that is destined to function poorly? How could we fix it or improve it? How can we expand the number of methods offerings in our department? Should we? How could a beefed up one-year master's program in Applied Social Research help out in this regard? Are students really getting a benefit out of the methods minor?

Please post your comments so we can get a decent discussion going on the methods minor!

Hey, this may not work but it's worth a try

This is my (potentially lame) attempt to coordinate the methods instruction in sociology at FSU for the 07-08 through 09-10 academic years. I'll go first:

Fall 2007: Committed to teach SYA5407.
Spring 2008: Could teach undergrad methods or stats; don't really want to.
Fall 2008: Could teach SYA5407 -- increasingly need someone to swap with; this would be the 5th time in a row for me; I'd be happy to teach SYA5455 or SYA5406 instead.
Spring 2009: Nothing definite; could teach SYA4300, SYA4400, or SYA5406.
Fall 2009: By this year (at the latest) I'd like to be rotated off of teaching SYA5407.
Spring 2010: Could teach SYA4300, SYA4400, or SYA5406.

Now, once everyone follows suit I'll combine everything into a single (highly contingent) schedule.