Support

Give Now

For more information on ways
to give, contact:

Peter Rozga
Office of Institutional Advancement
220 Johnston Hall
101 Pleasant Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Email: rozga001@umn.edu
Phone: 612-624-2848

You Make Us Great

During our 119-year history, many of our graduates have made distinguished contributions to the discipline and to communities around the world. Our outstanding faculty have received recognition from every professional association affiliated with our discipline. Our students mirror that excellence through their own research and study. Your gifts can help us build upon our proud history.

Your tax-deductible contribution provides our students with encouragement and financial support. It gives our faculty the resources to increase our understanding and knowledge of human communities. Your gift will help maintain a distinguished reputation for the Department of Sociology.

What Your Gift Can Do

Your generous support for the Department of Sociology is more critical than ever. It helps us attract and retain the very best scholars and students even as state funding declines.

Your contribution allows us to ensure:

  • A distinguished faculty: Creating endowed chairs and professorships and supporting interdisciplinary research centers and programs will help us recruit and retain outstanding faculty.
  • Excellence and competitiveness of our graduate program: Faculty choose institutions that attract the best graduate students. We need to ensure the excellence and competitiveness of our graduate programs so that we may compete for the best faculty and brightest students.
  • A diverse and engaged undergraduate student body: Although we are attracting better students than ever before, too many outstanding students choose other institutions—often for financial reasons. Merit- and need-based scholarships are needed to recruit many outstanding students.

Choose a Fund

To remain competitive, we need your support for our annual fund, graduate student fellowships, and faculty research funds. We have several funds that may interest you.

Endowment Funds
The principle of the endowment gift
is invested, and a percent of the
returns (the payout) supports
the fellowship. That payout is matched,
thereby doubling the impact of your gift.
  • Sociology Annual Fund
    Supports annual and special programs such as the Sociology Research Institute (SRI), Teaching Resources Center (TRC), and Graduate Student Professional Development and Travel Fund.
  • Sociology Graduate Student Support Fund
    Established in 2020, this fund provides financial support for non-international graduate students in Sociology in the case of emergencies which may jeopardize their continuation in the program.
  • The Aminzade Sociology International Graduate Student Emergency Fund
    Professor Ron Aminzade established this fund in 2018 to provide financial support for international graduate students in the case of emergencies which may jeopardize their continuation in the program. 
  • Sociology Undergraduate Research Fellowship Fund
    Recognizes increasingly excellent scholarship, research, and professional participation among our undergraduate majors. Developing sources of funding for undergraduate research has become a high priority in the department.
  • Cooperman Sociology Summer Institute Fund
    Created to honor Professor David Cooperman, this fund encourages faculty in the department to take time from their normal research and teaching duties to expand the traditional boundaries of sociology and incorporate concepts and paradigms from other scientific disciplines.
  • Don Martindale Scholarship Fund
    Established in 1990 in memory of our former colleague, his annual merit award is presented to a graduate student on the basis of her/his excellence in scholarly achievement throughout their graduate career.
  • Anna Welsch Bright Memorial Fund
    Initiated in 1989 by the family of a department alumnus in support of graduate student research. The funds are awarded competitively each year to graduate students for whom the award will make a significant improvement in their research toward their PhD.
  • Barbara Lobodzinska-Lien Sociology Fellowship
    Established in 2019, this fund is to support one or more graduate students doing research in the area of employment and family, with a preference for those fellows working with the Life Course Center.
  • The Kenneth Shimota and Myrtle (Kit) Shimota Scholarship Fund
    Created through a generous bequest from Myrtle (Kit) Shimota, this fund provides a summer of guaranteed financial support for graduate stduents who have successfully completed their preliminary examinations and who have qualified for candidacy to focus on the development of their dissertation prospectus and project.