Society profile: SCS

Each year, UTM adds a few new academic societies and more than a few new clubs to its roster. One new society is the Sociology and Criminology Society, created for Sociology and Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies students.

SCS has so far been visible at three different events: the Frosh Week Carnival, Clubs Week, and its own meet and greet, held on September 20 in the Faculty Lounge in the Davis Building.

Though SCS is a revival of the Sociology and Criminology Students’ Union, which had been inactive for the last few years, SCS has clearly made the effort to be a unique and “serious” society. Last August, the executive team, composed of Rawan Abdelbaki (president), Fontaine Choy (VP Internal), Syed Gilani (VP External), and Larissa Ho (VP Finance), wrote a new constitution from scratch.

The SCS executives have been working hard at fulfilling its list of upcoming events for the 2011–12 academic year.

“As an academic society,” said Abdelbaki, “we strive to create top-notch academic events that simultaneously facilitate student and faculty interaction. I am particularly excited about the launch of our annual Lecture Series.”

This year, SCS will feature professor Joshua Page from the University of Minnesota, who will be giving a talk at UTM about prisons in Canada and the United States.

“Not only is this an interesting topic,” commented Abdelbaki, “but it also paves the way for our student body to meet faculty outside our institution.”

Other invents include a graduate school workshop, an end-of-year-social, and facilitated study groups for the following required courses for Sociology and Criminology and Socio-Legal Studies students: Introductory to Sociology, Current Issues in Law and Criminology, The Logic of Social Inquiry, and Measuring Society.

With the executive team working hard at making these events a reality, it remains to be seen whether students will come out to this new society’s events or not.

“What I would like to emphasize here is the importance of being part of something—a club, a society, a team, just something. Not only do you get to learn new skills, but as you proceed you begin to feel a sense of belonging and accomplishment,” said Abdelbaki. “There are plenty of opportunities for students to get involved here on campus, and often we get too busy to actively pursue or learn about those opportunities.”