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The paper presents the address given by the author during the general session of the Midwest Sociological Society's 25th anniversary meeting on April 13, 1962, in Des Moines, Iowa. It discusses the author's experience with the society and his participation in its previous annual conferences. During his term as secretary of the society he has observed the changes in the structure and the functions of the society since its reorganization in 1937. The most important phenomenon having implications for a regional society is the decline in regionalism of American sociology. Regionalism, in the sense that it existed in 1937 has disappeared. The birth of the society have a significant impact on the origins of modern American sociology. The educational institutions established by notable members of the society have contributed to the production of doctor of philosophy degree in sociology.

The article presents information on a survey within the eleven Southeastern States of the introductory sociology course in U.S. The purpose of the study was twofold: (1) to provide a general factual description of the situation of the introductory sociology course within the Southeastern states and (2) to provide a technique for stimulating interest in one's common problems as teachers. This paper briefly presents the results of the survey. A general social science course is available to freshmen or sophomores in 41 percent of Southeastern institutions. Of these, only two-fifths require that the course be taken by all students in the college. This indicates that the burden of responsibility of the introductory course by no means has shifted to the general social science course. The survey presented 18 objectives of the course for the respondents to rate along a three-point continuum, as very important, of some significance, or as unimportant. One respondent demonstrated the logical interrelation of all 18 objectives, showing that all comprise the fundamental aim of "understanding the society in which the student lives" and that by implication all are involved in the learning process.

Several efforts have been made in recent years to analyze the sociology curricula of colleges in the United States. In 1942, the ten courses ranking highest made up 64.2 per cent of the course offerings. The 1957 results showed that the same courses, with two exceptions, ranked highest, though with different ranks. The present study sought to learn what sociology courses are being offered by the small liberal arts colleges of the United States listed in the 1963 edition of the "U.S. Higher Education Directory" as being in the second category and having a student population of 1,000 to 2,500. Some colleges did not send catalogs, and some did not send them soon enough to be included, so 122 colleges were actually used in the study. It is unlikely that any significant bias could have been introduced by the omissions, as failures to obtain catalogs were in no way related to the content of the study. Classification of courses was made by title wherever possible, and by catalog description where necessary to obtain more accurate comparability of offerings. Courses were tabulated by geographical location, size of college, sex of student body, and college sponsorship.