[media-credit name=’HALEY VAN DYCK/Herald Photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Echoes of the past reverberated through the building formerly known as Social Sciences as the late sociology scholar William H. Sewell was honored at a renaming ceremony Friday.
Renamed William H. Sewell Social Sciences, the building now commemorates the life and works of the former University of Wisconsin sociology professor and chancellor.
Sewell began his career at UW in 1946 and transitioned to chair of the Department of Rural Sociology from 1949 through 1953 and also of the Department of Sociology from 1958 through 1962. He later served as chair of the University Committee, which is concerned with educational policies of UW, and as chancellor from October 1967 to June 1968.
Adam Gamoran, former chair of the sociology department, said Sewell paved the way for social science research across the nation.
"He's one of the leading social sciences professors of the twentieth century; he served on the faculty for over 50 years," Gamoran said. "He was a highly respected scholar who brought an important scientific approach to social science."
As a former colleague, College of Letters and Science Dean Gary Sandefur said he met Sewell in 1974 and saw the vivacity with which he conducted his studies.
"He was always very engaged in the social sciences and thought of it as a science," he said. "He thought there needed to be a very rigorous approach to how [students] tried to study society and social problems"
Along with Sewell's profound scholarly studies, he also worked tirelessly to secure funding from large science organizations to ensure social science research was on par with other scientific research.
"He had profound implications both within Wisconsin, and across the nation, bringing legitimacy of social science as a science," Gamoran said. "He worked to get National Science Association funding for research alongside other sciences like biology."
Sewell collaborated with several faculty members still holding positions at UW, including sociology professor Robert Hauser, who said Sewell kept studying societal issues long into his 91-year life.
"I collaborated with him from when I started in 1969 until he died in June 2001," he said. "We continued to collaborate after he retired for 20 years; he retained his interest in sociology until the day he died."
One of Sewell's marquee works, the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study of 1957, is still ongoing as possibly the longest in-progress social science survey in the U.S., Gamoran said. He added the study has paved the way for the research of education on a long-term path.
"It is a very long-term study with approximately 10,000 men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957, which has been going for almost 50 years," Hauser said. "We have followed their education, occupational careers, family and health."
Sewell also took on the challenging position of UW chancellor for one year in 1967 at the height of the campus unrest during the Vietnam War.
"He was sympathetic to the students because he opposed the war; but at the same time his job was to keep control of the university, which put him in a difficult position," Gamoran said.
Gameron also noted Sewell stood for fair treatment of activists during the tumultuous time by defending the many opinions circulating throughout campus.
"He did something very brave when he was called to the state Legislature," he said. "[It] wanted him to fire activist faculty and expel students, [and] his response was that he wasn't going to just fire them, but rather, that they would all get due process."