James Wood, 2007

Jim Wood, San Diego State

Jim Wood passed away on Wednesday April 18th. He joined the San Diego State faculty in 1974 after receiving his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, studying under Neil Smelser. He served as department chair for many years, and he was instrumental in organizing the resistance in 1992 to threatened faculty layoffs and firings at San Diego Sate and in the sociology department. At the end of over 180 days of faculty and student protests, the chancellor instructed the president of San Diego State, Tom Day, to retract the layoff letters. Jim Wood was as responsible as anyone for this victory.

Jim was also a loyal and active member of the Pacific Sociological Association. He presented his first PSA paper at the conference held in San Jose in March of 1974. It was titled "Ideology, Social Structure and Student Protest." He regularly organized sessions dealing with various aspects of higher education--threats to tenure, financial issues and funding, and prospects for higher education in the 21st century. In addition he presented many papers over the years, among some of the most recent "Higher Education Funding in Comparative Perspective" in 1997; "University Crisis and Professional Organizations" in 1998; and "A Comparative Analysis of Tenure Procedures in Universities, Law Schools, and Medical Schools" in 2003. In 1998, working with Charles Hohm, he edited a special issue of Sociological Perspectives, “The Academy Under Siege,” which dealt with issues in higher education. For the 2007 meeting in Oakland, Jim organized a session on "Sociology and Higher Education." He was unable to attend the conference, but was responsible to the very end, sending an email to the participants on the eve of the conference informing them that he would miss seeing them, listening to their papers, and joining the discussion. He also served on several program committees during his long involvement with the association. He was a consummate supporter of the PSA and will be greatly missed at the annual meetings.