CLAS consistently endeavors to promote student retention and success by increasing student access to advising opportunities and encouraging faculty to be supportive of student academic needs. The Sociology Department on an annual basis reviews its strategy for meeting student needs and constantly makes adjustments to that end.

CHSIR serves as an anchor to support faculty research and the graduate program. It promotes collaborative as well as interdisciplinary research with partners across PSU, the region and nationally to advance understanding of how social institutions and processes facilitate or impede the health and well-being of all groups. CHSIR provides a mechanism that attracts substantial increases in funded research in issues of immediate relevance to the region and nationally: health, health care access and quality; new immigrants and barriers to their assimilation; educational attainment for specific populations, neighborhood level gentrification and race relations; and social and environmental sustainability.