Department Honors and Awards

​This award, honoring the late Jan Burrows, a doctoral candidate in Sociology, is awarded annually by graduate students to a faculty member who has made a significant contribution to students’ socialization for the discipline.

Benjamin McLuckie was an Assistant Professor of Sociology in our department before his untimely death in 1975.  After a brief career as a Presbyterian minister, he returned to graduate school and earned a Ph.D. degree in Sociology, determined to do research and teach the discipline that he loved.  He was an outstanding undergraduate teacher, dedicated to his students and capable of getting the very best out of them.  Known for his humanity and integrity, he served as a role model for both his colleagues and his students.  After his death, his family and friends created the Benjamin McLuckie Award to honor his memory and to recognize outstanding senior Sociology majors who exemplify the qualities represented by Professor McLuckie’s life and work.  The recipients are selected on the basis of scholarship, service, and character.

​Len Perfetti was a criminal justice major and also a varsity football player for the Blue Hens who began his college career in 1974. In 1977 he was diagnosed with an inoperable cancer of the lymphatic system. After extensive chemotherapy, he returned to the university in the spring of 1978, despite the fact that his condition was steadily worsening. That semester he earned a 3.77 and continued to volunteer a great deal of time working with juvenile offenders. In the summer of 1978 he was repeatedly hospitalized and underwent chemotherapy sessions at Sloan-Kettering in New York. In the fall he still enrolled for the last 12 credits that he needed to complete his B.A. in Criminal Justice, making arrangements with his professors to complete his required course work from his hospital bed. When he died at the age of 22 in November 1978, he had completed all of his course work required for his degree. Faculty members were so impressed by Len’s courage, tenacity, commitment to volunteerism, and his relentless pursuit of excellence that they created the Len Perfetti Award in his honor. The recipient of this award, a senior Criminal Justice major, is selected on the basis of scholarship, service, and character.

​This award is presented annually to an outstanding graduate student in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. The Frank Scarpitti Graduate Student Award was created in 2006 through a generous donation made by Dr. Frank and Mrs. Ellen Scarpitti. Dr. Scarpitti’s reputation as a leading scholar in the fields of Sociology and Criminology is matched by his excellence in teaching as well as service to the department, the University, the discipline and the community. This award serves to highlight Frank’s accomplishments and demonstrates our commitment to recognizing the excellence of our graduate students. The recipient of this award is selected by the Graduate Policy Committee with nominations from faculty and scientists in the Department and at the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies and the Disaster Research Center.

The Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice is pleased to offer the Graduate Student Summer Award program. This competitive award program, open to all full-time Masters and Doctoral students in the department, provides monetary support for summer research and/or teaching activities. Funds may be used for travel, research costs, and other expenses directly related to the proposed activities. Activities may include but are not limited to: research projects; attendance at research institutes (e.g., Institute for Social Research); presentations at conferences and other professional venues or teaching initiatives

​The Ken Haas Outstanding Alumni Award is given each year to a graduate of the Department of Sociology & Criminal Justice who has made major contributions to their profession or their community. The award honors Professor Haas’s five-decade commitment to education and the promotion of public service among our students. The recipient may have earned either an undergraduate or graduate degree from the program and either may be an individual of already considerable accomplishment or a more recent graduate who shows great promise.​