The Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) program, which began at Washington University in 1972, has been granted departmental status. Professor Mary Ann Dzuback, who was previously the director of the WGGS program, has been appointed as the chair of the new department.

Monday will be the first day in nearly 25 years that students will have the opportunity to enroll in classes with the Department of Sociology.
In 1991 the Department of Sociology was disbanded at Washington University due to reasons disclosed by Claire Navarro, managing editor of A&S Magazine, including competing departmental priorities and even a physical altercation between a sociology chair and a graduate student.