ABSTRACT
Opponents of the college curriculum were influential leaders who simply refused to accept any new departure that ignored the association's traditional mission of taking social science directly to the people. Research-oriented social scientists in the new academic disciplines could use undergraduate programs as vehicles for establishing their claim on social science and recruiting students for graduate school. When the amateurs failed to mount an effective campaign for their problem-oriented approach to social science while conditions were still fluid, the American Social Science Association (ASSA) simply missed the best opportunity to proselytize for its practical, melioristic perspective. In 1886, after a desultory discussion that concealed the disagreement on goals, a rump group at a poorly attended business meeting passed a vague resolution agreeing that the time had come to extend social science instruction and urging the association to circulate information to colleges and universities.
