Columbia needs a social worker to lead The School of Social Work

Not good, Columbia. Not good.

Academia: Sorry, but the traditional structure of "the academy" is antithetical to the ideals of our profession. Where is the outrage against our "social work" faculty who reject and avoid licensue, claiming that they are employed as "faculty," NOT social workers? Where is the concern that so few of our faculty are members of NASW, CSWE, or BPD? And those that are "members" are so minimally involved in the organizations?(Beyond attending conferences paid for by their employers?) Where is the concern that most of our academic leaders have doctorates in "associated disciplines," rather than Social Work? Where is the depth of qualifying experience when the standard to teach practice courses is a mere two years of practice experience? Where is the accountability when our faculty colleagues in social work get away with clearly unethical behaviors such as beligerent bullying, flagrantly falsified self-promotion and academic dishonesty including plaigairism and the theft of intellectual property, with nary a venue for redress or censure from our professions academic organizations? I have persistently taught social work students that it is a part of their professional responsibility to challenge the misdeed and missteps of their employers: electing to promote and strengthen the ethical values and principles of our profession. Even at the risk to personal favor and advancement in troubled environments. Where is our disciplines acclaimed advocacy as we routinely marginize extremely qualified and experience practitioners who seek to join our ranks? Or the outrage when we bring practicing professionals on as "adjunt faculty," (share croppers)at disgraceful salarys? ("If you behave, THIS could all be yours someday.") Yes, I'm disappointed by this act at Colombia University. But not the least surprised.

A social worker should be in charge of the social work program. Columbia should show some respect for our profession.

I dont understand why this leader is not a DSW.

How ridiculous for a non-Social Worker to be appointed as dean of a the School of Social Work. This would be like appointing a civil engineer to be the dean of a medical school. We undermine the value of our degrees and careers as social workers by allowing things like this to occur....

I have been a social worker since 1975, with a doctorate from Berkeley in Social Welfare. I am also the former co-director along with the late James Karls, DSW, of the Person-in-Environment (PIE) classification system which was an effort to establish what is unique about social work as a profession. I am appalled by this decision. Social workers all the time have to deal with people using the title "social worker" in the workplace. This appointment undermines efforts to establish that being a social worker requires a body of specialized knowledge accrued in a social work education program.

I strongly believe that any accredited school of social work should be led by a social worker.

This is completely unacceptable and NASW & CSWE should address this with Columbia,

Thank you for petitioning this. It is essential to our profession.

The appointed person is probably highly qualified to lead another Department, but not the School of Social Work. This is an undeniable embarrassment to the profession and the Columbia School of Social Work. I can't for the life of me understand how this outcome came to be. For clarity sake, I hope this person introduces themselves/says their title but then acknowledges that they are not a Social Worker. I also am concerned for the professors who are being supervised and advised on curriculum standards from someone who is not bound by the NASW code of ethics. I highly suggest NASW and the CSWE look into this.

Becoming a professional social worker requires a great deal of work-no short cuts. Becoming Dean of a prestigious school should not be shot Ted either.

The appointment of a non-social worker to a school of social work diminishes the profession of social work. You would never see a non-medical person be assigned as dean to a medical school.

As a degreed social worker for almost 30 years - I can't believe any University would hire someone without the same degree. Would Columbia University hire a social worker to lead the computer science department? I think not - what a disrespect to the profession and coming from a so called prestigious school. Remove the folks hiring someone without the proper credentials for the Dean of SW.

Professionals need to be lead by professionals of the same profession.

CSWE should not allow this. This seems like a favor given to a friend with clout.

Only a social worker should be Dean of the School of Social Work. Just as you wouldn't appoint a psychologist - no matter how accomplished - to head up a Department of Psychiatry, you need to appointment a social worker to this position.

They cheapened our MSSW degree years ago, when I received an email that Columbia University offered the MSW degree on line. I stopped donating then.

Social work isn't just a profession it is an ethos, a pathos, and a world view not fully understood by those not practicing it first hand. It is also a challenging ethos to practice and live with full integrity and often in the face of ethical conflict. As social workers we need guidance and leadership from social workers who have wrestled first hand with these difficult delimas.

I find it hard to believe that a non-social worker is considered for teh dean's position. It undermines the value of the profession and sends a message that the values and experience we endeavor to develop on our students are not appreciated or valued in the profession and in academia. What standards is the school upholding?

Patricia M. Wallace, LMSW, M.S.S.W 66 Edgewood Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511 203-285-5077 [email protected] MEMO TO: All that signed the petition in opposition to the appointment of a non-social worker to be the Dean of the Columbia University School of Social Work FROM: Pat Wallace RE: Next steps DATE: July 20, 2019 This follow-up communication will go to all of you that agree that this appointment should not be made. It is my intention to send a brief letter to the President of the University, the Chairperson of the Board, and the Executive Director and Board Chair of CSWE. I will enclose the list of signatures and a copy of the comments. Those things are unlikely to result in a reversal of this decision. The question is whether there is anything further that is worth doing. I have not done a force field analysis, which would be a good thing. There are the obvious leverage points. If there are people that want to talk about whether there is a winning strategy that could achieve the goal of stopping the appointment, I would be happy to work with you. I would only want to put energy into this if there was a plan that could achieve the goal. There would have to be a group that wanted to work on it for any such effort to be effective. The new Dean is scheduled to take the position effective September 1. A separate but related question is whether there should be an effort to persuade CSWE to adopt a tougher policy than they have right now to prevent such things for accredited schools (which would be in keeping, potentially, with their first strategic goal if you care to give that a look). Their position is that schools have the right to do this so long as they have someone with appropriate credentials directly overseeing the master’s program. If there are people that want to do work on this, please reply all. I will set up a conference call tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m. (EDT) and send out an agenda. Thanks to everyone