To Dean Amanda Moore McBride and the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work Administrators,
As students, alumni, and faculty of the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work, we write to call attention to the need for GSSW students to be paid for their field work. Using our experiences as an example, we hope to shed light on the urgent problem of unpaid field work.
Being required to complete nearly one thousand hours of field work without any expectation of pay on top of the time we devote to our coursework leaves little room to support our living expenses with part-time work. Students are unable to devote equal attention to our occupational or educational lives without minimizing one of these areas, reducing our capacity to meaningfully contribute to the GSSW community.
The NASW Code of Ethics (2021) and its core values of social justice, dignity and worth of the person, and the importance of human relationships stand as reasoning for our current efforts. Paid field work supports each of these values by telling social work students that their contributions to their field sites are valuable. Unpaid field work does the opposite: it devalues not just MSW students’ work, but the work of the entire social work profession, compromising the NASW ethical values of integrity and competence.
For these reasons, we request to convene a task force comprised of GSSW administrators and students that would research the issue of securing funding for our field placements and to report its results publicly. This research should investigate social work programs that find funding for students’ field placements, and other programs at DU whose students are paid for required internships, with the intention for the GSSW to adopt these practices.
We the undersigned students, faculty, and alumni urge this task force to convene and publicly report its results to the GSSW student body, staff, and administration prior to the end of the 2023 Winter Quarter and implement an equitable compensation program prior to the beginning of the 2023 Autumn Quarter. We also ask that at least two organizers of the Payment for Placements Initiative be included on this task force. Our initiative will assist in guiding the efforts to ensure that the task force is created.
We kindly anticipate a response by the end of December 2022. In the meantime, the organizers of University of Denver’s Payment for Placements Chapter would be happy to meet to discuss our concerns. We can be reached at ([email protected]).
Respectfully,
Payment for Placements at DU
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
December 20, 2022
November 11, 2022
We hit one hundred signatures today. Take this link and text it to three classmates right now to keep the pressure on the administration.
Reached 100 supporters
November 8, 2022
November 5, 2022
We are approaching one hundred signatures and need to push through that number to get the attention of the administration at the Graduate School of Social Work. Please post the petition link on your Facebook page today to keep our momentum going. Text three of your fellow MSW students now and ask them to sign before the end of the day.
33 Comments
It is more expensive to obtain an MSW at DU than it is to obtain an MBA, this can entirely be attributed to the fact that we pay for hourly credits for free labor. At the absolute *very least* we should be compensated for our work.
I am an RN who values the complementary perspective that social workers bring to patient, client and community care. Social work students should be paid a living wage for their valuable labor. According to MIT's Living Wage Study, living wage for a single childless adult is $19.62/hr and $38.42 for a single parent with one child. Underpaying social workers contributes to social worker burnout and lack of continuity in patient/client care, which drives worse clinical outcomes and social workers leaving the profession.
GSSW's Payment for Placements initiative is a concept we support. Currently students are required to get field experience to graduate, but are not getting compensation and actually have to pay for their field hours. Many students have to get part time jobs on top of being a full time student and putting in an average of 15 hours a week towards their field placements to pay for necessities like groceries and rent. 350 Colorado is a non-profit with interns from du's gssw program that deserve to get compensated for their field work. Thank you.
I have been struggling with classes, and job and an internship on top of everything. I can’t return to classes until I save enough for rent and other basics (even after aid), and even then I’ll be squeezing by on bills. Why don’t we get compensated for our internship work? Right now we are literally paying you to work and receiving nothing in return. Not even experience because most of the “approved agencies” aren’t even teaching us anything. Just wasting our time. Give us compensation for our time and efforts so I can return to classes!!
I have no days off because I have classes, practicum, and I have to work on the days I’m not doing those things because I have bills to pay and loans don’t cover everything. School is not the only thing people have going on. I am overworked, over stressed, and often have to give up things like sleep and self care in order to fit my homework and asynchronous work in. I am also giving up hours that I could be making money and decreasing financial strain by having to go to my practicum. Free labor does not seem to be in the spirit of social work and the changes social work is making to try and mitigate burnout and emphasize “self care/squad care.”
This move is critical to achieving greater equity and diversity in our profession and in the communities we serve.
This is necessary!
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To Dean Amanda Moore McBride and the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work Administrators,
As students, alumni, and faculty of the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work, we write to call attention to the need for GSSW students to be paid for their field work. Using our experiences as an example, we hope to shed light on the urgent problem of unpaid field work.
Being required to complete nearly one thousand hours of field work without any expectation of pay on top of the time we devote to our coursework leaves little room to support our living expenses with part-time work. Students are unable to devote equal attention to our occupational or educational lives without minimizing one of these areas, reducing our capacity to meaningfully contribute to the GSSW community.
The NASW Code of Ethics (2021) and its core values of social justice, dignity and worth of the person, and the importance of human relationships stand as reasoning for our current efforts. Paid field work supports each of these values by telling social work students that their contributions to their field sites are valuable. Unpaid field work does the opposite: it devalues not just MSW students’ work, but the work of the entire social work profession, compromising the NASW ethical values of integrity and competence.
For these reasons, we request to convene a task force comprised of GSSW administrators and students that would research the issue of securing funding for our field placements and to report its results publicly. This research should investigate social work programs that find funding for students’ field placements, and other programs at DU whose students are paid for required internships, with the intention for the GSSW to adopt these practices.
We the undersigned students, faculty, and alumni urge this task force to convene and publicly report its results to the GSSW student body, staff, and administration prior to the end of the 2023 Winter Quarter and implement an equitable compensation program prior to the beginning of the 2023 Autumn Quarter. We also ask that at least two organizers of the Payment for Placements Initiative be included on this task force. Our initiative will assist in guiding the efforts to ensure that the task force is created.
We kindly anticipate a response by the end of December 2022. In the meantime, the organizers of University of Denver’s Payment for Placements Chapter would be happy to meet to discuss our concerns. We can be reached at ([email protected]).
Respectfully,
Payment for Placements at DU
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
December 20, 2022
November 11, 2022
We hit one hundred signatures today. Take this link and text it to three classmates right now to keep the pressure on the administration.
Reached 100 supporters
November 8, 2022
November 5, 2022
We are approaching one hundred signatures and need to push through that number to get the attention of the administration at the Graduate School of Social Work. Please post the petition link on your Facebook page today to keep our momentum going. Text three of your fellow MSW students now and ask them to sign before the end of the day.
33 Comments
In my field placement, I find that I’m doing a lot of the same work as the social workers getting paid, and sometimes I’m doing more. I’m doing this while maintaining a full course load and working about 30 hours a week. We should be paid for placement.
It is more expensive to obtain an MSW at DU than it is to obtain an MBA, this can entirely be attributed to the fact that we pay for hourly credits for free labor. At the absolute *very least* we should be compensated for our work.
I am an RN who values the complementary perspective that social workers bring to patient, client and community care. Social work students should be paid a living wage for their valuable labor. According to MIT's Living Wage Study, living wage for a single childless adult is $19.62/hr and $38.42 for a single parent with one child. Underpaying social workers contributes to social worker burnout and lack of continuity in patient/client care, which drives worse clinical outcomes and social workers leaving the profession.
GSSW's Payment for Placements initiative is a concept we support. Currently students are required to get field experience to graduate, but are not getting compensation and actually have to pay for their field hours. Many students have to get part time jobs on top of being a full time student and putting in an average of 15 hours a week towards their field placements to pay for necessities like groceries and rent. 350 Colorado is a non-profit with interns from du's gssw program that deserve to get compensated for their field work. Thank you.
I have been struggling with classes, and job and an internship on top of everything. I can’t return to classes until I save enough for rent and other basics (even after aid), and even then I’ll be squeezing by on bills. Why don’t we get compensated for our internship work? Right now we are literally paying you to work and receiving nothing in return. Not even experience because most of the “approved agencies” aren’t even teaching us anything. Just wasting our time. Give us compensation for our time and efforts so I can return to classes!!
I have no days off because I have classes, practicum, and I have to work on the days I’m not doing those things because I have bills to pay and loans don’t cover everything. School is not the only thing people have going on. I am overworked, over stressed, and often have to give up things like sleep and self care in order to fit my homework and asynchronous work in. I am also giving up hours that I could be making money and decreasing financial strain by having to go to my practicum. Free labor does not seem to be in the spirit of social work and the changes social work is making to try and mitigate burnout and emphasize “self care/squad care.”
This move is critical to achieving greater equity and diversity in our profession and in the communities we serve.
This is necessary!
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In my field placement, I find that I’m doing a lot of the same work as the social workers getting paid, and sometimes I’m doing more. I’m doing this while maintaining a full course load and working about 30 hours a week. We should be paid for placement.