Your rights as a student are posted on this page of the site as well as in the Student Field Manual. 

THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS FROM THE STUDENT HANDBOOK. 

 You are entitled to a copy of this document and can obtain one by asking the Social Work secretary in the Social Work office. 

Social work is a profession of many faces in that it is often described as an "art" and a science. It is an art in that not everyone can be an effective social worker. It not only takes knowledge of the field but values and personal characteristics that are conducive for helping all people in need.

Social work is a very diverse field in that social workers practice in many different fields of service and with diverse problem situations. In general, social work is a profession that enables individuals to enhance their own development by working with individuals, families, groups, and communities in a variety of roles and settings.

As an undergraduate in this program you will be trained as a generalist practitioner working with diverse populations. The Social Work Program’s mission is to provide quality education to social work students enabling them to become competent, beginning level, generalist practitioners. Our mission is consistent with the University’s mission of providing an accessible, quality education to students from a wide variety of ethnic, socio-economic, and academic backgrounds.

We believe education in social work goes beyond mere training in that education develops critical thinking skills and enhances student abilities to analyze, evaluate and synthesize concepts and ideas. We also believe that social work education is responsible for socializing students to the values and ethics of the profession and therefore must guide students in the incorporation of these values and attitudes who are flexible and culturally competent enabling them to practice with diverse population groups.

At the completion of the program you should have obtained the basic knowledge and skills of a beginning social work practitioner who has been socialized into the values and ethics of the profession. In light of these principles, the goals of the Social Work program are to prepare beginning level social work practitioners who:

Your Bachelor of Arts in Social Work will provide many challenging career opportunities in working with people. Social Workers engage in practice with individuals, families, groups, and communities representing a cross-section of all ages and various cultural, social and economic backgrounds. In this field you will be able to work in a variety of settings such as: social welfare institutions, community service agencies, child welfare agencies, hospitals, and nursing homes, to name a few possibilities.

Your Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work will also enable you to enter graduate school in Social Work. As a graduate from our program which is accredited by the Council of Social Work Education some students may be able to enter a graduate program with "advanced" standing offering the possibility of completing a Master in Social Work degree in one year. You will have to apply to the appropriate school offering advanced social work standing and be accepted into the program. In general the graduate programs require grades of B or better in all social work courses and a field placement that provides advanced experiences. Please note that not all graduate programs in Social Work offer advanced standing. These programs offer a two year masters degree program.

One of the major strengths of the Social Work Program is the diversity of both faculty and students; this diverse composition challenges faculty to deal directly with differences and to recognize the commonalties that also exists. The students in the program are 63% minority. Of these 29% are Black, 30.1% are Hispanic and 3.9% are Asian. The majority of the social work student body is comprised of women who make up 85% of the student body. However, we have seen an increase of males in the Program to 15% of the student body.

There are Program committees on which faculty serve which are important to all social work students: 1) The Admissions committee which is responsible for admitting students into the major; 2) The Field Instruction Committee which includes: The Field Liaison, the Coordinator of Research, the Social Work Program Director, and one additional faculty member. It is this committee's responsibility to develop policy for the field component and to evaluate field student complaints.

The program also has an Advisory Committee made up of persons within as well as outside the program. The purpose of this committee is to maintain a linkage with the community and to involve these persons in the further development and enhancement of our program. This committee consists of the Field Liaison, one other faculty from the social work program, a faculty member outside the program, one currently enrolled student, one alumnus, three Field Instructors, and two community persons.

Students who are interested in becoming a social work major or minor need to apply to the Social Work Program. As a candidate for admission to the major, the Admissions Committee assesses a student as to their suitability for a career in social work.

Students in good standing within the University may apply for admission to the Social Work Program while they are enrolled in the Introduction to Social Work course or upon successful completion of this course, or a course of equivalent content for transfer students. The application for the major requests the following information:

After the student has submitted the application, the student's transcripts are requested. At the initial interview with one member of the Admissions Committee, the transcripts are reviewed and a tentative plan for course completion is developed. In the second interview with the Admission Committee the application materials are assessed to judge the student's potential for completing a professional program and for any special needs.

Admission requirements for entry into the social work major are:

*If a person has been convicted of a felony, this is explored and it is explained to the prospective major that certain kinds of field placements require checks which may make them ineligible to work in those agencies thus limiting their options. This conviction may also affect one’s ability to be licensed by the state. In Illinois, experience of other programs tells us that the Committee evaluates each case on an individual basis. Several students in other programs have been able to take the licensing exam although they are convicted felons.

Based on the interview, the candidate may be provisionally admitted to the major pending successful compliance with additional requirements the faculty deem appropriate. A student has the right to appeal this decision through the appropriate procedures outlined in the grievance section of this document.

Since there are fairly well established articulation criteria for the courses in the Liberal Arts Support courses which double as University General Education courses in several instances, the acceptance by the University of Biology 100, Macro Economics 215, Cultural Anthropology 212, Introduction to Sociology 100, Psychology 100 and Psychology 110-Life Span Development are usually recognized by the Social Work Program. In terms of Biology 100, content is explored to assure that there is human biology content in the course.

With respect to the courses required in the major, there is closer scrutiny. The acceptance of SWK-200-Introduction to Social Work requires a catalog description, text, or syllabus, and assignments to assure that the content is sufficiently similar to what we offer. The only other course that is usually accepted is one that may be accepted to fulfill the requirement of a pre-practice elective. Other courses must be taken from our own curriculum. In the rare cases of students transferring from other accredited programs we evaluate each course through the use of syllabi to assure comparable content. We however will not accept transfer credit for a second Human Behavior and Social Environment course or second Practice course because the structure of our program demands that the student be in attendance in those courses in order to have adequate material to complete the pre-field student assessments. Faculty require sufficient experience with the student to be able to assess their readiness to enter the field practicum.

Credit for Life Experience and/or previous work experience is not accepted to fulfill any of the required course content in the curriculum. This is specifically stated in the Student Handbook.

Each student accepted into the Program is assigned a tenure track faculty member as his or her advisor. The advisor is responsible for making sure that the student is completing the program as planned and is consulted whenever the student finds it necessary to make a change in the sequence that the courses are being completed in. This is so the student is aware that these changes the projected date of graduation and may make them ineligible to move on to the next course in the sequence. It is also a time when it is reinforced to the student that the program has a curriculum that must be followed in order that they are fully prepared to work with the content at subsequent levels.

A student may be terminated from the department in cases when: 1) he/she does not fulfill the academic requirements; and 2) he/she engages in unprofessional behavior.

Initiation of possible termination of the student within a field placement may occur on the part of the school, agency, or student. If all parties involved agree then the outcome is finalized. If however, there continues to be a discrepancy between these parties, the Field Experience Committee evaluates and recommends a resolution of the differences. In situations where the student is not at fault, alternate placement will be secured and the committee will determine the number of hours the student needs to complete to fulfill the requirements. In all cases the student must complete the 256 hours per term. In some cases where the student has been placed in a new agency they might not receive all hours worked in the previous placement. In situations that are personal issues of a temporary nature, delays in completion of field experience may be suggested. In all cases, major violations of ethical behavior will be grounds for dismissal from the field placement and the major. When a student does not agree with the termination decision, the student has the right to appeal this decision through the grievance procedures described previously.

Procedures for assessment of a student’s performance vary from course to course. The instructor of the class will inform the student of the assessment procedure via the syllabus or in writing if there are changes subsequent to the distribution of the syllabus. The individual instructor will determine the grade the student receives in accordance with the guidelines stipulated in the university catalogue under the section "Academic Regulations" and the subsection "Grading System".

The other procedures for assessment of student performance for Social Work majors are an assessment of student’s performance by all faculty. This assessment is done on each student to determine their strengths and weaknesses in performing their duties as a Generalist Social Work Student at the beginning level of practice prior to entering field placement. This assessment is used to help the Field Coordinator, the field Instructor and the student determine the student’s readiness and suitability for field placement. A final assessment is conducted upon completion of program requirements. This becomes the basis for graduate school, employment and other references. All assessments are shared with the student at each point in the process.

Students are expected at all times to behave in an ethical manner and show proper behavior at all times. This means that students are to adhere to the standard of behavior presented in the NASW Code of Ethics with an attitude consistent with social work values of positive regard for others. A copy of the NASW Code of Ethics is in most of the text books used in the social work courses. A copy is also available to you upon request in the social work office and on the Internet at: WWW. National Association of Social Workers. Com. The NASW Code of Ethics is too lengthily to provide a copy in this handbook. However, it is expected that every social work major respect client confidentiality of clients, peers and collogues.

In classes, students are expected to have regular and on-time attendance. If a problem arises, you are expected to contact the Professor directly about the problem. Please refer to the University’s Student Handbook for further explanation of appropriate academic and non-academic behaviors.