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The School of
Social Work
The mission of the School of Social Work is to prepare competent and effective social workers by providing a research-based curriculum guided by professional knowledge, skills, values and ethics. The School of Social Work is committed to lifelong learning through its academic and continuing education programs valuing social and economic justice focused on service to diverse populations. The School of Social Work was established as the Graduate School of Social Work in 1967 by an act of the Texas Legislature. It became the School of Social Work in 1991 when the University's undergraduate social work program in the College of Liberal Arts merged with the school's graduate program. Currently, the school offers three programs of study: the Ph.D. in Social Work, the Master of Science in Social Work and the Bachelor of Social Work. The Ph.D. program offers an international dual-degree specialty in comparative social-welfare policy with the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, in Monterrey, Mexico.The school provides training, counseling, consultation and research through its four active adjunct centers: the Judith Granger Birmingham Center for Child Welfare, the Community Service Clinic, the Community Services Development Center and the Center for Research, Evaluation and Technology. Its Professional Development Program conducts training and development seminars for professional social workers that provide the continuing education units necessary for license renewals. The school attracts and graduates more students than most of the other social work programs in the nation. More than 3,700 students have earned degrees at the school and many hold key management positions in public agencies and nonprofit organizations nationwide. Currently, SSW has a diverse student body of approximately 1,000 students. Many of these students also hold full- or part-time positions in public agencies and nonprofit organizations. One distinguishing feature of the school is its location in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a rich urban laboratory of more than 150 cities with a total population of approximately 4.5 million. This complex social arena offers a wide array of opportunities for student projects, field placements and employment. Social work faculty, staff and students work on "real-life" social problems in cooperation with city governments, public agencies and nonprofit organizations. The School of Social Work has one of only four fully accredited MSSW programs in Texas. Its MSSW and BSW programs are both accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, which accredits master's- and bachelor's-level programs. Accreditation is an important consideration for students because many professional social work positions require a degree from a CSWE-accredited program. Scholastic Activity and Research Interests of the Faculty School of Social Work faculty engage in research and community-service projects that enhance the effectiveness and justify the programs of public and nonprofit social-service organizations, that promote social justice and equality, and that extend the body of knowledge about social issues. Typical projects include evaluations of state and federal child-welfare and community-service programs, cross-cultural adaptations to mental-health treatments, studies of exceptional social behavior, such as gang violence, and reports on the extent and quality of specific social services in the local community. Faculty research takes either a direct practice or an administrative/community practice approach. Although much research is done for the benefit of social-service organizations that lack the expertise and resources to conduct their own studies, it also includes applied research that is published in national journals, reference and text books. Research topics span the broad range of social-work issues, including feminist theory, minority rights, child abuse, mental illness, ethics, aging, sexual abuse, community development, lesbians and gay men, marital therapy, violence and social policy, to name a few. Among the most important faculty accomplishments from 1994-96 were the development of an international doctoral program specialty in comparative social policy with La Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, in Monterrey, Mexico; appointment of an associate professor as a Child Welfare Fellow by the U.S. Children's Bureau; a two-year federal grant of $255,000 for a community-policing program evaluation; a federal grant of almost $1.2 million for an Americorps program; a federal grant of more than $2.4 million for a child-welfare center; and two four-year grants totaling more than $284,000 from the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services for graduate distance-education programs at West Texas A&M University, in Canyon and at the University of Texas at Tyler. Special Programs and Opportunities The School of Social Work offers training, research and service opportunities to faculty and students through its four active centers. The Judith Granger Birmingham Center for Child Welfare provides support and graduate training to current and potential child-welfare workers, and it supports faculty and student research on child-welfare issues. The Community Services Development Center provides organization, planning, evaluation and research services for the surrounding communities. CSDC student interns conduct needs assessments, write grant proposals, design new programs, conduct developmental research and organize action groups. The Community Service Clinic provides affordable counseling, training for graduate students in clinical research and intervention technology, and research opportunities in social work practice. The Center for Research, Evaluation and Technology involves students and faculty in program evaluations for local social service agencies and in the development of new and innovative ways to support human services practice. The school's Professional Development Program provides continuing education seminars for social work practitioners and other human service professionals. The seminars are taught by professionals and provide the continuing education units necessary for certain license renewals. Depending upon demand and resources, the school is responsive to requests from the community for MSSW programs taught in cooperation with other universities at remote locations across the state. Generally, these distance education programs allow students to complete two years, part time, at selected remote campuses, and one year, full time, in residency at UTA. More than 300 students have graduated from such programs in the last 20 years. These programs have been taught at seven universities across the state. The school hosts a Guest Lecture Series which features professors, researchers, clinicians and national program directors, all experts in their fields. The series serves as an educational forum on social-work issues. The School of Social Work currently offers three programs of study: the Ph.D. in Social Work, the Master of Science in Social Work and the Bachelor of Social Work. The Ph.D. program offers a specialty in comparative social policy, in collaboration with La Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, that is taught in both Texas and Mexico and that requires fluency in both English and Spanish. Degrees are awarded from both universities. The school also participates in dual-degree programs with the School of Nursing, the School of Urban and Public Affairs, the Sociology Program, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program. Ph.D. in Social Work |
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