2.    University Committee on Undergraduate Education Response

UCUI Response to the Proposal for a BSW degree

The committee members commented on the importance of and need for such a program. The consensus was that the program would be a great addition to Oakland University.  The committee also found this to be an exceptionally well-written proposal that followed the guidelines and included all relevant areas.  The proposal was so well done that UCUI would like to consider using it as an example for other units preparing to write new program proposals. 

 Questions that UCUI would like to have answered prior to Senate review:

1. Given that the curriculum requires 400 clock hours of field experience, will there be any problem finding placement locations for students since Wayne State University also has a program in Southeast Michigan?

2. Is there a minimum GPA for SW 210 or only the overall GPA requirement for admissions?

Suggestions for the department to consider:

1.UCUI suggests that the department consider adding a Communications course given that communications is mentioned as an important objective.

2. If the concentration in social work is to be eliminated when the BSW begins, UCUI encourages that a minor in social work be created as soon as possible to accommodate students who would still be interested in taking less than a full degree.  For example, BGS students.

3.  Senate Budget Committee Report

The Senate Budget Review Committee believes that the proposed Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Program has significant advantages to students and the university. However, an incremental budget needs to be constructed that only includes incremental revenue from the number of additional students who go to Oakland University as a result of the program and would not have attended Oakland University. For example, the existing Social Work majors would undoubtedly enter the BSW program (and benefit significantly and concretely from it), but they do not represent incremental students. Thus, at the minimum, the number of existing Social Work majors should be subtracted from the gross numbers that seem to be used in the existing gross budget (and the number of existing Social Work majors needs to be clearly listed). While there is evidence that additional incremental students would come to Oakland University as a result of the BSW program, it is also quite likely that a significant number of students who would be at Oakland University anyway and be majoring in something else like Sociology will enter the BSW program, and it would be necessary to estimate such numbers to construct a realistic incremental budget. Increasing the revenues and costs for an estimated 3% annual future inflation rate (as implied from recent Treasury bond prices) would make the incremental budget more accurate.

It is recognized (and well pointed out in the proposal) that a BSW program provides substantial benefits to existing Social Work majors, as well as potentially to other students who would merely choose the BSW program over some other major but might not make it crucial in their decision to come to Oakland University. As a result, the likely sizeable net incremental costs of the program should be weighed against such benefits. To evaluate the total importance of such benefits, it would be useful to know what portion of existing Social Work majors normally go to graduate school in Social Work or at least apply to graduate school.
 

4.  Senate Planning Review Committee Report

January 20, 2007

The Senate Planning & Review Committee (SPRC) reviewed the proposal for a new Bachelor of Social Work degree program. The following report is submitted to the University Senate on this proposal.

This proposal is submitted by the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology/Anthropology. If approved, this program would lead to a bachelor�s degree in social work, permit the program to be eligible for accreditation and also qualify students for a MSW program.

Strengths
This proposal is consistent with the mission of Oakland University, in that it will provide excellent and relevant instruction and is responsive to the needs of the community. It is also expected to extend research in the area of human services and related issues. Because this program will prepare students to work in the area of human services, the community service mission of the university will also be fulfilled by this degree program. The goals of the program are also consistent with the mission of the university.

Support for this degree has been documented through a survey conducted in courses taught at Oakland and Macomb Community Colleges. More than half of students surveyed indicated interest in the BSW. Support for this program has also been provided by other colleges/universities and various social service agencies in the tri-county area.

Currently, there are 50 student enrolled in the Social Work concentration at OU. The projected enrollment for this program is 45 students, 30 new BSW students, and 15 students who will transfer from the social work concentration to the BSW. Given that there are 50 students in the social work concentration, the projection of 45 students in the BSW degree program is realistic and achievable.

A major strength of this program is collaboration with the Departments of Biology. Psychology, Political Science and the Women�s Studies Program. These departments will provide course offerings that are either pre or co-requisites for satisfying the BSW major. These courses are listed on page 15 of the proposal.

Concerns

There are no major concerns about this proposal. However, there are some issues that the SPRC would like considered as this degree is implemented:
1. Collaboration outside the College of Arts and Sciences with the Schools of Nursing, Education and Human Services and the School of Health Sciences would strengthen this proposal. Page 16 of the proposal states that a list of electives will be generated that support the learning and career goals of this degree. It is our strong recommendation that collaboration with these units be initiated and that electives outside the College are considered and included on this list. These units also have a long history of student field placement and could likely assist with the BSW field placement efforts.
2. The proposal states that accreditation guidelines require two fulltime, doctorally prepared faculty members who have a MSW. There are two faculty members who meet these requirements, but Dr. Karen Neuman is on a Visitor faculty line. The reason for the Visitor line is not clear to the committee.
3. It is not clear from the proposal that there is sufficient space for this new program on the fifth floor of Varner. The language in the proposal, on page 13, is very tentative in this regard.
4. This program requires a minimum of 400 hours of field experience. The proposal states that the field faculty liaison will make two visits per semester to each student�s field practicum agency. Two visits per semester might not be sufficient supervision. However, with only two full time faculty members, it is understood that two visits may be all that faculty can make. As other faculty are added, it is hoped that consideration will be given to increasing the number of field visits to three, one initial visit, a midterm visit, and a final visit.

In conclusion, the SPRC recommends approval of the BSW degree program to the University Senate. We hope that consideration will be given to the observations made above.

5.  Assessment Committee Report

February 9, 2007

The University Assessment Committee (UAC) has reviewed and accepted the assessment plan for the proposed Bachelor of Social Work (BSW).

The committee was impressed with the depth and thoroughness of this plan and the strength of the measures to be used. We also wish to thank Karen for her assistance in helping us to understand specific details about the plan. The UAC noted that:

� You have identified fourteen clear program learning outcomes.
� That you plan to report to the UAC only on selected key objectives in each reporting cycle. 
� The direct measures address the learning outcomes.
� There will be more than one rater on the integrative papers and the field experience evaluations will be reviewed by an advisory committee/board.

Overall, this is an excellent assessment plan. With your permission, we would like to showcase it as a model plan on the UAC website. 
.
Your first assessment report will be due October 15, 2009, two years after the start of the BSW program. Please include the criteria or rubric for the evaluation of the integrative paper with the report. 

The OU Assessment website at  https://www2.oakland.edu/secure/oira/assessment.htm  provides updated schedules, copies of reporting forms, and copies of forms detailing the criteria the UAC uses to review assessment plans and reports. 

If your faculty would like to meet with members of the UAC for more specific comments, please contact Laura Schartman (schartma@oakland.edu, 4146).

For information purposes, we are sending a copy of this to Acting Dean Ronald A. Sudol and Provost Moudgil.

REMINDER: Your first assessment will be due October 15, 2009.

cc: 
A. Jay Meehan, Chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Lynetta Mosby, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Karen Neuman, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Ronald A. Sudol, Acting Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Virinder Moudgil, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
UAC files
 

6.   Responses to Senate Committees' questions

March 7, 2007

We would like to thank each of the review committees for their overall support of the program and for their thoughtful questions and suggestions.   Below are listed committee questions and recommendations, followed, in each case, by our response.

UCUI Questions and Suggestions:

1.   Will there be problem finding placement locations, given operation of Wayne State University in the area?

Oakland�s Concentration in Social Work has had very good success placing our students for over ten years Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne Counties, in spite of Wayne State University and other social work programs operating in the same area.   Social service agencies accept students from a number of different schools, depending on their needs. At the present time we have fifteen field placements sites, and, as the program grows, we are very confident we will be able to increase the number of field placements to match our program demands.

2.  Minimum grade point average for SW 210?

Yes.  The required minimum GPA for SW 210 is 3.0.  Once a student is admitted into the BSW program, they must also maintain at least a 3.0 GPA.

3.  Suggestion to add a communications course as a pre-requisite requirement.

Certainly a communications course would benefit social work students.  Current curriculum requirements, imposed by the Council of Social Work Education, are already quite tight.  If, in the future, we see a way to expand requirements without creating an onerous burden on students, we will seriously take into account this suggestion.  In the meantime, interviewing, listening, and other communication skills will be provided in the social work practice courses.

4.  Suggestion to add a social work minor.

The Council on Social Work Education rarely gives accreditation to minors in BSW programs; there is simply too much requisite coursework involved for a minor.   Even in the unlikely event that CSWE agreed to sanction a minor, Oakland students would benefit very little, since the State of Michigan now requires a minimum of a BSW degree to obtain jobs as licensed social workers.  

SPRC Questions and Suggestions:

1.  Recommendation for collaboration (including elective coursework) with academic units outside of CAS, especially the Schools of Nursing, Education, and Health Sciences.

We will actively seek ways to collaborate (faculty and student research, curriculum development, team-teaching, extra-curricular learning opportunities, etc.) with these units in the areas of overlapping interests.  There are constraints on adding further course requirements, as pointed out in response 3 to UCUI above.   But we can certainly expand the list of suggested elective credit courses to include appropriate offerings from the relevant professional schools. 

2.  Why is Dr. Karen Neuman on Visitor faculty line?

The initial application for program candidacy to the Council on Social Work Education was not approved until early fall of 2006.  There was not then sufficient time to engage in a full fledged national search for a tenure track faculty member, since we needed a second qualified person to immediately begin work on helping to prepare both the Oakland University proposal for a new degree program and the more elaborate �Benchmark� document required by the CSWE as the first stage in its accreditation process. Thus Dr. Neuman, who has a Ph.D. and an MSW, as required by CSWE guidelines, was hired, after the fall 2006 semester had already commenced, as Visiting Associate Professor.  Her contract is for two years, so she will be in place during the start-up year of the BSW program, and she will also be a strong candidate for the tenure track position for which we will conduct a regular national search. 

3.  Is there sufficient space to house the program on the 5^th floor in Varner Hall?

Yes, at least for the first two years of the program.  By year three, current space assignments in Varner Hall may need to be reviewed.

4.   May need to increase the number of field visits by the field liaison supervisor from two to three per semester.

The typical model of field practicum supervision established in social work education is, in fact, for two visits per term; this has proven adequate in most situations.  Part of this is due to the very strong role played by of the students� MSW Field Instructor�a full time employee of the agency in which the student is placed. Our accreditation standards require that we screen, approve, train, evaluate and support the field instructor, who is responsible for the day-to-day supervision of the student in field. This support is accomplished through the combined efforts of the field faculty liaison and the program's Field Program Coordinator.

Some potential workload strain is addressed in that class size for the field practicum seminar, led by the Field Faculty Liaison, will be capped at 15 students.
However, it is also understood that some situations may arise (involving concerns about the agency, field instructors, or student) in which more than two visits per term may be required.  In these cases, more than two visits will be arranged. The Field Practicum Coordinator and/or other social work faculty may also become involved in order to help resolve any problematic situations.

SBRC Questions and Recommendations:

1.  Recommendation to construct a new, �incremental� budget based only on new students coming to Oakland specifically because of the BSW program.

The College of Arts and Sciences has never created incremental budgets of this sort for new program proposals.  Presumably this is so because there seem to be no established, reliable methods for making valid estimates of the numbers of students who will come to Oakland purely as a function of the new program.  We did conduct a survey of social science students at both Oakland and Macomb Community Colleges which indicated a quite strong general interest in the proposed BSW program.  And informally we regularly receive inquiries from current non-Oakland students about the prospects for such a program. In short, we are confident that the new program will attract substantial numbers of students and that a number of these students will be incremental. But we do not know of an accurate way to estimate exactly or even approximately how many these will be in advance of the program�s start-up. 

By the way, a correction should be noted in the SBRC�s reference to existing social work �majors.�  Currently, social work at Oakland is only a �concentration.�  Therefore there are no social work majors.  This is not a trivial distinction, since students may graduate from Oakland without completing a concentration, but they may not graduate without completing a major.  The current budget projects that 15 of our current group of concentrators are likely to be admitted into the new BSW major.  If the BSW major is approved, there will be no social work concentration, and all subsequent BSW cohorts will, in effect, be comprised of new majors. 

2.  Recommendation to estimate a new incremental budget taking into account an estimated 3% annual future inflation rate on both revenues and costs.

Besides the fact that CAS, to our knowledge, has never constructed incremental budgets for new program proposals, as noted above, it seems to us that, although specific dollar amounts would certainly be different in such a new budget, the bottom line result would still be the same, since both revenues and costs are subjected to the same 3% inflation rate.

3.  Should identify the portion of our social work �majors� [sic] that goes on to or at least applies to graduate school.

From 1998 through 2006, 159 students have been enrolled at some point during their time at Oakland in the Social Work Concentration.  Of these 159 students, 94 (59%) went on to graduate from Oakland while also completing the concentration requirements in social work.  Subsequently, 35 of these 94 graduated students (37%) were accepted into an MSW program.  During this past year, 7 of 15 students (47%) who graduated from Oakland, while also satisfying their concentration requirements, applied to and were accepted into MSW programs.   This increasing percentage of MSW placements has characterized the application/acceptance ratio for our concentration graduates in recent years.  A near 50% graduate program placement rate for our concentration students is an impressive figure.  But with a BSW degree program, our students will qualify for advanced standing in any MSW program (reducing up to a full year of course requirements).  We can therefore reasonably expect an even higher proportion of our students to pursue an MSW degree�a significant benefit to Oakland students and to the larger community.

(updated 3/8/07)