Brown Bag with students and administration
UNC School of Social Work
November 24, 2014
Why don’t we have an ethics course?
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Macy: There isn’t a lot of flexibility of our curriculum. Ethics courses have been offered,
with little interest from students. We already have a lot of requirements. Ethics should be
addressed in every class.
Naylor: The school tries to be intentional with ethics at jumpstart orientation
Richman: Strom-Gottfried is one of the most prominent ethics teachers in the country.
She could do a workshop on a Friday or a weekend if there was student demand.
Melinda Manning: Ethics should be offered at the school because the school is a safe
place
Francis: consider weekend professional development series? Would students come?
Zerden: Friday is an option.
Melanie Sadur: Students could come on Friday. It would be good if students can have
something they can add to their resume or if students could receive a certificate for
attending.
Macy: When we add stuff, we have to do it outside of the curriculum.
Dustin Rawlings: Ok to add it to professional development series, but allow for it to
count toward a Ethics Training certificate.
Would administration consider adjusting the grading system with enough interest from
students/staff? The range of the “P” is too large.
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Macy: The HPLF scale is controlled by the Graduate School. We’d have to go outside of
the Graduate School for that.
Richman: Scale was voted n by faculty years ago. Half students are H and Half are P. If
we moved it to a 10 point scale, 75% would be H’s.
Naylor: School is already debating how we nominate people for student awards. How can
we tell who is academically higher?
Macy/Naylor: Accreditation with CSWE.
Macy: can bring a motion to Curriculum committee to move H from 94 to 93.
Brigham: I don’t recall a faculty member raising this as a problem in 10 years.
Richman: Issues need to be laid out. Do you want class standing? Make a “GPA” of
sorts? Why?
Naylor: Grading set up at the Graduate School. The culture as a result is not competitive.
But some students need a GPA for scholarships, but it hasn’t been a huge barrier.
Richman: P=MSW
What safeguards are in place to ensure competent social workers are entering the field?
(Question about Field)
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Brigham: We need more feedback about the question. Surprised the performance evals in
field would miss some information. They cover a lot of ground. Field is switching to a
“competency-based” system—using EPAS with Foundation students (approved by
CSWE). Students are self-evaluated and instructors are evaluating side by side. Field
faculty going on retreat in December to reflect on Field changes with the students. Field
team meets weekly to brainstorm solutions for student difficulties in Field. They also
look at precedence setting to treat everyone fairly. She also looks at grading/performance
over time.
Thomas: Admission also has a role to play in this. We look at recruitment documents …
Questions to take back to admissions committee.
Richman: Clarified/read into question “In field placement, somebody sees another
student not performing adequately and the supervisor doesn’t catch it.” A professional
would ethically need to tell supervisors about it. Maybe we need to have a parallel
process. But this has rarely been an issue that we know of.
Macy/Richman: Discussion about students needing to come forth.
Is there a system in place beyond SOWOSO to suggest complaints/feedback?
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Naylor: We’re very open to suggestions. Students sit on committees. Has heard about a
Drop Box for unidentifiable feedback.
Macy: sometimes we can’t act on anonymous feedback. Unsubstantiated.
Richman: Advisors, committees, Office of Student Affairs, S. Naylor and R. Brigham are
the best people to talk to about complaints/provide feedback.
Dustin Rawlings: There was a packet from JumpStart describing staff roles and
responsibilities. Can we get it online?
Macy: Sometimes there are faculty and administrators doing stuff behind the scenes that
we cannot tell you about. Universities move at glacial speed. It might feel that we are
unresponsive sometimes. There are reasons things are transparent. Everyone deserves due
process.
Are faculty members aware of Green Zone training?
Francis: She is a safe place and can share resources on campus. This is a new campus program.
Macy: Would be interested in holding a training here.
Dustin: will ask military caucus if they are aware or would be interested in scheduling this
training.
Regarding strategic 5 year plan, how does this fit into the long-term vision with the school?
 Richman: It’s online but “riddled with things on students”. Ultimately everything is about
preparing students for school ad career. The other huge pieces are development and
funding for research and doctoral students.
 Natalie Ziemba: Students are a huge “client base” for the school and we were not really
represented in it.
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Richman: We’ve poured astronomical resources in student affairs. I don’t know if you see
it, but from a budgeting perspective, the dollars are in student affairs. I spend 40% of my
time trying to raise money for faculty and students. It’s all about students.
Francis: Would students be open to an editable document to edit the strategic plan?
Brigham: The strategic plan is not necessarily living and breathing document. We’d need
feedback in other ways.
Richman: The Strategic Plan came down from the Chancellor. This is all about money,
how are we going to keep our faculty and students. Strategic plan is about the
fundraising—setting priorities to raise money. State dollars have dropped to ~20%.
We’re raining approx. 80% of $$. Strategic Plan is not about if we support students or not
Brigham: The Strategic Plan might not have been a problem. It was the underlying
communications issues between the students and faculty/admin. We have done a lot this
year making sure students are on committees and having Brown Bag lunches. Maybe we
shouldn’t hammer the strategic plan because it is about fundraising.
Dustin Rawlings: As students we don’t do a very good job of attending these events.
Faculty outnumbers us here today. How do students participate? Students want to engage
but we don’t know how.
Richman: There are a lot of things students do that is incredible. Take the ambassador
program for example. Students are an incredibly powerful part of the board. We ask
students to present at our board meetings. The are absolutely our most effective tools in
fundraising. Faculty appreciation breakfast was first thing like it in 30 years. Students are
our best reputation developers.
Francis: We could do better about alumni appreciation. We need to follow your careers.
We want you to come back for ProfessionDevel/Leadership workshop. Alumni Events.
EContact/Contact.
Richman: We can’t just give alumni information to people. But we can if the alumni
consent. And we do this to make connection (e.g. like an alumnus in Montana).
Danny Ball: We could set up a opt-in system. Like letting them sign up at graduation.
Macy/Naylor: wanting to think strategically about keeping track of alumni….