Wright State’s Social Work Department has been partnered with Ohio State’s College of Social Work for six years to provide the opportunity for graduates with various Bachelor degrees to attend a Masters program in Social Work from OSU.
Previously, area students enrolled in a graduate program for a Masters of Arts in Social Work have traveled the distance to either Cincinnati or Columbus for their education.
OSU graduate classes have been taught on the WSU campus for a physical therapist program, but that is going to be phased out.
“I get asked about a Masters Program everyday by WSU students,” said Dr. Carl Brun, chair with the WSU Department of Social Work.
“Directors of social services agencies have been requesting a Masters of Social Work Program in the Dayton area for over 30 years,” said Brun.
When WSU learned that Oxford’s Miami University was also looking to begin a Masters Program for Social Work, WSU decided to collaborate with them in order to merge assets and share resources to offer this program to prospective students in the central-western region of Ohio.
“We decided to combine our resources and faculty and work together instead of competing against one another,” Brun said.
The two universities have completed all the required steps in seeking approval to begin offering the new proposed program. The program has been met with approval by the Ohio Board of Regents’ Advisory Committee on Graduate Study, making it an official Masters Program.
A final decision to move forward with teaching will come from the Council on Social Work Education, from which the department has received positive feedback in June 2012.
WSU has been preparing by accepting preliminary applications to the program for Fall Semester. Students will be notified of their application status by the end of May 2012.
“Students accepted into the program will need to complete an official application,” Brun said.
Pending approval, this collaborative program will be in candidacy status, meaning it will be found to have the potential for full accreditation after some time in operation and once further standards and progress have been met. The program will need to pass site inspections conducted over time and successfully comply with other accreditation requirements in order to become accredited.
Each university is prepared to accept fifteen students into the program beginning this fall. “30 applicants have already applied,” said Brun.
Students will graduate from both WSU and MU, but will designate only one they plan to attend on the application.
“Students may attend their classes at the location of their choice because the two universities are utilizing one another’s services for greater convenience to students,” said Brun.
Miami University has branch locations in West Chester and Middletown, and classes may also be taught through online instruction or through interactive video and microphone instruction at the Dayton, Oxford and Middletown campuses.
“Professors will make the commute to each campus to provide equal opportunity for face-to-face instruction in the interactive video courses,” said Brun.
According to the WSU Department of Social Work website, program accreditation will be retroactive back to the first group of graduates completing the program.
“Persons graduating with a MSW are eligible to become Licensed Social Workers (LSW) and Licensed Independent Social Workers (LISW),” the website states.
Masters level is sought by Dayton area employers such as hospitals and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, according to Brun.
“Graduates of a Masters Program are considered Advanced Generalists, and can specialize in certain areas or work with specialized populations using their advanced skills,” said Brun.
He said, “They can become managers, supervisors, or be involved in clinical work.”
Requirements of the program are completion of what is called Field Education, meaning several hundred hours of on-the-job training, in addition to an applied research project.
Fall classes, beginning August 27th 2012, will be taught M-F in the evening from 6-8:30 P.M.
The very first class of students will be on a two-year timeline.
However, a full-time, one-year program will be offered beginning in Summer Semester 2013; it will be a three semester program offered to those already holding a Bachelor degree specifically in Social Work with a 3.25 GPA.
Additionally, three-year and four-year, part-time programs will be offered beginning in fall 2013.
Students may contact Carl Brun with questions or to inquire about the effects of a program’s candidacy status on a graduate’s state testing, licensures and employment. Brun said “to apply for the state exam to become a LISW, the guidelines are that a student must have graduated from a Masters Program that is either already accredited or is in candidacy status.”
He added, “No new program can skip the candidacy status step; it is a required step all programs must go through first in order to become accredited.”
For more information contact Dr. Carl Brun, Chair, WSU Social Work and MSW program at carl.brun@wright.edu.
