School of Social Work News

Professor Karla Goldman spoke with Inside Higher Ed about the report released by Stanford University uncovering its history of limiting Jewish student enrollments. The report comes at a time when colleges and universities across the country are excavating their pasts and working to publicly acknowledge and correct for their roles in historical wrongs.  “This was happening everywhere, so it’s interesting that Stanford took this piece as seriously as they have,” Goldman said. “It’s to their credit. But does it mean there should be a wave of these things everywhere? Truly, almost every school in the Northeast should be apologizing.”

Six School of Social Work students have received CEW+ awards: 

MSW student Irma Maribel Andrade Guzman — Margaret Dow Towsley Scholar

MSW student Rossi Clark —  Beatrice Kahn Scholar 

MSW student Justine D’Souza — Margaret Dusseau Brevoot Scholar

MSW student Jennifer Harris — Susan Quackenbush Scholar 

MSW student Julia Hettich — Margaret Dow Towsley Scholar

PhD student Kari Sherwood — Mary Malcolmson Raphael Scholar

The CEW+ scholarship program was established in 1970 to honor the academic performance and potential of women whose education has been interrupted and to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the admissions of women to U-M. With support from our generous donors, CEW+ was able to expand the program in 2008 to include additional scholarships for students of all genders. This year’s cohort will be honored at the CEW+ award luncheon in November.

The School of Social Work’s marketing and web teams have won a Best of CASE District V Award for the School’s Centennial Timeline Project. The timeline depicts the School’s history from its origins to its current position as one of the world’s most prominent schools of social work. Initially designed as a physical installation, the timeline was reenvisioned during the pandemic as a three-prong initiative: 

A museum-quality installation in the School of Social Work Building. Custom-designed wallpaper depicts the architecture of the four School of Social Work buildings during the last century; plaques, photos and memorabilia detail specific moments in the School’s history.

 A four-page print version of the timeline was created for the centennial issue of our alumni magazine, Ongoing.

A digital version of the timeline is featured on the school’s Centennial website.

Designed as a brief overview — as opposed to a comprehensive history — the timeline is an interactive, community-sourced project that can expand to reflect contributions from the school alumni, faculty and students. All three versions end with a QR code, which allows the community to submit their own historical moment to the project. This was a long-term project that involved multiple departments including AV, development and facilities.

CASE is the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, a global non-profit association dedicated to educational advancement, alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and advancement services.

Professor Trina Shanks has been appointed board president of the Black Administrators, Researchers, and Scholars (BARS) group.  BARS was founded by the late Larry Davis, MSW '73 and  PhD '77, to aid in the development and advancement of Black social work scholars, researchers and administrators within the Social Work academic discipline.

Earlier this month, the School of Social Work presented Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, in the School’s second annual Social Justice Changemaker Lecture. The program, “Social Change in Action: How to be a change agent in a world that feels out of control,” featured a conversation in which Walker and Dean Beth Angell explored ways to be a change agent during challenging times and discussed how philanthropy can be used as a force for social change.

“Ann Arbor and the university welcomed us with open arms, and we fell in love with this diverse, inclusive community.” Lecturer and ENGAGE: DETROIT Program Manager Ayesha Ghazi Edwin’s family history is chronicled in a story on U-M’s Center for South Asian Studies website. The story describes how the progressive values of their grandparents have shaped Ghazi Edwin, who is also an Ann Arbor Council member, and her sister, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, who is Michigan’s Chief Medical Executive.

Associate Professor Terri Friedline shares her thoughts on President Biden’s student debt relief program in Fast Company.  She says that while the relief package will make a real difference, she is concerned that it ignores the role structural racism and sexism play in educational debt.  "The Biden administration will have to do more if it aims to adequately address these and the many other remaining structural problems with debt and education," she writes. The story originated in the Conversation and has been included in numerous publications including:

• The Conversation
• the Atlantic Journal-Constitution
• HeraldNet

On August 27, 2022, Detroit Bass Day celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Motown hit "Papa was a Rollin' Stone." A number one hit by The Temptations in 1972, the song features an immortal and driving bass line, which 50 bassists played on the Motown Museum Plaza. The song's powerful narrative about family responsibility has inspired the Papa WAS project, which invited participants to share their perspectives, personal narratives and spoken word poetry about fatherhood. The project continues to collect and post stories about fathers; the story collection is archived on the ENGAGE website. "The Bass Day celebration demonstrated the power of music to build community. The spoken word poetry was epic - weaving history, memory and emotion into a tribute for the contribution fathers make to their families. It was a joy and a privilege to have been a part of this amazing cultural event," said Professor Richard Tolman.

The Papa WAS project is spearheaded by Professor Rich Tolman and sponsored by the School of Social Work.