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Forming Global Partnerships

In January the School formally established an Office of Global Activities (OGA) and hired Frank Zinn, PhD, as director.

he purposes of the new office are to promote the School’s leadership role in global social work education and research, increase students’ competencies in global social work practice, and foster an environment conducive to global social work education and research.

The establishment of OGA is an outcome of a process started in 2003, when the School constituted an International Task Force consisting of faculty, students, and staff. In developing a vision and an agenda for “internationalizing” the School’s activities, the group recommended promoting social work in a global context and emphasizing principles of co-learning and partnership—not a Western-centered, top-down approach.

The Office of Global Activities is coordinating the implementation of this agenda and is presently focusing on global partnerships, curriculum review, and expansion of global opportunities for students.

Faculty members also have continued their work toward the goal of strengthening and developing global partnerships.

Australia

Professor John Tropman was selected for a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award to visit the School of Social Work at the University of Melbourne, Australia, for six weeks in May and June. He followed in the footsteps of several other U-M SSW faculty members who have made connections with the university.

Besides providing an intensive course in executive leadership and two workshops for human service managers, he made presentations at four major social service agencies and gave two public lectures. His wife Penny, who is a lecturer at the School, also gave class and agency presentations.

John Tropman provided consultation to the head and faculty of the School of Social Work, which is undergoing a major transition, on models of organizational structure and on the MSW curriculum. He met regularly with the head to develop plans for a more structured connection between the two schools. Tropman also met with the deputy vice chancellor of the university, which is looking toward the University of Michigan for a model, on issues of managing change.

China and South Korea

In June Dean Paula Allen-Meares and the School’s Director of Development Lindsey Rossow-Rood traveled with a U-M delegation to Asia. This trip was part of a five-year commitment that President Mary Sue Coleman made to China during her visit in 2005.

The goals that the president laid out during her initial visit were to begin establishing and strengthening partnerships with universities across China. This year’s delegation visited Beijing and Shanghai and also took the president’s message to Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea.

Dean Allen-Meares visited with representatives from the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Peking University, East China University of Science and Technology, and Yonsei University.

In each meeting, Allen-Meares expressed the School’s desire to establish partnerships with institutions of higher education across the globe so that more collaborative research among the schools could be undertaken. They also discussed the possibility of increasing faculty and student exchanges.

Allen-Meares met with several alumni and incoming MSW students during receptions held in each of the four cities. Fellow U-M delegation members included Vice President for Research Stephen Forrest, Alumni Association President Steve Grafton, and LSA Dean Terry McDonald.

Egypt

Professor Siri Jayaratne, associate dean for faculty affairs, represented Dean Paula Allen-Meares when he traveled to Cairo, Egypt, in March. He followed up on a memorandum of understanding that Dean Allen-Meares signed with Helwan University School of Social Work in 2006. This agreement—to work toward collaboration and student exchanges— followed a two-year visit to the U-M SSW by visiting scholar Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Awad, who studied social factors associated with elder abuse.

Jayaratne attended an international conference at Helwan University. At the School of Social Work dean’s request, he presented at a plenary session a broad picture of the U-M SSW curriculum to help them revise their MSW program. Jayaratne also met with the dean and faculty to explore opportunities for collaboration between the two schools. 

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