The Appointment

My preparation for becoming a baccalaureate program director was serving as the field coordinator for two years in a two-person social work program at a small liberal arts university in Texas.  During the spring of my second year, the program director told me the news: he was leaving the department to head the newly created international studies program.  I would be appointed to replace him, not as just a program director, but as chair of the soon-to-be department of social work.  We were moving from a program to a full department!  “And, oh, by the way, the Council on Social Work Education self-study is due in the fall and we will have a reaffirmation visit in the spring,” he mentioned.

Having spent more than eight years working with Intermediate Care Facilities for the Mentally Retarded (ICF-MR) programs as a Qualified Mental Retardation Professional (QMRP), I had the confidence to take on the self-study.  I had been reading and interpreting regulations and passing ICF-MR inspections for a long time.  I also had extensive experience developing, monitoring, and evaluating case management programs for people with severe mental illness through work at a community mental health center.  For the past two years, I had used the curriculum policy statement to ensure that my classes and the field practicum met CSWE requirements.  My ace in the hole—or so I thought—was that my former director would be able to assist me in that self-study.

That was the next piece of news: he would be in England during the fall semester developing the first study abroad course and I would be on my own for the self-study AND the first semester as a program director/department head with a new faculty member/field coordinator.  Email was in its infancy at our university; an international fax was $5.00 a page; a first-class letter via airmail would take almost two weeks from Texas to England.  I quickly surmised that I was largely on my own!

Compounding the pressure was a weekly six-hour commute to another university as I entered my second year in the doctoral program.  I was enrolled in the specialty courses, preparing for a semester as a graduate teaching assistant, and beginning my applied research practicum.  I was chair of the local unit of the National Association of Social Workers. On a personal level, I was married and had a 12-year old son and faced with the need to balance personal life with professional demands. All of these activities combined to create a challenging year, to say the least.

The First Task: Hiring a Field Coordinator to Replace Me

Not only was the program a small one in central west Texas, but also affiliated with the Southern Baptist convention.  The area had limited appeal and the salary was not competitive; it was difficult to attract qualified applicants.  Twice, we thought we had found the right person who was a good fit for the department, and twice, hiring stalled at the salary we could offer. 

Toward the end of the spring, we received a call from someone who was interested in the position.  While the applicant seemed to be a good fit in many ways, she had never taught before.  We decided her practice experience and having developed and presented numerous workshops outweighed the lack of academic experience and she took the position. In addition to writing my first self-study and preparing for the reaffirmation visit, whilst conducting a research practicum for my own doctoral studies in a city four hours away, I would be mentoring a first-time faculty member/field coordinator only having two years of experience in the position myself. I was encouraged by the fact that prior to relocating, she traveled to the city to attend NASW meetings and engage the social work community, reaching out to network with future colleagues.

CSWE Self-Study and Reaffirmation

Fall arrived; we sent our colleague off to England, and set about the business of starting the semester.  My position as director had begun in June, so I spent most of the summer writing the self-study report, using our previous document as a guide for organization.  The time-consuming part was connecting the guidelines in the curriculum policy statement and citing where those requirements were located in our program and syllabi.  The prior reaffirmation visit had gone well, however, and the curriculum and syllabi were basically unchanged from the former self-study.  The theoretical framework had been developed by a faculty member who had a clear conceptualization of generalist social work and how to teach it.  There was no reason to reinvent a wheel that was rolling.  I had come in to the position and adopted the framework without really having understood why I was doing what I was doing, other than “because it worked.” Once I began to match the standards and policy statement with our curriculum, the framework began to make more sense to me in terms of what I had been teaching and why—which clearly became an advantage for me in following years.

I headed to San Francisco for my first BPD conference, and attended the session for new program directors.  It was helpful in preparing me for the process of reaffirmation, and provided a variety of interpretations of CSWE requirements.  I finalized the report and submitted it to the former director, current field coordinator, and our two adjunct faculty members asking for additions, corrections, or recommendations, with a deadline for those comments.  Finally, the self-study was printed and all the required copies were shipped.

Toward the end of the semester, the field coordinator presented me with a stack of corrections to the practice and field sequence—items she had revised, such as readings and new assignments.  To say I was upset with her timing is an understatement; I also knew from my own experience that time is necessary to completely understand the requirements of academia and its difference from practice.  Trying to be a team player and keep us all on the same page for the reaffirmation visit, I made corrections to the original document and submitted them with the required addendum to explain why changes were being submitted.  All we had to do was wait until spring and the site visit.

The “How I Survived” Part of That Year

When I reflect back on that year of many difficulties and demands, it ranks among my significant accomplishments.  The importance of this to the department and university was that we were reaffirmed.  I learned much from the two site visitors, who helped me understand aspects about the process that ultimately led to a better program and assisted me in becoming a better program director.  The major problem was the lack of a program evaluation system.  While we had a beneficial informal system of continuous feedback loops, this did not provide the comprehensive quality of a formal program evaluation.  After participating in the formal evaluation process during my years with ICF-MR and community mental health, one would think I would have known better, but the site visitors helped me to recognize and correct that oversight. The program evaluation and goals that I developed for the program were later used as a model for other departments in my college.

The ability to think critically, to have and be able to apply knowledge, is essential in such an endeavor.  Drawing on the knowledge and skill of those who have experience is critical as well.  But, if I delineated the one thing that helped me not only survive, but thrive, it would be relationship. 

I experienced both termination of a relationship and development of new relationships during that year.  My relationship with the former director changed significantly through personal events in his life and the change in his position.  That door closed for the most part, and was a painful loss with which to come to terms. He had unfailingly supported me from the time I came to the department and I had relied on him.  Now he was a half-time professor in my department rather than my mentor, and his duties directing the international studies program kept him out of the department and my pathway for the most part.  Still, it was a loss that would propel me forward in my own professional growth. 

My relationship with my best friend—a social worker—strengthened during that time, further contributing to improving the program.  We were active in a fruitful year for community organization. With the help of other social work colleagues, NASW successfully facilitated a citywide march and town meeting to address violence in all its forms, culminating in the production of a documentary by a local news station.  It was a stunning moment to see four teams—all of whom had begun at the outermost edges of the northern, eastern, southern, and western parts of the city, joined together in the central heart of the community.  Those moments kept me focused on my real purpose: educating social workers for a life of service, commitment to social justice, and to have the knowledge and skills to practice social work effectively at all levels.  Once again that year, our students had a 100% pass rate on the social work license examination—as they had in the prior years and would continue to have in the future. 

I also developed a new friendship with the dean of my college.  Because the former program director had generally dealt directly with the academic vice president about program matters, I had not really known our dean.  During that fall when I had no one else to whom to turn, I sought him out many times for assistance with the self-study. I discovered a man who ultimately became a friend and colleague, and with whom I co-taught a new course, conducted research and shared a publication.  He had a keen understanding of human nature, and though his discipline was in English, his many years as a dean and his extensive knowledge of literature had given him insight into issues that were relevant to social work.  A prolific writer with many publications to his credit, he helped me survive those tedious months preparing my dissertation proposal in the midst of the year of self-study and reaffirmation. His support of me would become a major factor in my future work and successful completion of my doctorate. 

Looking back, it is easy to see the humor in the year and laugh at situations that seemed so difficult then.  The lessons I learned were both pleasant ones and painful ones.  What enabled me to survive were the things I learned about self and relationship in the journey of life.  After all, relationship is the means by which we discover who we are.

Normally, one is advised not to procrastinate; do the task early so one can allow for problems.  However, during that year I often had no choice.  There were so many excessive demands on my time that I frequently could only do the next thing just before it was needed, as I had been doing something else just prior that had an earlier deadline.  What I learned about myself was I had the ability—when in crisis mode—to focus clearly. This turned on a creative channel I had not realized I possessed.  Essentially, I learned how to make crisis work for me rather than against me.  Each of us needs to understand our own style of coping with stress, use what works, and change what doesn’t.

I also survived by eliminating what was really not important.  I learned to let go of a lot that year.  I let go of my private practice, my consulting work, and having a clean house.  In the big picture, none of these were imperative.

Most important of all, I surrounded myself with people who supported me.  Years before, a colleague had given me this advice: “Don’t hang out with people who don’t support you.”  It was a lesson well learned that helped me to maintain a sense of balance in a wild and crazy year!