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Admission to the Social Work Program

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1. Acceptance- student has earned an overall GPA of 2.5 or higher, received average or above average letters of reference, has affirmed a sense of calling or motivation for the profession, and has demonstrated behavior congruent with professional social work values and ethics.
2. Accepted Conditionally- student may have an overall GPA below 2.5 or may lack a letter grade of C in a required social work course and have yet to retake the course. Conditional acceptance may also occur due to demonstrated behavior or attitude that is inconsistent with social work values. In such cases, students are provided with corrective action steps to achieve full admittance when the conditional admittance is reviewed in a subsequent semester.
3. Denied Admission- student may have failed to perform academically near the required 2.5 GPA level. Other grounds for denial of admission include: evidence of academic dishonesty; repeated failure to take responsibility for completion of required coursework assignments; inappropriate personal behavior which could hinder professional practice; demonstration of prejudice and judgmental attitudes and behaviors toward particular groups of people; evidence of a violation of professional ethics.

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The appeal process includes an opportunity for the student to provide additional information and to request a meeting with the program director accompanied by a support person or persons. Should the admission issues remain unresolved, a student may take their concerns to the academic dean for further attempts at resolution. An Further appeal could follow the conflict and grievance procedurelink to: https://resources.emu.edu/confluence/x/GIB9AQ procedure outlined by the University in the EMU Undergraduate Student Handbook.

Readmission
Students who voluntarily withdraw from the program or are denied formal admission to the program, may apply for readmission under the same requirements and procedures utilized for initial applications. It is recommended that students in this circumstance delay re-application for at least one full semester or until the concerns impacting student or noted in denial of admission are resolved.

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The proposal should briefly discuss the contacts that student has had with the hosting organization and personnel, and detail the work that the student could be involved with in the organization.
Finally, the proposal should outline a tentative weekly schedule for what activities the student will be involved with, and the expectation of the availability of supervision for these activities.

Guidelines for Termination from Program

Social work students must continually demonstrate academic and  

Practicum Placement in Employment Settings

The EMU Social Work Program aims to insure that all students have quality placements where students can be engaging new learning and experiences.  The relationship between an employee/employer is
different than a student/field placement.  Attempting a practicum placement in a setting where a student is employed can raise conflicts between the roles of student learner and employee being paid to perform a specific task.  Therefore, EMU Social Work program prefers that the practicum placement occur in an organization that is not the setting of student's employment.  During the pandemic year in 2020, the program developed this policy to allow for approval of a prospective placement in an organization where the student may be employed.

Optimal field settings must provide an environment where the student is first and foremost allowed to be in a learning role.  The setting needs to provide new learning experiences where a student can be observed and supported in demonstrating behaviors that they haven’t used before.  They need to work with a qualified credentialed social worker to reflectively understand and demonstrate practice competencies according to the nine core competencies.  Per this policy, a student may request approval for an employing organization to be the site of their practicum placement if this criteria can be met: 

1. Learning Role: The field experience must be educationally driven rather than centered on routine roles that a student was already performing for the organization.
2. Field Organization: The employing setting must be able to meet the same requirements that other field organizations meet in order to host a practicum. The field organization must give consent for an employed student placement and understand the need to support the student in taking on new learning assignments and enhanced responsibilities.
3. The Field Coordinator consults with the executive director of the organization in question about how a particular student can step into an enhanced role for practicum, and how supervision for this role will be provided.
4. The EMU Social Work Program will approve the student’s request if proposed program and client assignments and supervision available provide a learning focused opportunity for the student.

Ensuring Separate Assignments from Employment:

 Responsibilities & Role: The prospective field placement assignment in the organization should be completed in a different program or represent significantly different responsibilities with clients and/or roles in an interagency network than the responsibilities and roles the student had already been performing as an employee.

The student’s field learning tasks and activities must represent an enhancement over the student’s employment job description.   The student’s anticipated field learning activities should be geared to demonstrating social work practice skills according to core competencies.

Ensuring Separate Supervision from Employment:

 Credentialed Supervision: The proposed Field Instructor for the student should be focused on supporting the student as a learner.  The prospective Field Instructor needs to be a credentialed social worker holding either BSW or MSW degrees and two years of practice experience. Field Instructor and any ongoing employment supervisor must both be knowledgeable of and consenting to working with the field student within the employing agency in two different roles.

Guidelines for Termination from Program

Social work students must continually demonstrate academic and non-academic social work competencies and proficiencies in order to remain in the social work program. Students who fail to do so will be terminated from the program. Factors contributing to student termination from the social work program are below; examples of behaviors demonstrating violations of the requirements are also included.

1. Failure to maintain an overall GPA of 2.5, or a 2.0 in all courses required in the social work major.
2. Failure to demonstrate the capacity to master necessary generalist social work competences and practice skills, such as self-awareness, critical thinking, client empathy, non-judgmental attitudes, contributions to client self-determination, and good oral and written communication skills.
   1. Demonstration of consistently poor written and/or oral communication skills that impact on professional practice expectations.
   2. Evidence of academic dishonesty (i.e. cheating, plagiarism).
3. Failure to demonstrate personal and professional conduct requisite for accepted professional standards of practice consistent with the NASW Code of Conduct.
   1. Inability to work with or relate to diverse population reflecting age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, immigration status, political ideology, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.
   2. Disregard for principles of confidentiality or client self-determination.
4. Failure to demonstrate emotional stability requisite for professional practice
   1. Inability to deal with current life stressors through the use of appropriate coping mechanisms such as professional counseling.
   2. Derogatory oral and/or written statements about/toward others, including students, faculty, field instructors, and/or clients.
   3. Unwillingness to receive and accept feedback and supervision in a positive manner and/or failure to use such feedback to enhance professional development
   Failure to respond in a timely manner to a plan of correction/resolution of the problem.
   1. such feedback to enhance professional development.
5. Failure to respond in a timely manner to a plan of correction/resolution of the problem.
6. Violations of expected professional conduct (ranging from poor attendance and follow-through on assigned tasks to inappropriate behavior towards clients) in field placements can be serious, as such conduct can lead to disruptions of placement and result in inability to finish a social work degree. 

Termination procedures

The social work program may receive a report from an agency instructor, a classroom faculty, client, other student or faculty field coordinator/liaison, and/or a client or field instructor that a student has exhibited behaviors not consistent with required professional or ethical standards of practice. Such report will be reviewed by the program director and field faculty coordinator/liaison with other program faculty as necessary. If it is determined that the student may have exhibited failure to demonstrate either competence or proficiency in this matter, s/he will be formally notified by the program director or faculty coordinator/liaison. The notice will specifically enumerate the behavior(s) in question, and will require the student to meet with the faculty coordinator/liaison and another social work faculty member. During that meeting, the student will be given the opportunity to discuss the situation and explain his/her actions.

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At the end of the corrective action period, the full social work faculty will discuss the violation and to evaluate the student's work during the corrective action period. The full faculty will determine whether to revoke the student's admission into the program, place her/him on additional corrective action, or reinstate the student to good-standing status. The student will be formally notified of the faculty decision. Should the student wish to appeal the faculty decision, s/he will be given the opportunity to provide additional information and to request a meeting with the department faculty social work program director accompanied by a support person or persons. Should the issues remain unresolved, the student may utilize the grievance procedure outlined in the University undergraduate student handbook. All termination decisions and action must be documented and copies maintained in the student's file.

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