Dear Silver Students,
Lowering financial barriers to a social work education has been among my top priorities since becoming Dean. I’m inspired that so many of you have overcome such obstacles to access a Silver education. I’m also aware of the challenges that can remain throughout your time with us.
Meanwhile, I’m proud that a number of you have shared your lived experiences with me and the senior leadership team, advocating on behalf of your peers about the overarching challenges of affording and accessing a social work education. Some of what you shared with us relates to the field placement process and experience, the number of field hours required and a desire for stipends relating to field placements.
For all of these reasons, I’d like to share with you an initial step that we are taking to ease the burden for our BS and MSW students. Understanding the immediate difficulty many students face regarding field placement agency-required onboarding costs, we have identified funding to offset these costs for students with need.
In the coming weeks, we will reach out to all BS and MSW students with program details. Students with need who incurred field placement agency-required onboarding costs for the 2022-23 academic year will be reimbursed those costs. Starting in the Fall 2024, we will ensure that students with need are not compelled to pay agency-required onboarding costs.
This is but the first step of many that we will take to remove financial barriers to accessing and completing a social work education at Silver. I will share more updates about our progress in the coming weeks and months, as will members of our senior leadership team. Keep sharing your experiences and ideas with us. Together, we will accomplish our goals.
Sincerely,
