THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS SENT TO THE PRESIDENT OF SMITH COLLEGE BY

A GROUP OF CONCERNED ADJUNCT FACULTY AT THE SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL

WORK.
July 21, 2016

Dr. Kathleen McCartney

President
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
Dear President McCartney;
There has been a sense on campus that the School for Social Work administration is allowing the
school to sink into chaos and to self-destruct. It is now beginning to feel as if, by its own
ineptitude, it is now facilitating that descent. While remaining open and responsive to legitimate
student grievances and calls by student groups for greater attention to issues of oppression and
inclusion, it remains the schools role to set and maintain the tone of such discussions so that
they can remain civil, complex, and productive and ultimately offer hope of usefully confronting
systemic problems in academia, social service agencies and the society at large. Instead the
administration, with the support and/or acquiescence of parts of the faculty, has relinquished
this role and allowed students in public meetings to aggressively criticize members of the faculty
with no limits set as to what are appropriate ways to express opinions and discuss important
issues. Staff who have devoted years, even decades, of thoughtful, careful and caring work to the
schools mission of preparing students for the field are being viciously scapegoated at public
meetings for problems far beyond their control. Reports of the acrimonious tenor and atmosphere
at these meetings are widespread on campus, the administrations revisionist portrayals of their
content notwithstanding.
The Field Department is a case in point. Members of the administration--along with some of the
resident faculty--seem to be intent on attacking and dismantling the Field Department based on
student complaints about the department itself, many of which are unreasonable and
groundless, some relating to factors clearly outside the department itself, many of which are
unreasonable and groundless, some relating to factors clearly outside the departments purview
and beyond the departments control. Some of the Field Department staff, including the director,
have been subjected to violent criticism in public and prevented from responding to allegations.
The administration has awarded full credence to the student positions and crowded out all
reasonable response to the opinions voiced by the students and the escalating demands being
made. This is not a reasonable reaction to complex issues involving many layers and many
diverse players. Moreover, it is widely perceived that the administrations behavior towards the
Field Department is part of a larger goal to effectively dismantle important aspects of the
outstanding Social Work training program that the School in all its departments has maintained
for many years. Furthermore, since assuming control two years ago, the administration has
systematically shut down opposition to the radical changes they have been implementing, often
unilaterally, in some cases without full faculty debate and consent and sometimes in violation of
its own administrative bylaws.

The administrations behavior constitutes the worst type of modeling for ALL of our students and
causes many staff members to wonder and worry what effects this behavior will have on the
students we send out as professionals to care for some of the most vulnerable members of our
society. It also leaves teaching staff feeling extremely vulnerable and unsupported. The
disrespect the administration has shown toward some of the faculty and its virtual blanket
acquiescence to student demands has filtered down to the classrooms, where the level of
disrespect for faculty has reached new levels, leading to further feelings of vulnerability and
isolation.
It is plain for many to see that any thoughtful, honest examination of current student grievances
with regard to their academic and field experience would, of necessity, require an examination of
admission policies. There is clearly something terribly faulty with the admission policy when
scores of students develop, from the very start, serious problems in both their academic
performance and their field experience. What many people are thinking but afraid to say is that
when students are admitted who do not have the academic qualifications to do well enough in a
rigorous, demanding, stressful program, (as has clearly happened with the current second-year
class) these students are being set up for failure particularly when we do not provide adequate
support of all types as they pass through the program. This is unethical and immoral. But
beyond that, we must acknowledge that social work--like every other kind of work--is not for
everyone, and we have to stop pretending that it can be.
Clearly many resident faculty members have been reluctant to speak out in criticism of the
administration. This is all more true of adjunct faculty, whose jobs hold no security whatsoever,
who for some time now have been feeling shunted aside and devalued, and who are already
afraid of being branded as resistant to change, uncooperative with reform or even racist for
suggesting that all students be held to the same academic standards and to standards of decency
with regard to how even charged topics are to be discussed in official school convocations. Unlike
at many institutions, adjunct faculty at the School for Social Work have in the past seen their
input solicited and felt that their expertise has been highly valued by the school. That is no
longer the perception of adjunct faculty, at least of those with some history at the institution.
If faculty feel threatened, unheard, unsupported, disempowered, confused about their roles, it is
reasonable to assume that deleterious effects will be felt in the classroom. It is also highly likely
that the reputation of the school will suffer as will its ability to attract the best degree
candidates and the best faculty to prepare them for their professional careers. Despite the
current pressures, we are endeavoring to do the best jobs we can. There is a pervasive sense on
campus this summer that administration members are not doing theirs. And the situation feels
as if it has reached a crisis point.

Concerned Adjuncts
Smith College School for Social Work