Info For: Faculty and Staff

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A professor points at a information on a blackboard as a group of students looks on.

Info For: Faculty and Staff

We are so excited to welcome you (back) to SSW.  We've compiled checklists, forms, schedules, and helpful websites here. This site is updated regularly, please check back for new information in the coming months. If you have any questions, please contact us. We’re happy to help!

Contact Faculty Support Services

Lilly Hall
23 West Street
Northampton, MA 01063
Email: sswfacultysupport@smith.edu
Phone: 413-585-7978

Our Five Core Principles 
Our School is committed to five Core Principles of racial justice that guide all areas of our programs and work as we constantly strive towards greater anti-racism – an ongoing goal to which the entire School community aspires.

Loren Cahill stands in the Colored Girls Museum in Philadelphia wearing a black and white blouse. Her arms are folded in front of her.

“Art allows me to be creative outside the canon. Someone who’s not going to read my 300-page Ph.D. dissertation or my scholarly writings—the currency of academia—will attend an art exhibition. Art can make ideas accessible and available to a wider range of people; it provides an entry site. It’s a way of inviting people in.” 

Loren Cahill, M.S.W., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Explore faculty perspectives

Dates and Deadlines

May/June

Friday, May 31, 2024, 1 - 6 p.m.: Term 1 Arrival and move-in*


Saturday, June 1, 2024, Noon - 5 p.m.: Term 1 Arrival and move-in*

*If you are unable to arrive during the above times, please reach out to sswhousing@smith.edu


June 2: Term 1 In-Person Faculty Onboarding Day 3

Those teaching in term 1 are expected to attend. Additional details to follow.


June 3: Summer term 1 starts


June 19: Juneteenth 

Juneteenth, SSW and Smith College are closed

Note: the Alumni Gym in Neilson library is accessible by OneCard. 

July

July 4: Fourth of July Holiday    

SSW and Smith College are closed.

Note: the Alumni Gym in Neilson library is accessible by OneCard.


July 5: Last day of Summer Term 1

SSW open, Smith College Closed.

Note: the Alumni Gym in Neilson library is accessible by OneCard.


July 6-14: Break Week

Break week begins on Friday, July 6, 2024.


July 10: Final Grades Due

Term 1 final grades due by 4 p.m. EST. More information on FIR Moodle page.


July 12, 1-6 p.m.: Term 2 Arrival and move-in*


July 13, noon-5 p.m.: Term 2 Arrival and move-in*

*If you are unable to arrive during the above times, please reach out to sswhousing@smith.edu


July 14, noon-4 p.m.: Term 2 In-Person Faculty Onboarding Day 3

Instructors who are only teaching term 2 are expected to attend. Additional details to follow. 


July 15: Summer Term 2 Starts

August

August 14: Commencement

Classes normally held on Friday, August 16 will be held on Wednesday, August 14 to accommodate Commencement.


August 16: Commencement

If you are planning to attend commencement, please contact sswfacultysupport@smith.edu.


August 21: Final Grades Due 

Term 2 final grades due by 4 p.m. EST. More information on FIR Moodle page

Clinical Social Work

Clinical social work practice is concerned with the interdependence between individuals and their environments and the use of theoretically-grounded, relationship-based, culturally-informed interventions to promote healing, growth and empowerment. Clinical social work recognizes and responds to the complexities of the human condition: its strengths, possibilities, systems of meaning, resilience, vulnerabilities and tragedies. As a collaborative process, clinical social work expresses the core values of the profession, including recognition of client self-determination, growth and change in the client system and pursuit of social justice. It rests upon a liberal arts base and integrates evolving theories about individuals, families, groups, communities and the larger social systems in which they are embedded.

Educational Practices

In its educational practices, the School promotes critical thinking and self-reflection to help students expand their knowledge in the substantive areas of human behavior and the social environment, social work practice, research, social policy, internships, values and ethics, diversity, populations-at-risk and social and economic justice. The School educates students in the application of professional values and ethics, collaboration with other disciplines and the evaluation and dissemination of evolving theories and practice models.

Commitment to Serve Oppressed, Disadvantaged and At-Risk People

The School shares with the social work profession its historic commitment to serve oppressed, disadvantaged and at-risk members of our society. It is committed to implementing a curriculum that addresses the concerns, issues and interests of these populations. The School joins with the profession to struggle against inequity and oppression based on such variables as: race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age and disability. The School and Smith College are committed to social justice, service to society and appreciation of individual and cultural diversity in a multicultural community. The School recognizes the pernicious consequences of racism and works to identify and diminish the overt and covert aspects of racism. Smith College School for Social Work is committed to work toward becoming an anti-racist institution through its five Core Principles among other community-driven work.

Educational Programs

The School implements its educational mission through its master’s and doctoral degree programs, as well as through its program of professional education. Through its scholarship, publications, research and program initiatives, the School contributes to the development and dissemination of knowledge relevant to social work. In its affiliation with a liberal arts college, the School places a priority on the process of teaching and learning and community service. The School maintains relationships of mutual respect and influence with its affiliated agencies, major professional organizations and other representatives of the social work practice community to aid in curriculum renewal and to contribute to the development of the profession as a whole.

Mary Curtin smiles at the camera. She is wearing a purple sweater and has shoulder length curly hair.

"I was drawn to social work because it recognizes that human problems are not just personal; they have a societal or systemic component."

Mary Curtin, M.S.W. '00
Director of Professional Education

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Faculty Support Team
Nieves Ayala smiles in front of an ivy covered wall.

Nieves Ayala

Manager of Faculty Support Systems
Nieves Ayala is a chicana, from the intersection of three states, Chihuahua, New Mexico and Texas. After receiving her bachelor of arts degree in creative…

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