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

June

June 2: Student Check-in and Move-in

All students are required to arrive on campus on Friday, June 2, 2023 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Check-In will be held under a tent outside of the Smith Campus Center where students will receive their student IDs, dorm keys and other materials. Students living in campus housing may move in on Friday, June 2, 2023 after the mandatory student check-in. For those traveling a distance, housing can be made available by request on Thursday, June 1, 2023. To arrange for early arrival, please contact  sswhousing@smith.edu. Please follow all on-campus requirements based on the operating mode for that week. More details will be posted as the date approaches.


June 2-3: Convocation & Orientation

Orientation will be held on Friday and Saturday, June 2-3; Convocation is Sunday afternoon, June 4. (attendance required for all entering students)


June 4: Faculty Orientation Day 3 (Term 1) 

All faculty teaching both terms and term 1 only are expected to attend.


June 5: Classes begin

Term 1 Classes begin on Monday, June 5, 2023 
 


June 19: Juneteenth 

No classes

July

July 3-4: SSW Open    

Classes will occur


July 7: No Classes

SSW is closed in observance of July 4 holiday.


July 7-16: Break Week

Break week begins on Friday, July 7, 2023.


July 12: Final Grades Due

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


July 16: Faculty Orientation Day 3 (Term 2)

Faculty teaching term 2 are expected to attend.


July 17: Term 2 Classes Begin

Classes resume on Monday, July 17, 2023.

August

August 16: Friday Classes held on Wednesday

Classes normally held on Friday, August 18th will be held on Wednesday, August 16 to accommodate Commencement.


August 18: Commencement

If you are planning on attending commencement, please contact sswfacultysupport@smith.edu.


August 23: 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
Max Ansorge smiles at the camera wearing a green v-neck polo shirt and glasses.

Max Ansorge

Faculty Support Coordinator
Max is a Midwesterner who finds themselves in the Pioneer Valley working to help the helpers. They can help you with anything related to professional education…
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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