School of Social Work Students Walk Out of Classes, Demand Payment for Internships
The Michigan Daily • By Alec Hughes • March 24, 2022
“Graduate students at the University of Michigan School of Social Work walked out of their classes Monday morning and gathered on the Diag to rally for Payments for Placements (P4P). This is a student campaign demanding that the University begin compensating Master of Social Work (MSW) students for their internship work; around 80 members of the campus community attended the walkout.
In 2017, MSW students, Social Work alumni and social workers started a petition calling for fair compensation for their field work. Most recently in January, MSW students submitted a petition with over 300 student signatures to Social Work Dean Joseph Himle and other Social Work administrators calling on the University to fund their degree-required internships.
Currently, the majority of MSW field work positions are unpaid even though the Council on Social Work Education requires that MSW students across the U.S. complete 900 hours of field work during their master’s program. SSW spokeswoman Lisa Raycraft confirmed that at the University, non-advanced standing MSW students must complete 912 hours of field work to get their degree. However, MSW students with advanced standing — those who come into the University with a BSW — only have to complete 684 hours during their three semester program.”
