Bachelor of Social Work
Receives CSWE Candidacy Status
On June 16, 2000, the Presidents Council of State Colleges and
Universities approved the Social Work Baccalaureate Degree and Major
at Central Michigan University. The result of this decision is
that students will begin to enroll in a Social Work major in the Fall
of 2001. Upon completion of the degree requirements, they will
graduate with an earned Baccalaureate Degree in Social Work (BSW).
The new Bachelor's of Social Work (BSW) degree was granted
"candidacy status" on February 12, 2001, in the
accreditation process by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).
Candidacy status means that the CSWE Commission on Accreditation has
found compliance with all the Candidacy Evaluative Criteria. The
program enters candidacy status for two years, while continuing to
fully develop its compliance with accreditation standards in concert
with the Commission.
The development of the Social Work BSW degree and major and the
granting of the CSWE candidacy status was supported in part by New
Initiative Funds.
The Next Step
Candidacy is a period during which a program develops its ability
to comply with accreditation standards. Each year while in
candidacy, the program will prepare a progress report, which serves to
inform the commissioner who makes the annual visit. The first
year's progress report should address as many of the Evaluative
Standards as possible, to allow full commissioner feedback for the
program.
In the second year the commissioner's site visit report addresses
continued compliance with Candidacy Evaluation Criteria and progress
toward compliance with Evaluative Standards and the Curriculum Policy
Statement. The commissioner assesses the program's readiness to
move toward initial accreditation. The commissioner who visited
CMU is late September, 2002 affirmed the program's
readiness for this next step, along with providing a useful analysis
of the programs strengths and areas for further development. The
social work program submitted its self-study for accreditation in late
March, 2003. CSWE has approved the Social Work Program for a
site visit for initial accreditation in September or October, 2003.
Source: CSWE Handbook on
Accreditation1994
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