Graduates of the school move into a broad variety of social service settings, including those concerned with aging, family and child welfare, corrections, mental and physical health, and adjustment in schools. In anticipation of such professional activities, the school provides field instruction placements throughout the state where students engage in services to individuals, groups, families, and communities or function in planning and management roles.

Both the Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work programs are accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The school is a member of the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work, the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education, among others.

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Mission Statement

Adopted by action of the faculty on February 8, 1995.

The mission of the Indiana University School of Social Work is to educate students to be effective and knowledgeable professional social workers prepared for practice in the twenty-first century. Such practitioners are committed to the alleviation of poverty, oppression, and discrimination. The school is dedicated to the enhancement of the quality of life for all people, particularly the citizens of Indiana, and to the advancement of just social, political, and economic conditions through excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service. Within the context of a diverse, multicultural, urbanized, global, and technologically oriented society, the school prepares social workers who will shape solutions to a wide range of interpersonal and social problems by developing and using knowledge critically as they uphold the traditions, values, and ethics of the social work profession.

Teaching
The teaching mission is to educate students to become professional social workers equipped for a lifetime of learning, scholarship, and service. Graduates embrace person-in-environment and strengths perspectives that are linked to the welfare of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. They learn to keep abreast of advances in knowledge and technology, be self-reflective, and apply best practice and accountable models of intervention. The school prepares social work practitioners and scholars ready to assume leadership roles at the B.S.W., M.S.W., and Ph.D. levels.

Scholarship
The scholarship mission includes the discovery, integration, application, dissemination, and evaluation of client-centered and solution-focused knowledge for and with social work professionals and other consumers. Innovative forms of scholarship are encouraged in developing knowledge for use in practice, education, and service concerning social needs and social problems.

Service
The service mission is dedicated to the promotion of the general welfare of all segments of society. Service includes work in the school, university, profession, and community and reflects the school's expertise in teaching, scholarship, and social work practice. Service in the interest of persons at greatest risk is consistent with the social work profession's attention to social justice.

Policy on Nondiscrimination
Based on the tradition of the social work profession and consistent with Indiana University's Equal Opportunity Policy, the Indiana University School of Social Work affirms and conducts all aspects of its teaching, scholarship, and service activities without discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, socioeconomic status, marital status, national or ethnic origin, age, religion or creed, disability, and political or sexual orientation.

The School of Social Work has a strong commitment to diversity and nondiscrimination. Indeed, diversity is celebrated as a strength. This perspective is demonstrated by the composition of its faculty and student body, curriculum content, and recruitment and retention activities; by participation in university committees dealing with oppressed populations; by numerous service activities, including advocacy on behalf of the disadvantaged; by its selection of field practicum sites; and by school policies related to promotion and tenure of its faculty.

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