• To prepare competent, effective and ethical social workers who enhance human well-being and reduce suffering and oppression;
• To develop new knowledge for the profession, and;
• To provide leadership and promote community partnerships that improves services and contributes to the enactment of just social policies.

Goals

1. To provide a course of study that challenges students to integrate the knowledge, skills and values of the profession so that they may deepen their commitment to social and economic justice and practice as ethical and competent social workers with diverse, often oppressed, populations in a multicultural society, and;
   
   
2. To promote faculty scholarship that informs and advances social work theory, practice and policy in professional social work and multidisciplinary arenas that influence social well being, and;
   
   
3. To initiate, consult, and collaborate with relevant community constituents and leaders in order to identify and address unmet or emerging needs and to strengthen organizational capacity, programs, and services

Professional Philosophy for the School of Social Work
Social work is a profession that seeks to ameliorate human suffering. It is committed to social justice and to work for the resolution of social problems at the individual, group, and community levels. Guided by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) code of ethics as well as its conviction that people have the potential to redirect their lives individually and collectively, it uses professional knowledge to bring about change that will result in a better quality of life for individuals and communities. This commitment is based upon the assumption that people, individually and collectively, are redeemable, and that strategies to enhance and restore a capacity for social functioning are both capable of discovery and teachable. Multidisciplinary knowledge gleaned from the arts and sciences is essential to the education of social workers, for the profession requires learned human beings who have been exposed to a breadth of ideas and information. Social work education is grounded in the belief that environmental influences affect the development and well-being of people and must be taken into account when assessing behavior and life situations.


Programs of Study

Undergraduate Programs

1. Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.)
2. Concentration in Child and Family Studies
3. Optional Minor in Child and Family Studies
4. ANSWER Program (B.S.W.) in Social Work

Graduate Programs

1. Master of Social Work (M.S.W.)
   • Full-Time Two-Year M.S.W. Program
   • One Year Residency M.S.W. Program
   • 16 Month Accelerated M.S.W. Program
   • Part time M.S.W. Program
   • M.S.W. Advanced Standing Program
   • Bilingual School Social Work Program
   • Hauppauge Center M.S.W. Program
   • Hudson Valley M.S.W. Program
   • Manhattan Center M.S.W. Program
2. Postgraduate Certificates
   • Postgraduate Certificate in Trauma Studies
   • Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Supervision
   • Post-Master's Certificate Program in Bilingual School Social Work
   • Human Resources Management Certificate Program
3. Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Social Work