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One of the great strengths of BPD is the diversity of its membership. Programs large and small, rural and urban, in public
and private universities, and in a variety of administrative structures all form part of our association. Yet we often look
to programs that are most like our own to get ideas and to get support for dealing with common frustrations and problems and
to share our concerns.
Over the years I have worked in and with several types of programs, often small, located in rural areas, or both. Many
undergraduate programs consider themselves to be small and/or rural and they see themselves as dealing with different issues
than the larger and urban programs.
You may ask how do you tell if your program is really small or rural? There is no universally accepted definition of
either. Some years ago I decided that you were a small program if you could hold a faculty meeting in an office. That may
not work for everyone, but the usual space constraints limit this to no more than 3 or 4 faculty members. As for rural -
well even social scientists have multiple definitions for that, and I learned that even the census definition wasn't entirely
adequate. So if you have strong reason to believe that you are small or rural you probably are.
So what kinds of issues are significant for these programs? If you are small the biggest concern is undoubtedly resources.
If you consider that all programs have to meet demanding teaching responsibilities, supervise field education, advise students,
cover administrative tasks, participate in university service and community service, assess program outcomes, engage in professional
development, and engage in scholarship, a two or three person program gets stretched pretty thin. Smaller programs often
face the challenges of smaller budgets which limit flexibility in handling these responsibilities.
On the brighter side, smaller programs tend to be close knit with strong connections between faculty members, students,
and the community. These connections provide additional support and strength for the program. In other words, people who
have a connection to the program feel that they have a stake in it and are more likely to pitch in to help when help is needed.
The additional people power generated can relive some of the resource shortages.
Rural social work programs must contend with distance and potential isolation that may be part of the challenges of their
location. One challenge of distance is the need to disperse field placements widely in order to get quality learning experiences
for students. Small communities in rural areas usually do not have a large number or wide variety of available placements
so agencies in several communities must be used to provide good field placements. Travel is another issue traditionally faced
by rural programs. While the times for in town commutes are negligible by urban standards, travel times for field liaison
visits, community meetings, professional workshops, and conferences can consume a lot of time.
Distance and long travel times have a tendency to create a feeling of isolation for rural programs. While the rural location
may make for close connections between the local practice and general communities with the social work program, other colleagues
in social work education may be harder to reach. As a result program faculty must leave campus for a substantial period of
time to participate in meetings and network with their educational colleagues.
On the other hand, the close knit character of rural communities can be a real asset to the social work program. Close
associations with the community are easier to develop and offer a good source of support for the program. There are also more
varied opportunities for field placements as other programs are not usually competing for placements in the same agencies.
Rural areas are often rich in terms of diversity and cultural elements that can be incorporated into rich sources of learning
for students.
But one of the biggest challenges for small and/or rural programs is confronting the belief that you are somehow "less
than" or "different". We tend to dichotomize in much of our thinking these days and terms like winners and
losers and good and bad tend to be promoted by the media. Unfortunately "big and urban" has come to symbolize progress
in the eyes of many and the implication is that "small and rural" is left to represent old fashioned or passé.
These dichotomies are not really useful nor are these characterizations.
For example, the program in which I work is considered urban because it is located in a metropolitan area and is housed
in a university that is classified as urban. Even though I live outside the city limits, my drive to work is only 10-12 minutes
over city streets, I can hear roosters crowing and cows mooing when I get up in the morning. If I turn my car in any direction
besides towards the university I am in what is pretty clearly a rural area, as most of the county is rural. So is a rural
urban dichotomy useful? Not really as our program has to deal with a continuum of communities between these two poles.
Is the idea that bigger is really better necessarily true. While most of our universities would love for us to have more
students enrolled in social work, increased program size can have drawbacks. In smaller programs the close relationship between
faculty and students is a strength that may promote different kinds of learning experiences than in much larger settings.
Many more students could stretch program resources and the search to add much larger numbers of students might lead the program
to attract some of questionable knowledge and skills.
In order to deal with the questions and concerns that we have in baccalaureate programs it certainly helps to communicate
with our colleagues. The annual BPD Conference is a great vehicle to stimulate both learning and communication. This conference
continues to add relevant sessions and meetings and attract new participants. It is really amazing that the best place for
me to network with my in state colleagues is usually at a BPD conference hundreds of miles from home.
Electronic communication has certainly made communication with our other social work educators easier in recent years.
Email updates, the BPD Listserv, and the BPD page make it easier for us to stay current on things that are happening. Email
communication can help us to quickly connect with others.
Each of our programs has an important identity and a place in social work education. It is important for us to understand
who we are and how we are similar to or different than other programs. Then it is easier to be comfortable with what our
programs are about and the role we fill as reflected in our missions.
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