When I was asked to write a short article about BSW programs at risk and lessons learned from the planned closure of the RIT Social Work Program I immediately said yes. As I sit here, trying to put down on paper what might be learned from our experience, I realize how difficult this is going to be. Given the understanding that it is impossible for me to communicate all that went into our closure process and the final decision, I will attempt to share my thoughts about several factors of concern to all BSW program faculty who want to maintain their program status.

I have identified six dimensions that affected our program closure. They are financial viability, marketability, centrality, quality, community, and relational. These six and how they are communicated are crucial to program survival. I will speak briefly about each.

BSW chairs need to understand how their institution makes financial decisions. Institutions are under serious pressure to be profitable and while you may be fortunate to be in an institution that has not demanded that the social work program make a profit, do not assume that this will always be the case. You may be at risk because of changing financial demands on the institution. We were a victim of a business based academic cost model that reflected a growing financial loss for the department. This model was examined at the highest levels by administration, but not communicated to the department. It was said that the cost model was too difficult for departmental chairs to understand, and therefore it was not shared. While at the college level we participated in budget preparations that focused on our direct costs and received our budgets from the Dean based on our proposal, we never participated in any discussions about all the indirect costs (classroom space, credit hour differentials, various usage fees, etc). Yet it was analysis of indirect costs that influenced management's perception of the financial viability of the program. If we had known about many of the indirect financial concerns, there were strategies that we could have employed to change the overall financial picture of the social work program. For example, we had a low enrollment minor. We could have increased non-major credit hours by developing a more attractive minor to bring in students from other programs and generate more dollars for the program.

It is important for the department to have a marketing strategy. Our enrollment decreased significantly during the past ten years, mirroring the national trend for social work undergraduate programs. As chair, you need to know these trends to keep administration informed as well as to develop appropriate marketing strategies to maintain your enrollment goals. Our institution saw this enrollment decline as linear rather than cyclical, and this was part of their decision to close the program.

At RIT we always had difficulty with the image of a social work program in a technology-based institution. We were not perceived as central to the mission of the institution and, as such, were not seen as a program to continue supporting when our enrollments declined. BSW faculty need to develop meaningful mission statements, which I know you all do. However, you must also communicate how you are meeting the institution's mission so that administration will view your program as vital to the institution. While we accomplished many professional activities that connected RIT with the community, these efforts were not communicated in a way that demonstrated the relevance of the social work program to a technological institution.

Issues of quality were raised when evaluating the social work program for closure. RIT sets goals for SAT scores that social work students were not meeting. Administration appeared to be unaware of the literature that clearly shows that minority students from urban areas often score low on SAT exams. Of course we have a high percentage of Deaf students who score lower on SAT exams because of language issues. BSW faculty need to develop on-going strategies for demonstrating the quality academic and professional education that is occurring in their programs, to debunk the perception that social work is not an academically rigorous program.

BSW programs need to demonstrate continually how our programs connect the institution to the community. While we were involved in many successful programs in the community, administration did not see the department as being a meaningful participant in many of the RIT-Community activities that were occurring.

Relationships are very important. It is vital that social work faculty are involved in the institution in a variety of ways. The more you are part of the institution through shared research, service, and teaching the more you are valued. We were victims of a perception that we wanted to be separate from other programs and departments because we were a "professional program". This was not the case, but rather a dynamic of the college structure and governance. As an example, only traditional liberal arts disciplines are allowed to teach general education classes. This disconnected us from other departments as well as limited our financial viability.

Finally, I would like to mention an integrated theme here: Communication. I believe significant portions of what occurred here at RIT could have been avoided or corrected if communication had been more effective. This includes all levels of management. There were no program reviews conducted during my nine years here. There was one accreditation cycle which we accomplished but there were no institutional reviews based on the criteria outlined above; yet institutional criteria were the determining factors for discontinuing our program. My advice to any chairs out there who have not had a program evaluation/review by the institution in the past 5 years is to insist on one. I was continually given the impression by faculty and some administrators that we were a financially solvent (money making) program. This was not congruent with what top administrators were thinking. This was a major disconnect that from my perspective was a serious management oversight.