The School of Social Work embraces the profession’s commitment to the dignity and worth of all people, with particular attention to those who are vulnerable. We view social and personal problems as resulting from complex interactions between people and the structures of society itself, and we work to address those problems at the level of public policy, community organizations, families, groups, and individuals.
In November 2024, Syracuse University announced that as part of a plan to reshape its human dynamics programs, as of July 2025, the School of Social Work would be housed within the School of Education. This announcement came after four months of assessment and cross disciplinary collaboration by members of the Human Dynamics Task Force, co-chaired by Rachel Razza, Associate Dean for Human Dynamics, and Peter Vanable, Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School.
This transition allows for closer collaboration between two programs that share historical commitments to inclusive pedagogy and practice and reciprocal community partnerships across Central New York. It also positions the University’s education and counseling programs to leverage the School of Social Work’s expertise in online teaching and its dedication to veterans and military-connected families.
School of Social Work
244 White Hall, Second Floor
Syracuse, NY 13244
The mission of the School of Social Work is to prepare competent, compassionate, and socially responsible professionals who address human need and promote social, economic, and environmental justice in a rapidly changing world through the strengthening of services, interventions, and policies.
Our collaborative and interdisciplinary approach fosters learning across disciplines, recognizing the interconnectedness of social issues. Social workers share a fundamental commitment to social and economic justice through practice that increases the wellness of vulnerable people.
Job opportunities for social workers are expected to increase much faster than the national average, making a social work education more valuable than ever.
Social work education prepares graduates to work in a wide range of professional settings, including mental health care, hospitals, schools, child welfare, substance abuse treatment, services for older adults, supportive housing, and federal, state and local government.
Social workers also lead not-for-profit organizations, guide service users through complex health care systems, lead labor and other community organizations, assess the strengths and needs of communities and individuals, engage in social research, serve in public office, facilitate adoption, and provide psychotherapy to individuals, families, and groups.
The School of Social Work Bachelor of Social Work (BSSW) program prepares undergraduates to work at a generalist level across the scope of our field. And our innovative Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) program offers two license-eligible tracks of graduate study:
1930
Through the 1930s, Syracuse University students are offered undergraduate courses in social work through the Department of Sociology and College of Home Economics. At that same time, the University and the community’s Council of Social Agencies of Onondaga County envision a School of Social Work.
1945
In 1945-1946, Syracuse University’s adult education unit begins offering a social work course through the State University at Buffalo.
1948
Howard Gundy becomes resident Director of the joint University of Buffalo and Syracuse University Social Work Program.
1950
Syracuse based first year social work program with field placement component begins, with 50 students and one full time professor.
1951
School of Social Work Graduate Student Organization begins.
1952
American Association of Schools of Social Work concludes a separate school of social work in needed in Upstate New York, specifically in Syracuse.
1954
A School Social Work program is proposed, to be jointly administered with University College (now the College of Professional Studies).
1955
Syracuse University ends its relationship with the University of Buffalo and inaugurates an independent School of Social Work.
1956
Howard Gundy is named the School of Social Work’s first Dean. Under his direction, field work plays an important role in the School and is a foundation on which the program continues to grow and evolve. A Rosamond Gifford Charitable Corporation grant of $148,260 sustains the graduate program in its early years.
1957
The School of Social Work initiates the process of accreditation. The following year, the School is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, the first such school in New York State, excluding Buffalo and New York City, and the 61st in the country. The School is located at 400 Comstock Ave. (aka Crouse House) and has 53 students. Crouse House is later demolished to make way for Haven Hall.
1958
A Ford Foundation grant of $750,000 establishes a Youth Development Center at Syracuse University focused on addressing juvenile delinquency. Integrally involved with the community, the center is the nation’s largest university-community venture of its kind. It builds on Syracuse University strengths in nursing, clinical psychology, special education, and public administration.
For the first time, student interns are placed at the VA Medical Center in various geographies, including Syracuse and the Fort Drum area in Watertown, NY, building the foundation for the School of Social Work’s Office of Field Instruction. Over time, many alumni join the VA professional social work staff.
1963
The School of Social Work moves from its first home at 400 Comstock Ave. to three buildings on South Crouse Avenue that include the Youth Development Center and the Social Work Library on either side of the main building at 926 South Crouse Ave.
1963
School of Social Work Professors Haggstrom and Norris are arrested in Syracuse during a demonstration in support of the Committee on Racial Equality (CORE) and the NAACP, demanding that the city “stop the practice of relocating Negroes into ghettos.”
1964
While John Hartnett serves as Acting Dean, the School of Social Work is the only school in the nation running its own social services agency at the time, Central Village Services, serving 500 low-income families. It is funded through a federal “War on Poverty” grant of $314,000. Professor Haggstrom directs the project.
Other community-oriented project in this area are the Family Service Center (1965), the Educational Facilities Laboratories (1968), and the All-University Gerontology Center (1972).
1966
An authority on aging, Dean Walter Beattie secures a grant to study the problems of aging in the community.
1970
In the late 1960s and 1970s, international students begin to attend the School of Social Work from nations such as India, Egypt, Korea, Canada, and the Philippines.
1970
A US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare grant allows the School to plan a “Model Cities” program for the aging.
1971
The School of Social Work admits its first undergraduate class under Dean Walter Beattie, one of the first bachelor of social work programs in the US.
1972
School of Social Work Professor Walter Beattie joins the Ad Hoc Committee on the Development of Gerontology Resources at Brandeis University, a step toward the creation of Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE). In 1974, Walter Beattie became the AGHE’s first elected president.
1972
The School of Social Work establishes the all-University Gerontology Center, which allows students across the University to pursue a concentration in Aging. The Gerontology Center later evolved into the Syracuse University Aging Studies Institute, established in 2011, a joint partnership between Falk College and the Maxwell School.
1973
Under Dean Kermit Schooler and Professor Bill McPeak, the School of Social Work receives a National Institute of Mental Health grant that leads to the Family Mental Health concentration.
1974
The School of Social Work introduces a concentration in Health Care.
1974
The School of Social Work moves to Brockway Hall, connected to the Brewster-Boland residence hall.
1975
The School of Social Work bachelor’s degree program becomes the first such program accredited in New York State by the Council on Social Work Education.
1977
School of Social Work Professor Claire Rudolph receives the first Maternal and Child Health Care grant of $100,000 for a total of 18 years (1977-1995).
1980
Four master of social work students—Bob Sahm, Debra Royce, Mark Clauss, and Jeffrey Ambers, president of the School of Social Work Graduate Student Organization—initiate the Social Justice Award to honor community members committed to social justice under the advisement of Professor Alejandro Garcia, who in 2006 becomes the School’s Director. The award program is later named for Daniel Rubenstein, former faculty member, and his wife Mary Lou, a school social worker.
1982
The School of Social Work implements its first “Poverty Simulation.”
1984
An Occupational Social Work concentration is introduced by Professor Joseph Steiner.
1985
School of Social Work Professor Claire Rudolph receives a two-year, $200,000 grant for Child Welfare Training.
1987
The School of Social Work offers off-campus programs in the New York communities of Rochester, Utica, and Ogdensburg, led by professors Ed Ihle and Gerald Gross, who is named Acting Dean the following year and is succeeded in 1989 by William Pollard.
1989
School of Social Work Professor Claire Rudolph receives another two-year, $200,000 grant for Child Welfare.
1990
School of Social Work Professor Mary Ruffalo receives funding for an innovative psycho-geriatric case management initiative.
1993
Professors Nancy Mudrick and Claire Rudolph write and receive a five-year, $500,000 curriculum development grant that creates the Child Welfare concentration in the School of Social Work and also supports tuition. This project enables current caseworkers from several Upstate New York county Department of Social Services agencies, including Onondaga County, to earn Master of Social Work degrees on a part-time basis.
1994
The School of Social Work moves to Sims Hall.
1995
The School of Social Work’s Yenawine Institute for Corporate and Community Partnerships begins with a $400,000 pledge from Marty Yenawine to stand up the institute and provide scholarship funds. The goal of the institute is to foster connections between social work, social service agencies, and the corporate community. The first Director is Joe Steiner, followed by Karen Hopkins and Bette Thoreck.
1996
The Zurenda Fund Initiative begins with a donation by School of Social Work alumnus G.P. Zurenda, to improve knowledge and skills regarding alcohol and drug addiction. Paul Caldwell is the initiative’s first Director.
1997
The Zeta Gamma Chapter of Phi Alpha, the national social work honor society established in 1962, is founded at Syracuse.
1997
School of Social Work Professor Nancy Mudrick receives $140,000 to evaluate the federal enforcement of disability civil rights.
1998
School of Social Work professors Carrie Smith, Nancy Mudrick, and Claire Rudolph receive $150,000 to evaluate kinship care in collaboration with Onondaga County Department of Social Services and Elmcrest Children’s Center.
1999
The Rosamond Gifford Community Exchange Forum begins a new collaboration between the School of Social Work and the Rosamond Gifford Foundation. Its goals are to stimulate social and systemic change in the Syracuse community, bring together diverse groups to learn about innovative national models, and search for innovative solutions to specific community problems. Keith Alford is the Director. The Rosamond Gifford Foundation contributes $450.000 to the effort, which continues through 2003.
2000
Having been affiliated with the National Association of Social Workers’ Legislative Day for decades, and facilitating annual trips to Albany, NY, Professor Eric Kingson implements the first Legislative Policy Day for the School in Onondaga County. Starting in 2006, the annual event is sponsored by alumnus James Stone G’64.
2000
Professor Carrie Smith begins the E-Racism Initiative in the School of Social Work.
2001
The School of Social Work and College of Nursing, along with two departments in the College for Human Development, form the multi-disciplinary College of Human Services and Health Professions, with William Pollard as founding Dean and Bruce Lagay as the School of Social Work’s first Director. Five advanced concentrations are reconstructed into two: Individuals, Families, and Groups and Community Organization, Policy, Planning, and Administration.
2002
A gift from the Alan B. and Barbara Mirken Foundation establishes the annual Alan B. Mirken New York City Social Work Immersion Trip. Each spring, faculty, students, and staff from the School of Social Work embark on a three-day journey to the New York City area to help students learn how US social welfare developed.
2002
Professor Nancy Mudrick becomes the School of Social Work’s first female leader.
2002
School of Social Work professors Carrie Smith, Deb Monaghan, and Eric Kingson receive a three-year, $360,000 grant for Kin-Net (Generations United).
2002
School of Social Work Professor Carrie Smith hosts the End Racism/End Injustice Conference.
2002
The School of Social Work’s graduate and undergraduate student organizations merge to form Social Workers United.
2003
The School of Social Work—along with the Child and Family Services and Marriage and Family Therapy programs—receive a five-year, $852,000 grant to implement the Promoting Child Welfare project.
2003
The School of Social Work is re-accredited.
2005
The School of Social Work introduces a minor in social welfare.
2006
The School of Social Work celebrates its 50th Anniversary.
2007
The College of Human Services and Health Professions, containing the School of Social Work, is renamed the College of Human Ecology.
2008
Under the leadership of Nancy Mudrick, the School of Social Work initiates the study abroad program “Topics in Advanced Social Work Practice and Policy: A Four-Country Observation and Comparison of Services” in which students visit human service agencies in France, Germany, and Switzerland together with social work students from these nations.
2011
The College of Human Ecology is renamed the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics with support from Syracuse University alumni David Falk ’72 and Rhonda Falk ’74. The Falk Complex—White and MacNaughton halls, former home of the College of Law—is dedicated in 2015. Diane Lyden Murphy, an alumna of the School of Social Work who joined the faculty in 1978, is named founding Dean of Falk College.
2011
The School of Social Work establishes the University Aging Studies Institute, a joint partnership between Falk College and the Maxwell School. This institute develops from the all-University Gerontology Center (see 1972.)
2013
The Social Work and Marriage and Family Therapy dual degree master’s program is introduced, the first of its kind in the nation.
2014
The School of Social Work moves to White Hall, formerly home to the College of Law.
2015
Under the leadership of Director Carrie Smith, the Master of Social Work concentrations are reconceptualized, creating the Advanced Clinical Practice and Advanced Integrated Practice concentrations.
2017
Director Keith Alford receives a proclamation from Onondaga County Executive Joanne Mahoney, which declares April 21, 2017 “Syracuse University School of Social Work Day” during the School’s 60th Anniversary Celebration at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse.
2021
The School of Social Work begins admitting students into an online Master of Social Work program.
2025
In July, the School of Social Work, formerly affiliated with the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, is integrated into SOE, part of a plan to relocate human dynamics programs away from the new Falk College of Sport, into schools and colleges with stronger academic synergies.