Toward a More Just Future: A Five-Year Strategic Plan

Rutgers School of Social Work embraces inclusion, intersectionality, diversity, equity and advancement as core principles for our curriculum, our community engagement, our research portfolios and our faculty, student and staff community.  

• Goal 1: Develop a shared definition of IIDEA. 
• Goal 2: Create mechanisms to infuse strong IIDEA practices across the curriculum and our community life.
• Goal 3: Ensure recruitment and retention of faculty and staff that advance IIDEA goals. 

The BASW, MSW, DSW and PhD curricula will prepare graduates for leadership and innovation in community organizations to redress social, racial, economic and environmental disparities. 

• Goal 1: Prepare students for exemplary work with diverse populations and to lead in diverse and inclusive settings. 
• Goal 2: Prepare students to lead and drive innovation in the non-profit, public, private and academic sectors.  
• Goal 3: Prepare students to lead and practice in a technology-driven environment. 
• Goal 4: Prepare students to work in complex health care environments. 
• Goal 5: Enhance innovative methods of curriculum delivery.  

Rutgers School of Social Work will maximize success for 21st-century students by providing access to necessary tools and support to prospective and current students, and to alumni. 

• Goal 1: Develop a framework and multi-year plan for responding to the needs of 21st-century students in the BASW, MSW, DSW and PhD program options. 
• Goal 2: Continue the strong focus on raising dollars for student scholarships and additional student supports.  
• Goal 3: Partner more effectively with Rutgers Career Services. 
• Goal 4: Build stronger community among students at the school. 

Rutgers School of Social Work will serve as an exemplar, top 20-ranked program by identifying emerging social work research priorities, building research clusters/ centers, and by enhancing support for our current research initiatives.

• Goal 1: Continue current focus on increasing T/TT faculty size, to better approximate ratios with key competitor programs (R1, Big Ten, NYC-specific) and to better align faculty representation with student diversity.
• Goal 2: Increase faculty research productivity.

Rutgers School of Social Work will actively support New Jersey social work practice communities through its research and community engagement efforts.

• Goal 1: Identify, develop, and leverage new and existing strategic partnerships between the School and communities.
• Goal 2: Increase faculty, staff and student engagement in social policy advocacy.
• Goal 3: Create faculty promotion supports for community engagement activities.
• Goal 4: Develop a robust community engagement communication plan.

Rutgers School of Social Work will invest to ensure strength in organizational foundations that support the development of faculty, staff, and students to achieve the mission of the School. Organizational foundations elements will ensure achievability of goals, objectives and measures for the other five initiatives and also will include goals, objectives and measures of its own.

• Goal 1: Creating a cohesive culture and climate.
• Goal 2: Investments in infrastructure and other operational instruments.
• Goal 3: Improving branding and communications.
• Goal 4: External development and fundraising.