Speculations on the Crisis in Social Work Recruitment: Some Modest Proposals

Abstract

lidity in this period of reaction in which major components of social welfare are being dismantled after fifty to seventy-five years of operation. Social work's future appears precari ous. The wide-open, full-throttle pe riod of the 1960s and early 1970s is merely legend. In the 1980s world of crisis, recision, and curtailment, Reaganomics serves as the terminus for the development of the welfare state—a historic watershed in the life of the nation. It is not surprising that graduate schools of social work have been affected profoundly. Applica tions have declined precipitously, ex ceeding what might have been ex pected by the drop in college-age students. Prohibitive tuitions at pri vate universities threaten some of the finest graduate programs, whose con tinued existence is subject to on going review. Public university pro grams in the Middle West face severe difficulty because of the economic de pression in the region. Undergradu ate social work programs attract fewer students as the allure of prelaw, pre medicine, and computer science grows. The loss of federally financed loans to graduate students may be come the decisive factor in deter