Catherine A. Simmons’s research while affiliated with University of Colorado Colorado Springs and other places

Despite sharing similar job responsibilities, two distinctly different career pathways exist within the social work professorate in the United States: tenure-track and non-tenure track. Tenure track faculty generally hold an indefinite appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances. Non-tenure track faculty generally hold contingent appointments with few protections. To expand understanding about differences and similarities between the two groups, the survey of 927 social work faculty in the United States focused on five indicators of job satisfaction: professional connectedness, workplace empowerment, career satisfaction, stress, and beliefs about workplace fairness. Findings show high levels of job satisfaction for both groups; however, non-tenure track faculty respondents reported lower career satisfaction than their tenure-track peers. Most respondents also report a belief that organizational unfairness exists based on gender, ethnicity, and academic rank. Yet, more non-tenure track faculty then tenure-track faculty report beliefs about organizational unfairness for both gender and academic rank than tenure-track faculty. Although limitations exist, the initial findings from the study highlight the importance of promoting workplace fairness within the social work professorate.

Academic literature exploring the experiences and needs among women in the social work professorate has yet to explore the ways in which work-life and family-life are compatible, including work-life enrichment and job satisfaction. To remedy this empirical gap, the current descriptive exploratory study of 504 female tenure-track social work academics investigates components essential to job satisfaction, which are also important to work-life enrichment. A particular emphasis is placed on differences and similarities between women who have dependent children (e.g., under 18 and in the home), women who have adult children, and women who have no children. Data were collected using an on-line survey of social work faculty working at CSWE accredited programs. Variables explored include professional connectedness, workplace empowerment, career satisfaction, and stress. The most salient finding is that having dependent children is not a detriment to factors essential for successful work-life enrichment and job satisfaction, even though overall stress is higher. The three groups have more similarities than differences. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are addressed.

Content analysis was used to explore the availability, type, and location of stalking prevention and intervention information posted on publicly available Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) websites. A stratified sample representing 20% of the IHEs in the United States ( N = 619) across 12 stratified groups identified significant gaps in the information provided. A fourth of the sites posted no information about stalking of any kind. Of those that do include such information, much is difficult to find and focused on reporting to IHE authorities. Definitions, training, and other victim-focused resources are rarely included. Comparisons based on IHE student population (i.e., size) and residential characteristics (i.e., setting) identified notable variations across IHE classification groups. From these identified differences, recommendations to improve information delivery and accessibility are discussed.

Sexual assault is a pervasive problem on university and college campuses. Although not a new problem, media and political attention has placed renewed pressure on institutions of higher education to prevent and respond to campus sexual assault. To be effective, policies and procedures need to fit with the contextual and administrative realities of the institution. To help IHE administrators better understand and navigate the nuanced issues surrounding campus sexual assault, the following paper synthesizes the empirical literature with a focus on 6 general and 3 administrative tensions inherent to IHE sexual assault prevention and response strategies.

To better understand what and how institutions of higher education (IHEs) communicate information about sexual assault (SA) on their websites, the current cross-sectional descriptive exploratory study analyzed a stratified sample representing 15% of the IHE websites in the United States. Findings show the availability, location, and type of SA information posted on IHE websites differ based on student population and residential character. Large and primarily residential schools are more likely to include SA information, across multiple pages, with a wider informational span than other categories. However, informational gaps are apparent across all websites. Implications for policy and practice are highlighted.

Background and Purpose: It is important for opportunities to exist within the social work academic community for talented scholars to continue their academic career while also caring for family members including children, life partners, and aging parents. Although some are able to transgress a smooth liner path through a tenure-stream academic career; this often requires compromises in various life domains (Evans et al., 2008; Ward & Wolf-Wendel, 2012). Others follow non-linear academic career paths, which can encompass a variety of opportunities including non-tenure positions, on-line education, time off, and/or non-academic jobs (Wolfinger et al., 2009). Despite the importance of work-life decisions to success across all life domains (de Saxe Zerden et al., 2015; Vakalahi & Starks, 2010), very little published research addresses these issues within the social work academic community. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to improve understanding about how caretaker roles and career paths affect personal sense of empowerment, community, stress, and life satisfaction among a sample of social workers pursuing academic careers. To address this empirical gap, the following research questions were explored: RQ1: Do family caretaker responsibilities differ for social work academics along different stages of linear and non-linear academic career paths? RQ2: Is there a relationship between the career path taken by social work academics and sense of work-place empowerment, connectedness to the social work academic community, stress level, and life satisfaction across professional and personal domains? RQ3: Does the relationship between caretaker responsibilities and academic career path affect work-place empowerment, connectedness to the social work academic community, stress level, and life satisfaction across professional and personal domains? Method: An on-line survey was administered to academics working in accredited social work programs in the United States. The sample included 918 participants (709 women, 208 men, and 1 identified as a “Transexual Man”) recruited through a mixture of invitation and snowball sampling. Variables were measured using the Menon Empowerment Scale (Menon, 2001), the Brief Sense of Community Scale (Peterson, Speer, & McMillan, 2008), two 11-point satisfaction scales (Eurobarometer, 2008), the 4-item Brief Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983; Cohen & Williamson, 1988), and survey items designed for this study. Results: ANOVAs were used to address RQ1 and RQ2. Multiple regressions were used to address RQ3. RQ1: Comparisons between and within the linear and non-linear career path groups identified differences in both child and adult caretaking responsibilities. RQ2: A relationship between career path taken by social work academics and the included variables found differences in some, but not all of the comparisons. RQ3: The relationship between caretaker responsibilities and academic career paths identified differences in some, but not all of the regression models. Conclusion/Implications: For social work academics to “ensure healthy development for all youth,” (SSWR, 2017) they must first find ways to continue their academic career while balancing caretaker responsibilities. Preliminary findings of the current study indicate the way social work academics do so across the various academic career stages is a highly individual matter with personal and professional consequences.