Fall faculty and staff retreat bring all of the School of Social Work together at Conner Prairie
Sept. 21, 2009 - At the School of Social Work fall retreat, Dean Michael Patchner reminded the faculty and staff they were really one big family even though they are scattered on different campuses across the Indiana.
“It’s amazing when we all gather together how many people there are,” Patchner said of size of the School’s faculty and staff as they gathered Friday at Conner Prairie. “We all belong in the same school, though some are a little more distant than others,” Patchner said. “We all share the same commonality. We are all connected in so many ways.”
State revenues have dropped because of tough economic times, a situation that has affected the state’s appropriation to the university, Patchner explained. Each school has seen a reduction in its share of state funding and in the case of the School of Social Work that amounts to a 4.2 percent reduction or $157,303, the dean said.
Even so, the School will be able to manage that and “none of you will see any difference in how we operate, “the dean noted. We have been fortunate that our enrollment overall is up.”
One area the school will have to watch carefully is travel, he added. The university has asked schools to cut their travel budgets in half. The School will be able to use some funds to make up the lost travel funds, but the bottom line is no matter what the school does, it can’t spend more on travel than it did last year, Patchner explained.
During a brief celebration of the dean’s 60th birthday, Patchner remarked that since he became dean in 2000, he has been blessed by a wonderful group of faculty and staff.
“We are such a great group. I often say we are not without our problems, only heaven is without problems. But when you compare us to other schools of social work, believe me we standout as the best in the nation by far and it is because of everyone here.”
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James Daley, (from left) Gail Folaron, Hea-Won Kim and Valerie Decker discuss an issue at the retreat
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