How Goutham Menon Impacted Social Work Education: Ideas to Implementation

There are two words at the heart of almost everything Goutham Menon has accomplished in the last five years: accessibility and affordability. As dean of Loyola University Chicago鈥檚 School of Social Work, Menon has worked tirelessly to make a degree in social work attainable for many who previously never considered it. 

Menon steps down from his position on July 1, but his leadership will continue to impact the school for years to come. He came to Loyola as the dean of the School of Social Work in 2017, having previously served as director and professor of the School of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Reno. But even before being hired at Loyola, he knew how he wanted to reshape the school.

鈥淕outham spoke a lot about where social work and higher education was going. He is a very future-thinking person,鈥� says Jim Marley, the school鈥檚 associate dean throughout Menon鈥檚 tenure. 鈥淓ven before he was hired, he talked about accessibility and affordability.鈥�

Bilingual Education

Menon pushed the school to think differently from day one. He immediately introduced the idea of creating an Online Bilingual Master’s of Social Work (MSW) program鈥揳 first of its kind in the country. The school already had faculty and staff who were bilingual, but looking at the student demographics of the school and the university, Menon felt drastic steps were needed to introduce more diversity.

鈥淥ne thing that really caught my attention when I looked at the data before coming here was in the School of Social Work, we were about 97 percent white students,鈥� said Menon. 鈥淎nd in Chicago, that is troubling. So, during the course of my interview [at Loyola] and through conversations with faculty, I soon came to realize that was an area we needed to focus on.鈥�

Menon put together a team charged with developing the program from the ground up.

鈥淭his was just a monumental step forward,鈥� says Maria Vidal de Haymes, a professor in the school and part of the team that developed the program. 鈥淥ne of the first steps was making sure we had the resources and personnel to develop a high-quality program. Goutham was really committed to not only developing this program, but having it be of the best quality and following the best practices for online education.鈥�

This process came years before the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools across the world to move classes online. Vidal de Haymes recalled a couple classes in the School of Social Work being taught online prior to the Online Bilingual MSW, but online learning was still a new process for many of the students and teachers to that point.

But the online aspect of the program was essential. Students would hypothetically be able to complete their degree from anywhere in the country. And better yet, those students would likely graduate and stay in their community, rather than moving to Chicago for their studies and staying beyond graduation, as many often do.

Just two years after launching the Online Bilingual MSW program, 24 percent of the student body within the School of Social Work were Latinx students. And race/ethnicity was not the only way the new program diversified the student body.

鈥淗aving this be online, having it be bilingual gave it so much more of a reach,鈥� says Vidal de Haymes. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we could鈥檝e reached folks who are working full-time. You can鈥檛 just pick up and move. I think it鈥檚 made it a lot more accessible that way. It鈥檚 richer too, because you hear the regional differences. Students from rural areas can interact with those in coastal cities to talk about the differences in the communities they鈥檙e working in. You get a really rich discussion. So there鈥檚 diversity on a number of different levels.鈥�

Across the country, two other schools of social work have created bilingual MSW programs in Loyola鈥檚 wake, and many more are exploring incorporating bilingual education. The ripple effect of Menon鈥檚 leadership and vision will continue providing opportunities for aspiring social workers across the country, even if those students don鈥檛 enroll at Loyola.

Reducing Credit Hours

In addition to diversifying the student body through the creation of the Online Bilingual MSW, Menon wanted to make education cheaper for social work students. So he made it another day-one project to reduce the number of credit required to achieve a Master鈥檚 degree in the School of Social Work.

鈥淚t鈥檚 crucial that our students not graduate with so much debt after their undergrad and masters that they take 20-25 years to pay back loans,鈥� says Menon. 鈥淎nd when you factor in that a lot of MSW students are older, they鈥檙e paying back loans until the time they retire, which is not fair for the type of impactful work they are doing.鈥�

Menon explored ideas like finding more scholarship money through donors and cutting tuition prices per credit hour, but neither was a feasible option.

鈥淭he only other alternative was to seriously look at building out a rigorous curriculum with fewer credits,鈥� said Menon. 鈥淲ith fewer credits, students graduate with less debt, and in turn, we get more students.鈥�

The affordability of a social work degree is something Menon feels very strongly about. It鈥檚 a common opinion in the field that social workers are underpaid considering the value of the work they do. Lower salaries mean more time in student loan debt and less incentive for students to actually explore a social work degree.

鈥淗e raised the issue about revamping the MSW program and asked why it has to be 60 credit hours,鈥� Marley recalls. 鈥淗e backed it up with a lot of information about student debt and debt-to-earnings ratio and how long it takes students to pay off their debt. It was eye-opening for a lot of faculty who hadn鈥檛 thought about that.鈥�

Again, Menon assembled a team of experienced faculty members to rewrite the required curriculum for a BSW/MSW degree. At the time, that degree required 60 credits for graduation.

鈥淲hen Goutham and I talked about this, we said we鈥檇 see where the faculty get and as long as it鈥檚 less than 60 we would feel like it鈥檚 been successful,鈥� says Marley. 鈥淎nd they got it to 49 and we thought, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 very good.鈥� It鈥檚 a significant decrease. It shaves probably $12,000鈥�$13,000 off the [cost of a degree].鈥�

Under Menon鈥檚 leadership, the 49-credit-hour MSW program became a reality, making a degree in social work at Loyola more affordable and accessible for students.

鈥淔or two years, the team worked on reconceptualizing social work in terms of what an early-career professional needs without overspecializing鈥搕hat鈥檚 where the extra credits come in,鈥� says Menon. 鈥淎nd they worked extremely hard. I鈥檓 extremely proud of them.鈥�

Just like the Online Bilingual MSW, many colleges and universities are following Loyola鈥檚 lead by looking to reduce their own credit requirements for a social work degree. Deans at social work schools across the country reach out to Menon asking for advice how they can make similar changes. He鈥檚 also presented at national conferences outlining the steps Loyola took to make an MSW degree more affordable.

Next Steps

Next year is the 125^th anniversary of the social work profession. Menon hopes to kick off that celebration by publishing a special issue of the journal Advances in Social Work this summer, titled 鈥淩eimagining Social Work and Practice.鈥�

The special issue will include several articles, edited by Menon and three other social work industry leaders, attempting to push the envelope and analyze the social work profession in today鈥檚 terms.

鈥淗ow do we look at the value of a social worker in keeping a family together? In not incarcerating somebody? In keeping kids at home? How much does it save a city or a state if you hire a social worker with a higher salary who stays in the job for a long period of time?鈥� Menon asks. 鈥淟awmakers always want to see how much the state can save. We鈥檙e trying to flip that and say if you invest in professionals who can actually hold these families together, help these communities, keep these kids in school, keep folks out of drugs and alcohol鈥�if you really invest in that, the cost associated with not doing something will be far greater in the long run.鈥�

After a six-month sabbatical, Menon will return to Loyola and spend time working with other social work leaders researching that question and many others. He鈥檒l also return to teaching, which he hopes to do at the undergrad level.

鈥淚鈥檝e not taught for a long time, but interacting with students is the piece that most academic leaders miss,鈥� Menon said. 鈥淏ecause that鈥檚 where the action is in terms of engaging them and getting them excited about their work. And at the undergraduate level you can have more healthy, honest conversations that can lead to meaningful outcomes.鈥�

Marley will step in as interim dean while the University searches for a permanent replacement. He said the school is in great shape, in large part thanks to Menon鈥檚 leadership. U.S. News and World Report recently named the school the 28^th best graduate social work program, up from 53^rd in 2016.

鈥淲hen Goutham presented in front of the faculty and staff before he was hired, it was about affordability and accessibility. He never really lost that thread throughout his time here,鈥� Marley says. 鈥淎nd it was not, from my perception, a top down kind of leadership, but more of a leader who had a particular vision around affordability and accessibility and would plant ideas, but then give faculty the space to figure out how to make those ideas whatever we wanted the school to do with them.鈥�

Menon鈥檚 constant focus on making social work education more affordable and accessible has defined his tenure as dean of the School of Social Work. It makes sense that even after his time as dean, he would still work to advocate for those that represent the future of his profession.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a journey,鈥� says Menon. 鈥淭here are good days and bad days, but end of the day, it has to help the student, nothing more nothing less.鈥�