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The master of social work program at UNLV has received full accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education.

"This is terrific news. We had felt confident that the council would grant the full accreditation. Now we can move forward with our improved degree program," said Provost Douglas Ferraro.

The program originally had been fully accredited, but was placed on conditional accreditation in June 1997 because of some concerns expressed by the accrediting agency. The School of Social Work then set about addressing those concerns. Earlier this month, the council voted to reinstate full accreditation for a period of eight years, retroactive to the start of fall semester.

The bachelor's degree program in social work has been fully accredited since 1974, said Esther Langston, director of the School of Social Work. The conditional accreditation did not apply to the bachelor's program.

"Accreditation is vital to students because social work is a licensed profession, and in many states students cannot take the licensing exam unless they have graduated from an accredited program," Langston said. "However, it is important to understand that in UNLV's case, our social work students who graduated in 1997 could sit for a licensing exam because the master's program was accredited, although on a conditional basis.

"Conditional accreditation means the Council on Social Work Education identified some specific program concerns, and we were given a year to address those concerns," she said. "We completed the process successfully because of the strong commitment we received from the provost, dean of the college, and the faculty and staff working as a team.

"The changes we made included restructuring our curriculum, hiring additional faculty members, and strengthening the admission and advising process," Langston said. "These changes have definitely improved our program."

Dean Martha Watson of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, the college which includes the School of Social Work, said, "As the result of the hard work of many individuals at UNLV, we now not only have a fully accredited master of social work program, but also a stronger program with which we can better meet the needs of our students as we move into the next century."

For additional information, call Langston at 895-3311.