Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences is seeing something this semester it has not seen in more than two decades-undergraduates.

For the first time since the 1980s, the school is offering courses for undergraduate students. They are SASS 391, Community Needs and Service Delivery, and SASS 390, Independent Study.

Grover C. "Cleve" Gilmore, dean and professor of social work, said the Mandel School is taking the step in response to the university's new vision and recommendations made in the President's Commission on Undergraduate Education and Life (PCUEL).

"The commission's final report called for greater involvement of graduate and professional school faculty in undergraduate teaching and more emphasis on experiential learning. We believe this offering will achieve both goals," he said.

The courses are open to juniors and seniors with at least 12 course credits in the social sciences. Eight students have enrolled in SASS 391.

Gerald Strom, director of field placement at the Mandel School and a co-director of the course, said its focus will be on adoption. Students enrolled in the class will attend a weekly seminar led by Strom and by David Crampton, assistant professor of social work.

The other segment of the course consists of spending six hours per week at the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, where students will be paired with an adoption social worker. Students will learn to read and assess the records of children eligible for adoption. They also will develop a "life book," chronicling the life's history of an adoption-eligible child.

"We think this will be a unique opportunity for our students, whether they choose later to go into social work or not," Strom said. "Even if they do not, we think it will encourage them to become active as volunteers or board members in community organizations."

The Mandel School also is offering SASS 390, a course of independent study for undergraduates, which will include the opportunity to go to the Netherlands in March on a program led by Mark Fleisher, Begun Professor and director of the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education.

Return to the online edition of the 1-15-04 Campus News.