Low-paid social workers and the tragedy at VT

April 17, 2007 · Filed Under Politics, Social Work · Comments Off 

Today, a new study of starting salaries for college graduates showed upward trends, except in one field. What was the lowest paid field for recent college grads? SOCIAL WORK. Read more in the Washington Post.

“Yet not every grad is a winner. The lowest-paid members of the class of 2007 will go into social work, where salaries are half those of some hot engineering or business careers. Social workers average $26,828, down 1.2 percent.”

What does this have to do with the tragedies at Virginia Tech? From my perspective, plenty. Campus counselers, many of whom are social workers, or earlier in Cho’s life, perhaps school social workers– all could have played a crucial role in Cho Seng-Hui’s mental health. Perhaps, meeting with a good social worker could have saved lives at Virginia Tech. But social workers are not well-respected, and we sure as hell know they aren’t well-paid. We don’t know if they were present or effective for Cho Seng-Hui.

A comment on my blog at Blogher:
“The words of Lucinda Roy
Comment by nelle2nelle posted Tue, 2007/04/17 – 3:15pm
The words of Lucinda Roy have haunted me since she was on NPR this afternoon.
She had Cho Seung-Hui as a student, and felt he was severely depressed and carried a lot of anger. Lucinda sought help from various sources, including the school and the police, but was rebuffed.
I simply cannot fathom how she must feel now.”

(I am an MSW student, and a candidate for an MPA).

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BlogHers in the New York Times

April 9, 2007 · Filed Under Feminism, Internet Media · Comments Off 

I have to second Surrender Dorothy and congratulate BlogHer’s co-founders for their strong presence in a New York Times story today.

The story, “A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs,” shows why BlogHer gets it. Even though “it” is controversial for many bloggers who believe the Internet is about absolute free speech. The blogger Robert Scoble says, “As a writer, it makes me feel like I live in Iran.” I think that’s a bit extreme. Blogging can too quickly become vitriolic and mean-spirited without “rules of play.” Vitriol can be part of free speech, but should not replace clear, civil, meaningful expression and discussion.
Lisa Stone said “Any community that does not make it clear what they are doing, why they are doing it, and who is welcome to join the conversation is at risk of finding it difficult to help guide the conversation later,” said Lisa Stone, who created the guidelines and the BlogHer network in 2006 with Elisa Camahort and Jory Des Jardins.

A subtext of both sets of rules is that bloggers are responsible for everything that appears on their own pages, including comments left by visitors. They say that bloggers should also have the right to delete such comments if they find them profane or abusive.”

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