Social Work  News

Syracuse Welcome, the University’s required orientation program, is scheduled for Aug. 24-27. At Falk College, we’ll be welcoming a student body that includes more than 2,100 undergraduate and graduate students.

The newest Falk students in the Class of 2027 are a talented group from 31 U.S. states and 10 global countries. Joining the Falk family are 319 first-year students, 16 transfer students, and 283 graduate students (123 in residential programs and 160 in online programs).

For everything you need to know about Syracuse Welcome, please visit the Welcome Schedules webpage, where both University and Falk College-specific events can be found. Welcome to Falk College and Syracuse University!

Many know Diane Lyden Murphy as the Dean of Falk College, a position she has held since 2005. But her journey and impact at Syracuse extend well beyond her deanship. In many ways, her leadership in Falk College was shaped by the people and experiences in Diane’s life before Falk College even existed.

As we approach the end of August 2023 and the conclusion of her deanship, we sat down with Diane to reflect on her personal journey to academia; her calling to social policy, social justice, and feminist scholarship; and her remarkable 45 years of service at Syracuse University. Here is her story:

Moving In a Crowd

“Do you want to be a jumping hyena? Or do you want to play ball?” One of the sisters who taught at Our Lady of the Valley, a Catholic high school in Orange, New Jersey, was encouraging a young Diane Lyden to join the basketball team. It was the early 1960s, a time when women’s competitive sports were still new and most young women were cheerleaders. “The nuns were my first feminist teachers,” she said. “I didn’t know it then.”
Thanks to the nuns’ encouragement, Diane joined the women’s team, which won several state championships in northern New Jersey. “I wasn’t top of the team. But my very best friend Bernie was. She was a top shooter in Jersey. Boys would get scholarships every year. But there were no scholarships for Bernie, so she did not go to college.”

Growing up in North Jersey, there were Irish, Italian, and Polish neighborhoods. At home, she was part of a multi-generational household of first-generation Irish Catholics. Diane was the eldest of 10 children—four girls and six boys. The house was huge, and it needed to be—it was home to her siblings, grandparents, and aunt and uncle “I’ve always lived in a gang, that’s how I moved around and knew life. There were always little kids around. There was always lots of activity. We went to school, and church, and athletics. You had to do well in your own role.”

In school and at home, Diane found a mix of “old world” culture mixed with the social justice values of her Jesuit education and home upbringing. “The whole ethos and modeling and life I had was always built around issues of social justice and giving back and philanthropy, mutual aid, and leadership in that area. The concept that what you’re given must be returned,” she said.

The family went to mass every day, and they all worked by the time they were 16. “I either volunteered, or by 16 I had a job.” In high school, Diane was a hospital volunteer, often called a “candy striper.” Even there, Diane was marching to her own drum. “I kept getting into trouble because I kept on serving the people. You’re supposed to just give them their food and leave—but I kept on feeding the old people,” she said, grinning. “The nurses finally said to me, ‘You’re only supposed to leave the trays, you’re not doing the right job, you’re fired,’” she laughed. “I had a little rebel streak. If anybody said don’t, I did.”

But as traditional and new ideas of the world in the 1960s found themselves at odds, Diane found a way to preserve the best of both and still push for progress. Perhaps her biggest act of individual thinking was her decision to go to college. Diane had a knack for academia; she took three years of math, and even won a state award for her four years of Latin language education.

Although she was at a college prep school, her family did not understand why she wanted to go to college. No one in her family had earned a bachelor’s degree, and the women didn’t receive any college education. Money for higher education was reserved for the men in the family. Her father, an Irish biological orphan raised by an adoptive Polish family, had an associate degree and a stable white-collar job in traffic control. Just as Diane was finishing high school, her father was being transferred to Upstate New York. Since her family was relocating to Syracuse, Diane enrolled at Syracuse University.

A Born Social Worker

Diane became part of the progressive action movement in the community and on campus. “It was a social activist time. It completely meshed with my own mission and values. So, I became an activist scholar.” She majored in sociology at the Maxwell School and was part of the honors program. At the time, social work was not an undergraduate major.

“My parents didn’t help me financially because they couldn’t. I always worked. I worked at the bookstore, lifeguarding, water safety. I worked all through college. I did my schoolwork at home at night.” As an undergraduate student, Diane lived with her family in a big farmhouse. She shared a room with her two sisters. Second in birth order was Diane’s sister, who was following a more traditional path. And while her grandmother gave her sister a dowry, Diane only wanted books. “Grandma would say, ‘Any money I give you will not go into a book!’ It was so far from her experience as a farm child in the Catskills.”

As a senior, she received her honors degree in Hendricks Chapel. “My parents came for the first time to campus, and my father said, ‘What are you doing?’ Meaning, ‘What is this all about?’ My family always loved me and supported me, but, having never experienced it themselves, did not understand higher education.” Although her family did not understand Diane’s chosen path, she credits them with setting her on it. “My inclination to social justice comes out of my early preparation as a child. My parents showed the way,” she said. “All my brothers and sisters do this work. We’re all involved in human services: Doctors, healthcare workers, lawyers, social workers, teachers, and on and on it goes.”

While at Syracuse, Diane met Fred Murphy, a graduate student in economics at the Maxwell School, five years her senior. “He was also an activist scholar. He was employed by the City of Syracuse doing tenant organizing.” One week after her graduation in 1967, Diane and Fred were married. In January 1969, their twin daughters were born.

No Stopping Her

Diane was working at Elmcrest Children Center with a team of six women, each of whom had their Master of Social Work. “You’re a born social worker,” her supervisor told Diane. After a year at Elmcrest, she made her way back to Syracuse to earn her own M.S.W.

Diane arrived at the admissions office with her twins and was greeted with a comment she’d never forget: “‘What are you doing with those babies sitting in my office for admissions?’ he said to me. ‘I’m applying to graduate school.’ ‘And what makes you think that’s reasonable, young lady?’ I said, ‘Because women do it all.’ I was so upset, it got me charged up. I said to myself, ‘I’m really going to do this!’”

She started courses in social work in the fall of 1969. “By this time there was no stopping me. I really loved my studies in social work.” At the time, her twins were not yet 1 year old. There were no childcare services on campus for students with children, and since Fred was working full time, they went to class with Diane. “I took them to school. I brought them to class,” she said. “Still to this day my friends from graduate school talk to me about holding them on their lap. I often rode on a bike with them—one on the front and one on the back. It was a little challenging, but all my friends I met in class helped me do it.” In the M.S.W. program Diane became president of the social work Graduate Student Organization.

Diane paid for her education through scholarships and teaching assistant stipends. These turned into formative experiences for her. “I was given the opportunity to make family-friendly structural changes for all members of the university community, working side-by-side with mentors, university leaders, and countless collaborators.”

In her first year as a graduate student intern, Diane worked with Central New York Legal Services in local family court cases. In her second year, she worked with Dr. Charles Willie, then-Dean of Student Affairs and previous chair of the sociology department whose research focused on mental health in African American families. “That was an unbelievable adventure working with him as his graduate assistant. What a privilege. He ended up being tenured at Harvard University’s School of Education. Under his mentorship, we developed and founded the Syracuse University Early Childhood Education Center.”

By the early 1970s, there was a large population of married students and families, many of whom were having children. But there were only minimal health benefits at Syracuse University. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was more than 20 years away. “Dr. Willie said to me, ‘Married students are a poverty population.’ And they were.” And although Syracuse University had the Bernice M. Wright Laboratory School, the school was a cooperative model, and it didn’t take infants. Together, Dr. Willie and Diane as his graduate assistant established the Early Childhood Education Center funded between the Department of Psychology, the School of Education, and the Office of Student Affairs. They also created a program with SUNY Upstate Medical University to help students access affordable childbirth delivery.

After completing her M.A. social science in 1976 and her M.S.W. in 1978, Diane decided to continue with a Ph.D. “Obviously I was kind of pushing against things all along, and now it became pretty obvious what the mission was. There’s no question of the intentional effort that we would make this university a model for family friendly policy.”

Trained by the Very Best

Throughout her doctoral studies, Diane worked with Dean of the School of Education Burton Blatt, Doug Biklen, Bob Bogdan, Steve Taylor, and other scholars and partners at the Center on Human Policy in the School of Education. “These were the School of Education’s flagship signature moments, and we were the literal pipeline of funding from Washington. Most of the federal funding for the nation came to Syracuse University for disability studies.” In part, the Center worked on deinstitutionalization and the promotion of community care models. “This was a big part of my journey in my 30s and 40s and this movement in disability studies transformed America,” she said.

Diane’s colleagues at the Center were trailblazers for inclusive education. The Jowonio School was an early pilot of inclusive education modeling that was created by the School of Education. They integrated these models into the Early Childhood Education Center and the Bernice M. Wright Laboratory School before they became the model for the surrounding Syracuse community, and eventually the world. “Now inclusive education is mainstream. Syracuse University School of Education built that,” she said. “I am pleased to say every one of my children have been educated within an inclusive education environment. It makes a world of difference, and everyone benefits.”
All of Diane’s doctoral work was done with the Center on Human Policy. In her graduate assistant office on campus, she kept a crib for the twins where they would sleep while she wrote her dissertation.

She earned her Ph.D. in 1983 and by then, Syracuse University was truly her home. “I had a lot of good fortune,” she said. “I had been trained by the very best and got to do the work I love, which is organizing and planning social change, having the university engage in the community and the community engage in Syracuse University.” She loved academia, and she felt part of the community. And perhaps most importantly, she could see an opportunity to make change in the place she had grown to call home. “I realized I could do activist organizing within the university community and make this a better place for all,” she said. “So, I stayed, and I never left.”

Together You Create the Shift

As a member of the University Senate since 1979, Diane was deeply involved in writing new policies for the university. She and her colleagues formed policies for women’s concerns, gender pay equity, and sexual harassment. They established benefits for parental leave, adoption, domestic partnerships, and retirement. “We looked across the nation and even in Europe to see what best healthcare policies to have at a university. We adapted them, we brought them in, we pushed for them. You have to be strategic and skilled in community change and movement and organization theory—and we were. So, we’ve attended to all those things and we’re a better place because of it.

“But we can’t rest on this,” she continued. “Although there has been accomplishment, we realize there is a harsh political context to consistently work in. But the university has been responsive through its legislative and statute process, through the University Senate, our chancellors, and our provosts, and community leaders have been responsive to working towards a progressive site. That’s a gain for the entire community.”

Active in the early women’s movement in the wider community, Diane was one of four charter members of The Women’s Center, which operated consciousness raising (or “CR”) groups in Syracuse and surrounding towns. It’s still active and located on Allen Street and Harvard Place. From 1993-1994, Diane served alongside her colleague Dr. Marie Provine, a lawyer and Chair of the Department of Political Science, as consultants to Chancellor Kenneth Shaw on women’s issues.

In 1989, Diane took on a new role establishing women’s studies at Syracuse University. She recalls university leadership asking, “Why do we need women’s studies?” “Because everything else is men’s studies,” she said. She was Director of Women’s Studies for more than 16 years. Together with her colleagues, they established women’s studies as a department in the College of Arts and Sciences, and created a major, a minor, and a certificate of advanced study. “Women’s studies is an articulation of giving women the opportunity to study every subject through the lens of women and their history and contributions. It shifts the perspective by focusing on women in all academic fields. And it has created the movement of women’s perspective entering every field of knowledge without exception. This perspective is not yet universal, and there is more progress to be made,” she said.

“You do that collectively,” she continued. “Collectively means you have women that are interested in doing this and leading this as mentors in every possible place in the university and community, and together you create the shift in knowledge.”

Following Dr. Claire Rudolph and Dr. Nancy Mudrick, Diane in 1978 became the third female faculty member to join the School of Social Work. She taught macro policy and law in mental health and developmental disability policy, emphasizing the importance of building change into structures, processes, and systems. “I know as an organizer, until you build it into the structure, it goes with the wind.” She loved teaching her students how to work with people to make progress–something she’s been doing her whole life. But perhaps her biggest challenge was yet to come.

We’re Going to Build It

In 2001, Syracuse University merged the College for Human Development, the School of Social Work, and College of Nursing together to form the new College of Human Services and Health Professions (renamed the College of Human Ecology in 2007), led by Dean William Pollard, former Dean of the School of Social Work. The merge raised questions from faculty about the future of their programs. What does it mean for the formerly independent disciplines? How would the programs continue as a collective College? “It was a challenging time,” said Diane.

In the fragile early years of transition, the university began a search for Pollard’s successor. Although a dozen candidates were vying for the job, Diane wasn’t one of them. But the university leadership identified her as a strong candidate, thanks to her track record of success in leadership and community organizing. She was heavily recruited. Still, many of the university’s leaders openly expressed their doubts about the ability of the college to succeed. She recalls a conversation with one member of university leadership who said, “If I were you, I would take the job and let it fall to its own because it’s never going to work. Let it fall apart and that’ll be the end of it.”

Even Diane had her doubts. But taking the job under the assumption of failure was unacceptable to her. She would accept the job under only one vision: that it would succeed. “I remember saying to myself, ‘If I’m going to do this, we’re going to do it! If these schools must be arranged like this, then we’re going to build it so that we can live and thrive in this structure. Otherwise, all the programs will go away.’ And that’s what I said to the committee: We’re going to build this thing.” In 2005, she was selected unanimously by full faculty vote.

For Diane, failure wasn’t an option. The programs themselves—professional programs in health, nutrition, social work, human development, and others—were too vitally important to society in promoting health and equity. “I said to the faculty, ‘We’re going to take this College and make it what we want it to be. What we know it is. But we will do it. We won’t let it fail because our subject matters are too important. We can do this together—and we will do this together.’”

Diane was the perfect choice to join people together to create a new community. “I was raised in a crowd from the time I was a young person in a large family. I move in a crowd.

“I never make decision alone,” she continued. “I assume that I have other experts around me—we bounce off ideas, we have discussions, and we come to collective work that I think represents the best of everyone. And that’s guided me even to the deanship.”

As the College structure was being formed, so was its identity. With Diane at the helm, the college was built on the principles of social justice and civic engagement. It became a college where putting theory into practice is about more than just gaining practical experience, but about serving others and fostering humility and understanding in diverse global cultural contexts.

Among the merged colleges was a curriculum for sport management, written by faculty in consumer studies, one of the academic programs that had been newly introduced as part of the merge in 2001. In 2004, Falk College launched sport management built on the framework of social justice and corporate social responsibility. In many ways, a socially minded business program was ahead of its time. But the students embraced it, and since 2006 they have raised more than half a million dollars for local charities and continue to lead discussions about diversity and equity in sports.

With support from Syracuse University alumni David Falk ’72 and Rhonda Falk ’74, the College was renamed the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics in 2011. The Falk College Complex, former home of the College of Law, was dedicated 2015. Falk programs which had been dispersed in eight different locations across campus were finally all together under one roof. “It’s 18 years since I became Dean, and we have built it. We are a huge success on every dimension,” she said. “We’ve done it as a collective. We’ve done it as a community.”

Today, Falk College boasts impactful interdisciplinary faculty research in human services, health, and social equity. The curriculum integrates highly effective theory-to-practice learning models for student training. Falk College created new undergraduate and graduate academic programs in food studies, esports, and sport analytics at Syracuse University, new programs public health from the legacy of the former College of Nursing, and new programs in exercise science which began in the School of Education. Students also benefit from new global study abroad programming across Europe, Asia, and Africa.

But most importantly, every year the College graduates a cohort of students who are prepared to make their communities stronger, healthier, and more just places. “When students come and study in Falk College, they’ve already made decisions about what they want to do in their life. They want to be largely involved in improving the lives of others through their professional career. They bring such joy, commitment, eagerness, and innovation. That’s the everyday lift you get from being around Falk students.”

Accomplishment in Doing Good

Diane recalls words from a colleague and friend who said to her, “I have never seen anybody fight so hard and forget so easy. You can work with anybody.” She has grown to be admired for her ability speak truth to power in a way that maintains respect and preserves unity.

“I have an ungainly and probably not grounded sense of self confidence, and still do to this day,” admitted Diane, a self-described “straight-shooter.” But she is still inclined toward a bit of humor. Empathy and humility have been guiding principles in her life and leadership. “I don’t feel above anybody else, and I always value diverse perspectives,” she said.

For the campus community, Diane’s legacy will be her effectiveness as an advocate for change and her ability to move groups of people together for better. “It’s a sweet and lovely feeling of accomplishment in doing good.”

But for Diane, her legacy is the one she shares with her late husband, Fred: Their five daughters, their grandchildren, and their commitment to their communities. “I am certainly a feminist. I get it right back at me now from five feminist daughters of whom I am immensely proud.” All her daughters work in education, health, and helping professions. All are heavily involved in civic activity, and not by accident “Fred and I raised our family in the City of Syracuse by determination. We’re urbanists.” Still today, Diane is a proud member of the Westcott community.

Over the years, Diane’s big family home just kept getting bigger, encompassing her family, her Syracuse neighbors, and the university community. “I feel privileged to have had the chance to practice my own values, my own mission, my own journey as I saw it with my family. To be able to execute that and to live that life comfortably and bring that to work, I mean, what an opportunity. I get to work every day at what I love to do. It is quite a privilege and I know that.”

Thanks to Diane and the progress she helped forge in favor of social justice, more people can enjoy that same privilege of shaping their own path in life and living out their own personal mission in all circles of influence–at home, at work, and in the community–instead of having to choose. After all, if Diane has demonstrated one consistent truth, it’s that change can only be achieved if it is achieved together.

Story by Valerie Pietra. Special thanks to Matt Michael for editorial collaboration and contributions and Syracuse University Archives Special Collections Research Center for research and photography.

Jeremy S. Jordan, a seasoned academic with extensive experience in sport and recreation management, has been named the next dean of the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. The announcement was made today by Vice Chancellor, Provost and Chief Academic Officer Gretchen Ritter. His appointment, effective September 1, was approved by the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees.

“Jeremy Jordan brings a combination of academic leadership experience and hands-on industry knowledge that will be a boon to Falk College and its professional programs—from food studies to marriage and family therapy to social work,” Provost Ritter says. “I look forward to working with him, especially on important initiatives like the launch of the esports degree and the expansion of the sport management program.”

Jordan is currently the vice provost for faculty affairs at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he is also a professor and Ed Rosen Senior Research Fellow in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management’s Department of Sport and Recreation Management. He is the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative, and has also been the director of the Sport Industry Research Center and the Millard E. Gladfelter Research Fellow.

Jordan’s research focuses on the impact of sport participation and events on individuals and communities, as well as the social, environmental and financial impact of sport events and organizations. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has participated in more than 65 funded research projects.

Before joining Temple in 2008, Jordan held faculty positions at the University of Miami, Mississippi State University and the University of Memphis, and served as the athletic director at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. He earned a Ph.D. in sport management from The Ohio State University, a master’s degree in exercise and sport science from the University of Utah and a bachelor’s degree in physical education from La Sierra.

“I am honored to have been selected as the next dean of Falk College and look forward to becoming a member of the Syracuse community,” Jordan says. “The college is known for its academic excellence, impactful research and commitment to community engagement. I admire the culture and rigor of the college and Syracuse University, and I look forward to contributing to the success of both with the support of the students, staff, faculty and alumni.”

The dean search committee, convened by Provost Ritter in February, was co-chaired by Falk College faculty members Mary Graham, professor of sport management and faculty athletic representative, and Katherine McDonald, associate dean of research and professor of public health.

“I am grateful to the committee members for their hard work in recruiting a talented leader like Jeremy Jordan to join our campus community,” Provost Ritter says.

Jordan succeeds Diane Lyden Murphy, who is concluding her tenure as dean of the Falk College, a position she has held since 2005. She has served 45 years at Syracuse University. “Diane has truly left her mark on Falk College, shepherding it from its early days and overseeing multiple successful initiatives,” Provost Ritter says. “I thank her for her service and her incredible contributions to the college and the University.”

The idea of merging social work principles and practices with the sports industry is an emerging field, and Syracuse University is at the forefront with a new undergraduate course scheduled to start in fall 2024 in the School of Social Work at the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

Introduction to Sport Social Work is an elective course created by Associate Teaching Professor of Social Work Ken Marfilius in collaboration with Rachel Hamilton, a master’s of social work student who’s currently interning with the Syracuse Athletics Department. Marfilius will teach the course and Hamilton will be his research assistant, and here’s an excerpt from the course description:

Introduction to Sport Social Work: Applying a strength-based perspective to promote the health and wellbeing of student-athletes through a social justice framework. Through course readings, students will learn about sport social work theory, interprofessional collaboration, and understanding well-being issues of athletes. Course assignments will help students gain knowledge in applying strength-based perspectives within engagement, assessment, and interventions with athletes.

In recent years, more professional and collegiate sports teams have added mental health professionals to their staffs. But a professional with a social work degree provides teams with what Hamilton describes as a “macro and micro mix.”

“You’ve got an individual who can see something from the micro level of the individual who’s right in front of them, but also can zoom out and look at the societal trends, the trends within athletics, and the policies in place to evaluate what can be done to improve those policies and make it easier for athletes to feel supported in their mental health and well-being,” Hamilton says.

“With social workers, it’s that vast scale and scope of skill sets that makes the difference,” Hamilton adds. “It’s not just a clinical degree. It can be, if that’s what you want it to be, but as an advanced clinical student, I’m also having to take classes like social welfare policy that are more organizationally based and macro-based. With that knowledge, even if I do just want to work one-on-one with an individual, I still have the ability and the skill set to look at it from the macro perspective.”

Jon Mitchell joined the Syracuse Athletics Department in the newly created position of senior associate athletics director, sports medicine, in October 2022. Mitchell oversees sports medicine, strength and conditioning, nutrition, and mental health, and he says he’s learning from Marfilius and Hamilton the many ways in which social work principles benefit student-athletes.

“It’s never been a part of our program before, and Rachel and Ken are educating me about utilizing it because we want to have as many tools in our toolbox as possible,” Mitchell says. “In college athletics, we are continually challenged to identify new ways to best serve our student-athletes, and this program has the potential to provide us with another resource to help serve the bigger purpose.”

‘Mental Health Linchpin’

Marfilius and Hamilton are both former athletes; Marfilius was a member of the rowing team at Syracuse University, and Hamilton was a member of a varsity cross-country team in Maine that won multiple high school state championships. Hamilton’s husband is former Syracuse football player Macky MacPherson, who went on to play for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and coach Division I college football.

“We have many dinner conversations about the effects of college sports on student-athletes,” Hamilton says, smiling.

Hamilton, a student member of the Alliance for Social Workers in Sport and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, is the first social work student to intern in the Athletics Department. Marfilius, an Air Force veteran whose primary research focus has been on military populations and veterans, had started building a course on social work and sports and was assigned as Hamilton’s field placement supervisor for her internship with athletics.

Together, they refined the course that Marfilius had started to build by incorporating that “macro” strength-based view that goes beyond general mental health support.

“It could be a student-athlete who comes from a challenging background with adverse childhood experiences and what we find, just like with the military, is that at 18 years old those experiences aren’t left behind,” Marfilius says. “They bring those with them–in addition to the pressure and the competition and the academics–and we look at both individual needs and systemic and structural needs of student-athletes and organizations.”

Marfilius says social workers can serve as a team’s “mental health linchpin,” helping directly with mental health-related issues or making referrals to other mental health professionals when appropriate. Mitchell says he views social workers as another potential source of education for student-athletes who don’t know what resources are available or have tried to cope privately with their problems because they didn’t want to seek help.

“We want to build trust by educating them and letting them know we have their best interests at heart,” Mitchell says. “If they can trust us when everything is going great, it increases the trust when things are not going as well.”

A Growing Demand

In addition to student-athletes, Marfilius says the new course is ideal for any student across campus who’s interested in sports administration, coaching, or working in some way with athletes from high school through professional. Falk College is a natural fit for the course because it houses the School of Social Work along with sports-related programs such as sport management, sport analytics, health, and exercise science, and starting in 2024, esports.

“I was interested in working with student-athletes, but there were not a lot of universities, if any, that have a social work program that’s so heavily integrated into a school that offered sport management and sport analytics and all those things,” Hamilton says. “I believe that’s why I was able to break into the athletics department for my internship hours.”

Hamilton says her internship started with her interest in working with student-athletes on their mental health challenges but has evolved to look at how student-athletes can be supported from a systemic level. With a guest speaker list that includes athletics administrators and coaches from inside and outside the university, Marfilius says the Sport Social Work course will provide students a similar opportunity to explore both sides.

“Just that exposure alone, and to have that understanding of what sport social work really is at a macro level, allows them to then look at their career trajectory in a different way,” Marfilius says. “But also, as a career choice, we have more folks who are entering this niche of a field.”

Indeed, the marriage of social work and sport may be the next frontier for the sports industry, which is always seeking a competitive edge. Hamilton says her long-range goal is creating a sport social work program at Syracuse that will meet what will eventually be a growing demand for social workers in the industry.

“Sports acts like a microcosm; there are leadership positions and administrative positions where you can utilize your social work skills to perform well,” Hamilton says. “There are support roles, mental health roles, and your traditional counseling roles, but also this skill set is invaluable to help navigate personality dynamics and group dynamics, and understanding the ways in which you can integrate and use those skills.”

With membership representing 70 percent of House Republicans, the House Republican Study Committee (RSC) recently unveiled a plan to make drastic changes to Social Security and Medicare, including raising the full retirement age from 67 to 69 by 2033 for those born in 1960 or later and then to 70 and beyond by indexing the retirement age to increases in life expectancy.

When fully phased in, raising the retirement age to 69 would result in a 13- to 14-percent reduction in Social Security benefits for all workers regardless of when they first accept retired worker benefits.

Eric Kingson, a professor of social work at Syracuse University’s Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, is a founding co-director and current board chair of Social Security Works, the organization that launched and staffs the Strengthen Social Security Coalition. The RSC is also proposing cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and Kingson says these reductions would be devastating to most Americans.

“This proposal would essentially privatize Medicare, reducing protections and increasing the financial risks of older persons and people with disabilities,” Kingson says. “The waiting period for new disability insurance beneficiaries would be doubled to five years, Medicaid benefits and eligibility will be slashed, and new provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate lower pharmaceutical prices will be eliminated.

“And ironically,” Kingson says, “the RSC’s plan would also extend the Trump administration’s 2017 tax cuts–a change that the Congressional Budget Office estimates would add $3.5 trillion dollars to the federal deficit from 2025 to 2034.”

Kingson is well-positioned to speak to the politics surrounding Social Security’s evolution, financing, and expansion of benefit protections. He served as policy advisor to two presidential commissions: the 1982-83 National Commission on Social Security Reform, and the 1994 Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. An active volunteer on the Obama campaign’s Retirement Security Policy Advisory Committee starting in July 2007, Kingson later served on the advisory committee to the Social Security Administration’s transition team.

Kingson is the author of several books and articles addressing the political and economic consequences of aging, retirement, and Social Security, including “Social Security Works for Everyone! Protecting and Expanding the Insurance Americans Love and Count On.” In that book co- authored with Nancy J. Altman, president of Social Security Works, Kingson and Altman make the case for an all-generations expansion of Social Security for Americans of all ages, races, genders, and ethnicities.

Here, Kingson answers three questions about the several prominent proposals:

Q: After the debt ceiling agreement, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy floated the idea of forming a bipartisan commission to study and propose cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. What do you think of this method to deal with the nation’s deficits and debt?

A: History tells us that these types of commissions fail. It has been tried four or five times during the past 25 years and not one reached the consensus necessary to move proposals through Congress. Even so, the proposal should be taken seriously because it’s an eye into the future of what Republicans will try to do if they capture the House, Senate, and presidency in the 2024 election.

Q: Why does Speaker McCarthy want to go this route?

A: A commission with fast-track authority is a call to make large cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid outside the view of the public. It might protect politicians from taking responsibility for their votes, especially those who vote in favor of cutting these popular programs. (“I really didn’t have a choice, it was an ‘up or down’ vote.”)

But a commission with fast-track authority doesn’t protect the tens of millions of people–young, old, and in-between–whose economic and health security would be badly compromised. In fact, roughly two-thirds of young and middle-aged working Americans are facing personal retirement income crises.

If you think Social Security is too generous–retired workers’ benefits averaging about $1,800 a month in 2023 and even less for disabled workers, surviving children, and spouses–then a fast-track commission might be the way to go. But if not, we should be talking about expanding Social Security and health security protections.

Q: What is the best way for this issue to be addressed?

A: Consideration of changes, especially large ones, should be done through the normal House and Senate committee processes; that is, fully debated and allow for amendments if brought to the floor of the House and Senate. The various proposals that would be under consideration are too important to shut out public comment and bypass the normal order.

Since 2014, June has been designated by the federal government as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month, bringing attention to the serious mental health condition some individuals develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening or traumatic event.

While PTSD is often discussed as it relates to the veteran population, data from the National Center for PTSD show that veterans are only slightly more likely to experience PTSD than the general population. Around 7% of veterans and 6% of all adults will have PTSD at some point in their lives and approximately 12 million adults suffer from it in any given year.

To shed further light on this important topic, SU News interviewed Xiafei Wang, an assistant professor of social work in Falk College. Wang studies the transmission of intergenerational trauma, how trauma-affected individuals and families can develop resiliency, and how such factors as race, gender, disability, and military service impact trauma and resilience. Wang shares her insights and research on these topics and more in this Q&A.

Veterans often face a unique set of legal issues related to their service that require specialized knowledge and understanding to resolve. Those issues can become increasingly complex as veterans age, further intersecting with various aspects of physical, social and emotional well-being. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 80% of U.S. military veterans are over the age of 55.

At Syracuse University, the College of Law and the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics have formed a partnership to help veterans, and especially aging veterans, access the legal services they need and obtain the benefits they have earned and deserve.

Staffed by attorneys from the College of Law’s Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic, law students and graduate social work students, the Legal-Social Work Partnership program provides free, high-quality legal services for veterans, such as assistance with disability claims and discharge upgrades, benefits counseling and more. The partnership also works to educate veterans about their rights and how to navigate the legal system.

The partnership operates under the College of Law’s Office of Clinical Education, where Syracuse law students apply doctrinal law while representing clients under the supervision of faculty-mentors.

The Legal-Social Work Partnership places an emphasis on addressing the social determinants of health. By assisting veterans with housing, employment, aging and other issues, the Legal-Social Work Partnership can help reduce veteran homelessness and suicide rates and improve the lives of veterans and military families.

Elizabeth Kubala, teaching professor in the College of Law, is the executive director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic. “The veterans we assist often have needs and challenges outside the scope of our legal representation,” she says. “Bringing a social work perspective into our legal clinic will not only result in better overall outcomes for our veteran clients, but also a better understanding by the students of how to best serve veterans.”

As Syracuse law students and social work students learn how their respective disciplines interact in real-world practice settings, this program is building a stronger legal system that can address the holistic needs of clients.

While there are law firms that employ social workers in their practices, it is still quite uncommon. Syracuse University alumna Wendy Goidel ’84, Esq., the founding and managing member of Goidel Law Group PLLC and its Estate Planning & Elder Law Center, is one of the few who is leading the way. Goidel is the founder and co-developer of Concierge Care Coordination, a holistic practice model, which merges geriatric social work with legal planning.

“While the interdisciplinary model in an elder law context is natural and essential, it should be replicated and embraced in other practice areas—such as matrimonial, family, medical malpractice, personal injury and criminal—where legal problems are intertwined with social, medical and emotional issues. There is no doubt that clients and their family members receive far superior services, strategies and solutions when attorneys and social workers advocate and collaborate,” says Goidel.

Goidel established the Goidel Law Group Internship Fund to support social work graduate students interested in working at the intersection of law and social work, particularly with older adults, through the Legal-Social Work Partnership program at Syracuse University. Students will receive $5,000 stipends for their internship year while working within the Legal-Social Work Partnership.

“Collaborations between law students and social work students are essential in addressing the legal problems impacting the health and well-being of our nation’s veterans,” says Ken Marfilius, Falk College assistant dean for online and distance education and associate teaching professor in the Falk College School of Social Work. “Social work students will play a key role in connecting veterans to community resources beyond those typically addressed through legal representation, having a direct and immediate impact on veterans and their families.”

“In addition to addressing the critical needs of veterans, this project illuminates the needs of one of the fastest growing populations on our planet, and that is of aging individuals,” says Carrie Smith, chair of the Falk College School of Social Work. “Collaborative work among an increasing number of experts at the intersection of law and social work will be essential in addressing the myriad needs and concerns of this population.

“We are very appreciative of the pioneering work being led by Wendy Goidel in addressing these aims,” she adds.

Through the Goidel Law Group Internship Fund, two social work graduate students at Syracuse University will be selected annually for the Goidel Law Group Internship Fund. Students do not need to be enrolled in Syracuse University’s J.D./master of social work dual degree program to be selected. Interested students must apply online by June 30, 2023, for the 2023-24 academic year.

For more information about the Legal-Social Work Partnership program or the Goidel Law Group Internship Fund, please contact Elizabeth Kubala, 315. 443.8420 or egkubala@syr.edu, or Kenneth Marfilius, 315.443.5586 or kjmarfil@syr.edu.

Along with Dean Murphy, the entire Falk College community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, community partners and friends, congratulates to the Class of 2023! Falk College’s seven academic departments and schools represented 529 degree candidates, including:

• 321 undergraduates;
• 155 masters candidates;
• 50 students earning certificates of advanced study, and;
• 3 Ph.D. students.

Through the month of May, departments across Falk College honored student achievements and celebrated the graduating Class of 2023, which are detailed on individual department websites.

Falk College Convocation was held Saturday, May 13 at Lally Athletic Complex. Falk College Convocation, other college convocations, and the May 14 Syracuse University Commencement ceremony, were recorded and are available to view on the Syracuse University commencement website and is also included below.

Falk College Convocation | Saturday, May 13 | 5:30 p.m. ET

Syracuse University Commencement | Sunday, May 14 | 9:30 a.m. ET