P4P AT UMICH

Welcome to P4P at UMich's official website. Get to know us by learning more, then Sign the Pledge!

As members of a graduate-level learning community, we’re constantly processing new information in overwhelming amounts. In an effort to provide a concise summary of the research backing P4P, here are some fast facts for you!  

If you want to read P4P’s longer overview of its goals, you can do so here. 

Facts

1. P4P wants the University of Michigan’s $9 billion in unrestricted endowment funds to pay stipends for most MSW field students.  The term “unrestricted reserves'' indicates the portion of the endowment set aside for varied use with no special requirements in place to tap into it.  It can be drawn down at the recommendation of the University Provost plus a majority vote from the Board of Regents.   

-> We chose stipends to address concerns related to disability and other social services eligibility. Every individual's needs are unique and we are not lawyers, so we encourage any individuals with concerns to discuss with an attorney, which there is free legal aid provided by the university for those who need it. We also call for an opt-out of this program for students as well.

->  Some students are fortunate enough to have a field agency which is capable of paying a significant stipend, or to qualify for a state-run paid apprenticeship program.  A few more students will benefit from the newly-created Alumni Field Fund.  But the vast majority of MSW students do not meet these criteria, and the endowment is the only entity capable of providing them with stipends.

-> This plan is feasible because the University has yet to increase the proportion of its endowment which is drawn down every year, after reducing this figure during the Great Recession.  The national economy has rebounded and the University’s endowment has grown precipitously in the years since then; the University can draw down a greater proportion of its endowment than it is doing now.

2. Under our proposed payment plan, this additional allocation from the endowment would be added to the School of Social Work’s annual financial aid budget.

3. Our payment plan does allow field sites to opt into paying their students, should they have the resources. Field sites who have the means to pay their field students will submit that request to the Office of Field Education (OFE). 

Fiction

1. The only way that  the School of Social Work could afford to pay for field work is by reducing the amount of needs-based scholarships given out per year.
   ->  In reality, P4P is not asking people and organizations that are vulnerable to change financial dynamics (students, field sites, and UM SSW) to foot the bill for this initiative. Instead, we are asking the Board of Regents to authorize using the University’s unrestricted endowment for this purpose.

2. The School of Social Work will lose field placements that cannot afford to pay their field students.
   ->  Since our proposed payment plan does not demand monetary support from any individual site, no field sites will be at risk of cutting ties with the School of Social Work because of P4P.

3. No current students will benefit from the P4P Initiative as it will take the School of Social Work years to start paying students for their field work.
   -> There is nothing procedurally preventing the Board of Regents from voting to distribute more of the university’s endowment. They will vote to use the endowment for MSW student stipends once enough students make their voices heard!

P4P is a nationwide movement calling for all social work students to be paid for their field work.  

Any organization interested in becoming a P4P chapter must ratify this statement.   

1. We believe that all social work students should be paid for their field work. 

2. We believe that paid field work will free students from financial hardship.

3. We believe that paid field work will make social work education more inclusive and accessible, thereby reducing the barriers to obtaining social work employment. This, in turn, will make the social work profession more socioeconomically and racially diverse. 

4. We believe that securing paid field work for all social work students across the U.S. is inextricably tied to struggles for racial, economic, and gender justice, particularly those led by labor movements. As such, we strive to act in solidarity with all oppressed workers fighting for dignity and better working conditions. 

5. We believe that the contributions of social work students are essential to our field sites. Many field students operate as any other employee does at their agency; some field sites could not function without them.

6. We believe that paying all social work students for their field work will be an historic investment in care work which is a type of feminized and racialized work and which employers too often undervalue.

7. We recognize that underinvestment in care work affects many of our field sites, too.  So we will secure payment for all field work through a combination of university, local, state, field, and federal funding, and through policy change within legislatures, the CSWE, and the NASW.  

8. We celebrate the fact that every student body’s path to Payment for Placements will be unique.

9. We act in solidarity with students in other pre-professional disciplines and encourage them to join us in demanding paid placements or internships.

10. We believe that winning Payment for Placements is an important step toward solving the problems endemic to the field of social work. It is the beginning, not the end, of holding the social work profession accountable to its stated values of racial, economic, and gender justice. 

Under our proposed payment plan: 

1. The Regents of the University of Michigan will pay for our field work by creating a new line item in the Office of Field Education’s budget.  They will do so by drawing down from the University’s $5.7 billion in unrestricted endowment funds.
   -> We are not asking field sites to pay us for our field work, nor are we asking the School of Social Work to do so by cutting its scholarships or other programs.

2. All students will receive a stipend for their field work, paid out in biweekly increments.
   ->  All students means all students enrolled in field during a given semester.  
   
   -> The size of the biweekly increment will vary depending upon your field hours for the semester.  Students in 24 hours of field per week will earn 1.5 times more per week than those in 16 hours of field per week. 

3. This payment plan is modeled after the stipends available to law and public policy students who choose to take their degree-required internships at firms that cannot afford to pay them.  At least part of both programs are funded using University dollars, as part of each school’s respective annual budgets.

4. If your field site already pays you, it can continue paying you as long as the stipend it offers is at least as big as the one the University provides.  

5. The amount of the stipend paid to students during a given calendar year will be added to the “Scholarships and Grants” section of their IRS form 1098-T.
   ->  Since the stipend is not being used to pay for “qualified educational expenses”, it is subject to taxation and will need to be reported using IRS form 8863.
   
   ->  For students concerned about implications of a stipend, they may choose to opt-out with no explanation needed. During each registration cycle, students may opt-in again by contacting OFE and completing the process needed.