Don't Google me!

Back to School: It can bring professional havoc to social workers and students stifled by leftist academics and identity politics | Lynn Vincent

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

Christine Mize is looking for a job. The 46-year-old former police officer in June graduated from Southern Illinois University (SIU) with a master's degree in social work. In August, she landed an interview at Head Start, a federal preschool program.

But after the interview, a thought struck Mize: "Gosh, I hope they don't Google me."

Indeed, a Google search would be revealing: Mize is one of several social work students who in recent years have taken a stand for free speech in an academic discipline that seems to discourage it.

A year ago, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) published a detailed study called "The Scandal of Social Work Education." The study revealed that many schools of social work at public universities across the country have jettisoned free academic inquiry and broad-based methods of delivering compassion in favor of a rigid orthodoxy rooted in Marxism and feminism. Further, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the sole accrediting institution in 48 states, disseminates that orthodoxy through officially published standards—and professors enforce it in the classroom.