“At first, we had to convince people that our college and curriculum were needed, that Houston should be its home, and that UH was where we belonged,” says Ira C. Colby, dean and professor of social work. “But now, we are a nationally ranked program that counts among its faculty a Nobel Laureate. Our students make a difference by becoming voices for the vulnerable. This is the change we wanted to be.”

Throughout its forty-year history, the college’s charge has remained the same—pull together, as Mahatma Gandhi said, to become the change you want to be. And that has remained its mission—illustrated in a life-sized, tiled mosaic of diverse people coming together to pull back the chains of oppression that keep the door to knowledge shut tight. The mural, which spreads across seven walls in the social work building, was commissioned eight years ago.

From humble beginnings in portable Quonset huts on the UH campus in 1967, the college began with seven faculty members and twenty-six students in its first class. Today, there are more than twenty full-time and adjunct faculty; and the college has an enrollment of more than 330 master’s and Ph.D. students. The Graduate School of Social Work (as it was known then) has moved from a general curriculum of training social workers to a college of innovative curriculum focused on creating social workers equipped with research data to effectively address community needs. The college is ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the top 50 of all graduate social work programs in the country.

“We went from being an unknown, on campus and in the community, to being known as people who bring something to the table,” says Jean K. Latting, Kantambu Latting College Professorship of Leadership and Social Change and professor of social work. Latting has been with the college since 1979. “Moving to a more research-focused curriculum that reached into the community elevated our status,” she adds.

The college is now home to bold, new research initiatives including the Child and Family Innovative Research Center and the Center for Drug and Social Policy Research. Other research initiatives focus on the study of gerontology, collaborate with institutions in the Texas Medical Center, and strive to evaluate the effectiveness of entities charged with protecting children.

“We have been moving up continuously,” says Charles Kaplan, research professor and associate dean of research. “We are now in a major effort of transforming ourselves into the top tier in social work research.”

The college offers two advanced tracks of study and several certificates including trabajo social—a special component geared to the needs of the Latino community. It also maintains more than 400 internship sites that provide opportunities for students in local, state, and federal public programs, elected officials’ offices, nonprofit agencies, and private settings.

Under the direction of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams, the college has partnered with the Nobel Women’s Initiative, which supports human and women’s rights around the world. A partnership with the Institute of Interfaith Dialog brings a scholar from Turkey to the college to teach Islamic studies and social work.

The college also sponsors PeaceJam, an annual event that cultivates leadership skills, diversity awareness, and global thinking in youth. Additionally, its David M. Underwood Chapter of American Humanics Nonprofit Certificate Program is recognized as the best program in the nation for preparing the next generation of leaders in nonprofit organizations.

“Change is constant. The college of this new millennium is and will be very different from the institution familiar to past students, faculty, and the community,” Colby says. “That is our charge. That is the change we want to be. Excellence demands nothing less.”