Stephen Kapp

Despite a sudden leadership change, Kansas University’s School of Social Welfare will continue developing diversity plans and undoubtedly address budget cuts in coming months, the school’s new acting dean says.

Also, the school will continue doing what it’s always done, professor and acting dean of social welfare Steve Kapp said.

“One of the things we want to do is get back to focusing on the things we’re doing on a daily basis,” he said. “We do a lot of quality stuff; the school’s very proud of our history, and we want to continue that.”

School of Social Welfare Dean Paul Smokowski, who came to KU in July, announced his resignation Wednesday evening.

Smokowski cited “daunting” challenges at the school — recent student diversity protests and dwindling finances — plus a desire to return to research.

Smokowski resigned his dean’s duties immediately and will officially step down as dean in July, continuing on as a professor. Kapp was named acting dean until an interim is named.

It’s too early to say when the search for a permanent dean will launch, acting KU Provost Sara Rosen said.

“I want to work with the school to decide how long the interim period will be,” Rosen said. “I think the school needs a little bit of time to do some strategic planning, which they had actually started under Dean Smokowski.”

Stephen Kapp

Kapp has been teaching at KU since 1997 and became a full professor and associate dean of academic affairs for the School of Social Welfare about five years ago, he said.

His own research focuses on program evaluation with children and families, juvenile justice and children’s mental health, he said. He has taught research at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels and teaches an introduction to social welfare class for freshmen and sophomores.

This spring, Kapp expects to deal with budget cuts stemming from the Kansas Legislature’s reduction to KU’s state dollars for the current fiscal year. He said he does not yet have numbers.

Since November’s universitywide town hall forum on race, KU’s School of Social Welfare created the Toni Johnson Office of Race and Social Justice with $15,000 designated by Smokowski, Kapp said. Faculty participated in “micro-aggression” training and task forces were created for diversity and inclusion, mental health resources and social justice.

Those efforts will continue, and current faculty have stepped up to lead the new office, which among other things will evaluate curriculum to support “inclusion and racial and ethnic sensibility,” Kapp said.

Several social welfare students first confronted Smokowski after the town hall forum with demands they said would improve the school for students of color, according to a written account by students. Their frustration grew after several interactions, and students eventually demanded his resignation, and some staged a sit-in Wednesday at Twente Hall.

Smokowski said in a recent interview with the Journal-World that the school had no official complaints of racism during his tenure. He said he agreed with students who said the school should be inclusive and that any incidents of racism or discrimination should be investigated.

Kapp said he spent a lot of time talking with those students this week.

“At this point in time I have a really good relationship with them, many of them I had in class,” Kapp said. “I think we’re in a really good position to move forward.”