Online MSW Program Coordinator Matt Chorpenning, MSW, is a long-time social-justice advocate, guitarist, and dog-lover who keeps his hand in the community by serving and volunteering for committees like the Faculty Senate, the PSU Steering Committee for Faculty Senate, UPRISE Collective, and Sisters of the Road. Chorpenning shared his goals and plans for the online MSW program, while providing insight into his assessment towards the program and his newly developed course that will be presented at the Social Work Distance Education Conference this April.
Chorpenning is in his first year as the Online MSW Program Coordinator and is excited that the online program is larger than it has ever been. He explains, “It's been a bit like drinking from a fire hose in terms of trying to support faculty and students.”
With an advising load of about 140 students, Chorpening has found it challenging to advise so many people in a way that feels authentic and supportive. For the program, he shares his goals by stating, “My biggest goals in this role are: 1) make sure all of our courses adhere to the standards and expectations we have for all online classes, so that the student experience is uniformly of a high quality; 2) resist scarcity thinking in terms of program growth and focus on quality over quantity and 3) demystify online teaching for faculty that are curious/nervous about it”.
During winter term, he has developed surveys for students, teaching faculty, lead instructors, and even faculty who have never taught online before. Those surveys will start rolling out at the beginning of Spring Term and will capture information about student experience, faculty onboarding/preparation, and how lead instructors feel equipped to support online faculty teaching their courses. He will also review Canvas shells from Fall 2021 up through this year to see how the information in the survey responses is reflected in the actual courses. Chorpenning’s biggest goal from this assessment is to get a clear picture of what is actually happening in the online program so the school can accurately figure out what improvements need to be made, what's working well, and what we might dream of in the future.
Chorpenning is proud to be presenting at the Social Work Distance Education Conference this April, talking about the Advanced Policy Advocacy class he created and taught last spring during Oregon's long legislative session. This class was connected to the long legislative session in Oregon in 2023.
Chorpenning explains, “The goal was to help students get actual practice advocating in support of legislation that impacts the people we say we're trying to help in social work. It also covered the things that 501(c)(3) nonprofits are allowed to do in terms of legislative lobbying. It was really fun to see students grow their passion for policies that can advance social justice, improve equity, and support people working in this high-burnout, low-pay field. The other big takeaway was that, given the likelihood that (legislative) walkouts will continue, it might be fine to offer some version of the class in conjunction with the short legislative session in future years”.
His presentation will focus on a call to action to invite other programs to get students involved in legislative advocacy. He will also talk about the interesting reflections and dynamics that emerged when one party decided to walk out of the legislature. These dynamics inspired the title for his presentation: “Social Workers Don't Get to Walk Out.”
Aside from academics, Chorpenning plays a big part in community practice. He got his start in community organizing years before he went to grad school and originally came to social work school because he thought it would help make him a better organizer. He serves on the Steering Committee for Faculty Senate this year and shares how proud he is to have been able to partner with an ad hoc senate committee working to include adjunct faculty on the Faculty Senate.
Some other organizations Chorpenning serves with are the UPRISE Collective and Sisters of the Road. The UPRISE Collective was founded by two graduates of Portland State’s MSW program who were in the first class Chorpenning taught at PSU as an adjunct. When he saw they were recruiting board members last year he wanted to support them because they have had a profound impact on who he is as a practitioner, teacher, and human.
Chorpenning first encountered Sisters of the Road when he was in grad school, at a time when they were moving to a less hierarchical, more collective structure, and he really loved the intentionality behind their work. Chorpenning explains that “The organization has been through a lot of changes in the last few years —especially since the pandemic hit — but they have a small and mighty team there that I absolutely love supporting as a board member.”
Sisters recently purchased the old House of Louie which was a Chinese restaurant in Portland’s Old Town Chinatown neighborhood and they are in the process of remodeling it. When the cafe re-opens, they will have about double the capacity to serve food to community members and Chorpenning is really excited for that to happen.
The two organizations’ boards are different in size and function. But both organizations have had a huge impact on Chorpenning and he wants to continue to support them because he truly believes Portland needs them.
Besides serving on boards, committees, and academia, Chorpenning enjoys running, guitar, table-top role-playing at TPK Brewing, reading, cooking, eating, and listening to records. He is currently ‘sort of’ in a punk band with his computer—they're called Riot Dog. He hopes to play more as it provides both joy and catharsis for him. He loves hanging out with his wife and their dog, Kaylee (who shows up in a lot of pictures of him on Google and Zoom).