For a decade, the Salt Lake Community College professor who runs the school's social work program lacked the credential essential to practice in the health-care field he was teaching.
The Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL) revoked Enrique Velasquez's clinical social worker license in 1997, after he admitted a romantic entanglement with a client. But his academic career has flowered, even after he was caught practicing without a license in 2005.
The college not only kept him on, but awarded tenure and promoted him to division chief over social sciences, an $82,000 a year post.
College officials defend the move, arguing licensure is not required for teaching and Velasquez was up front about his transgressions, which did not involve the college.
"I am a good man who is totally committed to my community and the work I do," he says.
His case reflects a debate within social work about whether academics need professional licenses.
"It is a disservice to social work students, colleagues, schools, and the public served by social workers to exempt faculty from licensure, or to simply argue that teaching social work is somehow not part of social work practice," wrote Donna DeAngelis, executive director of the Association of Social Work Boards, in an e-mail.
While some contend licensure is needed to demonstrate minimum competency, others argue that it is irrelevant to teaching ability and would complicate efforts to attract faculty.
While licensure is expected for faculty in many health-care fields, only four states require it for social work faculty, according to DeAngelis. Just over half the faculty in the nation's baccalaureate and master's programs hold some kind of professional license, according to the National Association of Social Workers.
The Velasquez situation appears analogous to a disbarred attorney teaching at a law school or a defrocked priest teaching seminary. But SLCC spokesman Joy Tlou said comparing this case to any other situation is "irresponsible."
Velasquez currently holds a probationary license, but has no immediate plans to complete the steps for full licensure. He teaches an introductory social work course and another titled "Dynamics of Mental Disorders."
Losing his license » In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune , Velasquez, 54, said he began practicing in 1979, earned a master's in social work from the University of Utah and was hired as a SLCC adjunct in 1990.
In 1993, he started treating the female client at the heart of the DOPL probe for an eating disorder. The woman was a childhood victim of sex abuse and a more recent victim of domestic violence, according to DOPL records.
After nearly three years of group and individual therapy, Velasquez's relationship with the client became intimate. The relationship persisted for months, even after Velasquez closed his private practice in early 1996, DOPL records state.
Such a relationship is a serious breach of professional standards because of the possibility that the therapist could exploit the patient's vulnerability and inflict harm.
Velasquez admitted the violation and SLCC administrators decided to take no action after reviewing the matter.
"I didn't try to hide anything," he says. At the time he had been recently widowed and was raising a little girl, who is now 16, on his own.
He says he could have pursued re-establishing his license, but chose not to because he was preoccupied with family obligations and a growing commitment to the college. But he did keep up with continuing education and returned to practicing social work with Catholic-affiliated Holy Cross Ministries. In September 2004, the non-profit hired Velasquez to counsel immigrants, but a SLCC colleague reported him to DOPL, according to agency records. The agency launched an investigation and found that he illegally counseled 17 families and individuals over nine months in 61 sessions.
Velasquez says he believed his unlicensed work was permissible because he was under the supervision of a licensed clinical social worker. But Salt Lake County prosecutors slapped him with a third-degree felony charge.
"I felt horrible," he says. "I wasn't committing a crime. I went back to the community to provide a service to people who are often marginalized."
He entered a guilty plea "in abeyance" to a reduced misdemeanor charge and the conviction was wiped clean after a year on probation.
Court documents note he received "terrific reviews" from Holy Cross supervisors and clients. The agency's director, Sister Suzanne Brennan, hoped to re-employ him after his license was reinstated. As a native Spanish speaker, Velasquez provided an important service to the Latino community, she wrote to the court, dismissing the criminal allegation as a "technical violation."
"While at HCM there was no harm done and if anything added a great depth to the treatment of women who suffered domestic violence," she wrote in the February 2006 letter.
Velasquez's probation required him to serve 120 hours of community service, which he fulfilled working at the Utah AIDS Foundation, and to "attempt" to get licensed.
Under a memorandum of understanding with DOPL, he was granted a probationary license in March 2007. This provisional license is considered a partial denial and requires three years of close supervision before a full license is granted. Velasquez needs to work in social work for at least 10 hours a week to advance the probation clock, but says he is too busy with his college duties, which include coaching the men's soccer team, to maintain employment as a social worker.
The licensing debate » SLCC administrators have no problems with this arrangement. Joe Peterson, vice president for instruction, pointed out that no governing or accrediting agency requires licensure for social work faculty in Utah.
"Mr. Velasquez has an advanced degree and is subject to all of the conditions and requirements of these regulating bodies. [He] continues to be successful at SLCC as a teacher, administrator and a contributing member of the college community," Peterson said in an e-mail. "SLCC reiterates that professional licensure is not a universal condition of employment, being a successful teacher and administrator is."
Stephen Marson, a founding editor of the journal Social Work Values and Ethics , begs to differ.
"The best way for a faculty member to demonstrate competencies [is] by having the state license or certification and maintaining it by complying with the continuing education requirements," he wrote in a 2006 editorial. "Doing otherwise is an embarrassment to the entire profession."
Clinical licensure would not be relevant to faculty engaged with research and policy questions, conceded Marson, a professor of social work at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Marson himself hasn't seen a patient since 1977, but he maintains basic licensure with the Academy of Certified Social Workers.
Utah "is doing very good. Everybody [teaching at the baccalaureate level] that needs to be licensed is," he says.
Despite the cloud over his licensing status, Velasquez's leadership has paid off for SLCC's social work program. Under agreements he forged, SLCC students' social work credits are now accepted at the state's four-year programs. Social work students can start college at SLCC and emerge five years later from the U. with a master's degree. Three such students have returned to SLCC to teach as adjuncts under Velasquez.
"I am fully committed to do the best for this institution," Velasquez says. "This is a very good place to work."
