As a Senior at Salem State University, I have seen the good that this school serves to its students and faculty, and some of the pretty bad stuff too. After spending four years here, not only have I personaly experienced the good that it does, but still sometimes wish I went with my top choice colleges. “Why?”, you may ask? Well, you’re about to find out.

1. The Way Students are Treated.

Whenever a student has a problem with the University (in terms of financing, housing, work study), we almost never are given what we need. Students are treated like customers who pay thousands of dollars just to suffer – and hey, maybe that’s the case, but in the end, it really shouldn’t be. The way that this school’s staff look down on students and treat them like annoying customers is appalling and downright rude.

2. The Way Faculty is Treated

Believe it or not, the Professors are treated generally badly by the University as well. While a part-time professor may make a reasonable paycheck, these professors at Salem State are still public university teachers, and therefore, are paid next to nothing in consideration for what they deserve. At the same time, SSU is pushing for the entire faculty to have at least a Master’s degree to teach; this is where teaching at a university gets weird.

We have teachers here who have Ph.D.’s and other extremely high-level certificates showing a mastery in whatever subject they teach… but are extremely ineffective teachers. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that to be at a university, you don’t need to have a teacher’s degree; that’s a little messed up when you think about it, right?

On the other hand, we have professors who are going to be let go, because they do not have the time or money to excel in their field, but have years worth of experience and passion, all while being effective and enticing teachers. It’s these professors who want to stay here and work hard for SSU, but lack the means to get higher credentials before they school decides to not renew their contracts.

3. Parking Hell

Ah, yes, the fresh hell that is parking in Salem. In October, with the streets laden with tourists looking for some spooky spectaculars, you may as well give up if you want to park anywhere in Salem. Around Salem State, there are no public parking lots (unless you want to pay out the wazoo for parking meters), and with only a handful downtown, you still need to trek it a solid mile back to the school. In the off-season, while it is a little easier to find street parking, from 8am-4pm, you have little to no chance.

It finally came to me recently why this happens – SSU is a state school, meaning that students who can’t afford other schools go here as an alternative option. Students who can’t afford tuition probably can’t afford the $400 on-campus parking passes, or even the $80 commuter passes. Even with our newly built parking garage, you will find the streets and parking lots more packed than any parking sticker lot.

4. Dining Hall Food / Off Campus Availability

Yes, yes, I know, this was an easy thing to complain about – the dreaded Dining Hall food. And yet, the food is so bad at Salem State, that we’ve named our Chartwell’s food company “Shartwells”, due to its tendency to upset a lot of people’s stomachs. While some of the food is amazing (I’m drooling thinking about the pulled pork or the chicken breast), most of the food is dry, tasteless or just... plain weird. I think of Boston University, which has multiple dining halls with multiple floors and a myriad of dining options, and then I think of Salem State… with two dining halls, which close obscenely early, and give us eggs that taste like they came from a can. To make matters worse, most other food places in town are either a decent walk away, or are too expensive.

5. Location

While living in a historic water front town is friggin awesome most of the time, we still have to keep in mind that we’re still a New England town. From September to November, and maybe April to May, we have beautiful sunsets, calming winds and plenty of sunshine; but for the other 4 or 5 months of the school semester? It’s cold. Windy. Rainy. Bleak. Dark. It’s a cold tundra for most of the year, with the aid of coastal winds and rains.

6. Cost of Attendance

Tuition at Salem State is $400. That’s extremely reasonable, even I would admit. So why is the cost of attendance $20,000+ a year?! Well, with the $8,000 in “fees”, dorming costs and whatnot, and it doesn't help that SSU gives you little chance to receive financial aid or scholarships.

7. The Lax Environment / Slacking Students

A lot of high school teachers say things like “college professors won’t accept late work!” or “don’t think you can save work until the last minute! College professors won’t allow you!”… this is all false at Salem State. While some are strict in terms of deadlines, many are extremely lax when it comes to content. Multiple times with multiple professors, they give students “incompletes” for grades, allow students to make up work in a matter of weeks or months, give higher grades than what they deserve, and are almost always accommodating any situation (real or fake). Though I know I should sound grateful for this, I feel that this does not teach students responsibility or rigor, which all young adults need at some point in their lives. At other respectable higher institutions, the idea of assigning 3-page papers or giving students no homework is laughable. If I’m paying thousands of dollars for an education, I want a quality education, not one where students can do minimal work and still graduate with those who push themselves.

I also think of the students such as myself, who work extremely hard for my grades. I'm not trying to 'toot my own horn', but I do proudly acknowledge the fact that I spend hours on difficult assignments, try my best to keep on track and prepared and try my best not to skip any classes. Other students, on the flip side..; don't. they pay people to write essays for them, they skip more than the minimum amount classes that you can but still past, and don't read the textbooks assignments, but then complain about the class being hard. In all honesty, the grades that you get at SSU usually reflect the amount of effort that you put into it, and yet, students who should have failed a class often pass with that I call "sympathy C's". It then angers me, when I think about all the time and work and effort that I put in to do well, and yet, I'm still graduating with these people, getting the same worth of a degree with them, and yet, there was SUCH a difference in the quality of work we put in.

8. Lack of Student Organization Support

For the past couple of years, I’ve been on the Electoral Board of my school’s newspaper. In doing so, I’ve noticed that a lot of students hate the stress of being part of a E-board, while students also hate going to these clubs and events. Salem State is primarily a commuter school, though thousands of students do live on campus. At the same time, many students are from the North Shore area, and would prefer to go home each weekend (it’s probably the food) than to stay on campus. Because of the lack of population on campus, the events that different groups and clubs hold have a very minimal attendance. Not only is this discouraging for the students who put in all the time and effort into making these events happen, but it’s a waste of the school’s money and the activity fees that students pay.

9. Construction

Salem State is infamous for it’s construction projects. When I arrived as a Freshman in 2013, the new Barry E. Library was built, they were putting the finishing touches on the new Gassett Fitness Center, and in the years since, Meier Hall has new doors and an updated Dunkin’ Donuts, Sullivan Building has new floors, the Sophia Gordon Theater is opening next month, Peabody has its own parking garage, we’ve had new sidewalks to walk around campus, Bertolon has had a face lifts since snow caused the roof to start to cave in, an updated 2-lane road between Bowditch Hall and “the Hobbit House”, we’ve ditched the “HR Trailer” and now have a proper building for Human Resources, an added Social Work building, Peabody and Bowditch Halls have been repainted, along with both and Atlantic Hall getting new carpets, and to top it off, we Viking Hall – a new dorm with a Starbucks underneath, with an accompanying parking lot across the street. And all these millions of dollars of construction have occurred in only 3-4 years.

While it’s wonderful to have an expanding campus, especially one where it feels like North, Central and South Campus are starting to be connected, the construction causes an inconvenience to foot traffic and can be disruptive to the community. It's also frustrating, knowing that this school is getting so much better, and yet I'll be graduating this year and won't be able to see how the SSU campus expands more in the years.

Also, if you don't believe me in the fact that SSU does a LOT of construction, check out the Salem State Construction Blog , run by the University (yet hasn't been updated since August?)

10. The People

Honestly, the other students with you at SSU are the worst. Freshman year, if you’re not into partying such as myself, it can be a hell; children without supervision for the first time, where Freshmen dorms reek of weed 24/7 can be exhausting. But when all the party kids either get serious or drop out? That’s when the SSU culture is the best. I love having conversations with other students from SSU, especially those who dislike the school as much as I do. I hate that I come into work, and end up talking to all my co-workers for hours because I love listening to their lives and how school is going for them. I love listening to professors talk about how miserable Freshman are to teach. I love 'learning from doing' in my teaching classes and hearing the constructed feedback from my peers. I love the absolute passion that students have for their respective fields, and how much they care about their long term goals.

So honestly? Fuck the people at Salem State, because I’m going to miss them so much. I’m graduating in four short months, and just thinking about not being able to see all the different people that I do every day makes me feel like my heart is breaking. (shout out to Kaitlynn, Dakotah, Emily, Tori, Sam, Jess and all the other wonderful people in my life).

Salem State may be a state school, it may have sucky food and no parking and a belittling staff, but I love the culture and the attitudes that comprise the staff / student body. I love how I've bonded with people at our not-so-great school, but honestly? it's my school, and while I could have gone somewhere more prestigious, I'm glad I ended up here.