I have been seriously re-evaluating whether or not Salem College is where I need to be. I love the campus – it’s beautiful and peaceful. I love the small class size. I love that I feel like “the cool mom” on campus – since I’m a day student, I’m more in contact with the traditional students than most Continuing Studies students.
Up until now I have done my best to leave The Drama out of my Salem Experience. My mantra was “I have a goal, and The Drama will not get in the way of that.” But The Drama keeps getting harder to ignore. These things I listed here are just the tip of the iceberg – there is most certainly more.
Esbee recently reported that the 2007 College Tour (marketing) video is a bit misleading. Oprah Winfrey spoke at the graduation ceremony in 2000, and there are clips from that speech in the video. The men of Salem College are completely ignored as well. Yes, I said men. They are allowed to attend through the Continuing Studies program as long as they are over 23 years of age.
Using a pseudo-association with Oprah doesn’t surprise me. The main goal of that video is to draw people to the school, and Oprah is nothing if not a people-magnet.
The Re-inspection of the Refectory produced a passing grade a week later. The original score was an 84. The Refectory (nicknamed “The Rat” by students) is not the only place to eat on campus, but it IS the only place that traditional students can spend their tuition-included meal plan dollars at this time.
The rating of The Rat disgusts me, but as a Person With Issues I have only eaten there twice. I don’t care if the nickname is affectionate – acquiring food from anyplace named The Rat is a guaranteed appetite killer for me. It also disturbs me on a parental level since my daughter wants to attend Salem as well. I believe the students should have the option of getting food at The Grille as well as The Rat with their meal plan dollars. I also believe there should be more than only two options for a meal on campus.
Apparently, Salem is discontinuing Dr. Julianne Still Thrift’s post-retirement medical benefits – benefits that this post lead me to believe were included in her employment contract.
Oh no. No no no no. This is wrong.
Update: Apparently the issue was resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.
Update to the update: And the blog has been deleted.
This is turning out to be more fun than I thought!