President John D. Keenan’s administration has a “vision” for Salem State University. But it is one that is tearing apart the Salem State community. He sees Salem State University as a donor-funded, predominantly-vocational school preparing students for private sector jobs.
This ignores Salem State’s official mission as a publicly-funded comprehensive regional university. In the quest for economic efficiency, he seeks to limit student choices.
Students who come to Salem State will only be able to come for career and vocational training, for that narrow set of degrees that translate directly to job descriptions. A nurse needs a nursing degree, a teacher needs an education degree. If a degree does not directly or immediately translate into a career trajectory, it is of no value to Keenan’s re-imagined version of Salem State.
Other universities do vocational and career training extremely well; one only has to look to Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and, within our own system, Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
However, those schools have clear mission statements and departments are aligned around those goals. Here at Salem State, we are a comprehensive regional university.
Regional means drawing students predominantly from our community: the North Shore, and Greater Boston primarily, but also all of Massachusetts.
More than 35 percent of students are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). some 50 percent of students Pell Grant-eligible. Salem State’s student body is the most diverse in the state university system.
A comprehensive university means that we teach and offer degrees across many disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences as well as professional programs.This range of learning possibilities allows Salem State to foster a community of people able to contribute throughout their lives to the community both economically and as thoughtful and analytical citizens.
One way to close the opportunity gap that many Salem State students face is to present them with a range of courses and degree options similar to those they could get at more elite schools at a price that they can afford. A greater way to close the opportunity gap would be to make public higher education free, as K-12 is.
If Salem State does become a career-focused job training center, what happens to it in five, 10, 20 years as industries shift, and corporate needs change, as they surely will? Will it be able then to pivot and realign itself to these new private needs? Will the buildings built for today’s corporate needs fit into this future, or will they need to be demolished, refurbished, or rebuilt, at increasing expense that will only be put on students? And where will students receive their education about history and society?
This entire issue has been thrust to the forefront at Salem State now by the recent secret and damaging actions of President Keenan, the Board of Trustees, the President’s Executive Council and the Provost.
They have engaged in “secret exercises” which threaten the very nature of Salem State while putting specific individuals in harm’s way. They have utilized alarmist budgets based on worst case financial or enrollment scenarios to threaten and then implement furloughs.
They have held secret “exercises” to plan retrenchment, that is, laying off faculty and reducing programs and departments.
Furloughs, retrenchment, and other cutbacks undermine Salem State’s ability to provide students the education they deserve. They have refused to explain how they derived the specific plans or criteria for eliminating faculty and virtually gutting, among other things, the School of Arts and Sciences.
They have refused to explain why Salem State is the only state university implementing furloughs and threatening retrenchment.
Salem State University’s evolving mission must be one that strengthens and lives, rather than simply pays lip service to, its mission as a regional public comprehensive university serving a diverse population. It must be a vision that says, “We all belong here” — not just those involved in vocational training.
To make that vision a reality, Salem State needs to make deep structural changes.
It needs to continue to hire faculty, and particularly more faculty of color. It needs to offer classes and degrees that reflect and celebrate the diversity of the community. It has to continue to offer liberal arts and professional programs.
To do that, it must dedicate the needed hours and resources, not just to seeking private grants, but to increasing public funding, starting by supporting the CHERISH Act which would bring Salem State an additional $20 million per year, thus eliminating the “structural deficit” on which the Keenan and his team of executive administrators base its doomsday predictions.
Only when this has been done, can the president, the Board of Trustees, the president’s Executive Council, and the Provost regain the trust and confidence which they have squandered. That trust is necessary for us all to, as President Keenan has said, move forward together toward a better future for Salem State.