All my life, I have believed that one doesn't have to be wealthy to succeed. I've believed that anyone with ambition, intelligence, and resourcefulness has an equal chance to make something of himself or herself. Lately, however, I have watched as our state government attempts to hack this dream apart by failing to guard our most valuable and powerful economic investment: public higher education.

I was accepted into my first-choice private school, but could not afford tuition. I am among the millions of Americans who have to pay for college entirely on our own. At 24, I was finally eligible for aid as an independent. I enrolled at Salem State College, where I am pursuing a degree in mathematics, with minors in physics and music.

I was founder and president of the Music Society, I serve as the student representative to the board of trustees, I chair the Community Action Network, and I have served in several other capacities, including the Student Government. I also have earned dean's list status every semester since enrollment.

But I am afraid.

I'm afraid that when I eventually graduate, nobody will care that I am smart, or ambitious, or talented.

I'm afraid that all I will have is a factory-ordered diploma from a generic "Massachusetts state college," for that is what Mitt Romney wants to give me.

Well, I don't want it. I want my degree from Salem State to represent what it is: my tears and pain and hard work, the close relationships I've formed with my professors, and the personal attention I've received in the classroom. I want that piece of paper to be stamped with the respect it deserves.

While serving for the past nine months on the college's Board of Trustees, I have been involved in many conversations, meetings, and planning committees, and have helped make administrative decisions. I have seen what a treasure we have here, but I have also seen what a lack of appreciation for our schools can do in a short time.

Last year, our library budget was cut by 91 percent. That kind of neglect will eventually threaten the accreditation of our school. Student fees are up, and they will rise again soon. Class sizes are increasing, and faculty is being laid off. The proposed 20-percent cut next year will devastate this school.

Meanwhile, over 80 percent of state school graduates stay in Massachusetts to work, making up the majority of our work force. The economy is headed more every day toward a knowledge-based work force requiring a minimum of a bachelor's degree, and we are destroying the one resource we have to produce those skilled workers. It makes no sense.

Or does it? Consider this. As state school students, we live in the shadow of many of the best colleges in the world. Just 15 miles from me as I write this are MIT, Harvard, and many other world-renowned colleges and universities that millions of people, regardless of wealth, have found unreachable. It makes me wonder. How brightly does a star have to shine when it is that close to a supernova?

How brightly do I have to shine before my education will be valued? I am realistic about the budget crisis, and I understand that cuts are necessary. I am not saying that the restructuring Romney has proposed will destroy public higher ed, but it will destroy quality public higher ed. By stripping each state school of its history, autonomy, and local government, Romney's proposed plan will reduce each one to just a "Brand X" degree factory.

I have pleaded my case before many of our representatives. To quote one of our legislators, "Romney is winning the PR war. People are taking his new budget and they believe it is reform. If we do what is right, and we don't have the public's support, Romney will be breathing down our necks for the next three years saying he could have saved money with his system. What we need to know is that we have the support of the people to do what we know is right. Otherwise we find ourselves in quite a predicament."

Over half of our elected representatives are graduates of public higher education. I think it's time we call upon them to remember their roots, and demand that they keep quality public higher education within reach.

~ Salem resident Sarah Newcomb is a junior at Salem State College, where she is studying mathematics. She currently serves as the student representative on the board of trustees and is the chair of the Community Action Network, a student-led organization to support public higher education in Massachusetts.