Students are frequently described as hard working, responsible, career-oriented and very practical in their approach to higher education. The majority of students work a significant number of hours during their college career, facing multiple and often competing demands on their time. Their self-reported primary goal in seeking a college education is to improve their financial future. The affordability, academic reputation and access of Salem State are among the primary reasons cited for selecting this college.

The vast majority of students come from local cities and towns, within fifty miles of the campus, and they often maintain close ties to their local communities. More than one-half of all students are Roman Catholic. Almost 80% of students are commuters. Of those students who live on campus, many of them return to their local home on the weekends. Almost half of Salem State students are the first generation in their family to attend college, and a number of families take a very active role in their student’s college experience. Many students are from "working class" backgrounds and tend to be "under-entitled", exhibiting low expectations for themselves and from the institution. New students, and especially women students, consistently report lower levels of self-esteem compared to national norms on a variety of personal and academic characteristics.

The Student Life Division faces a number of challenges in this institutional environment, including implementing new admissions standards; working with the College governance structure; collaborating with faculty; and supporting customer service initiatives to increase retention. As the higher admissions standards are implemented, the institution faces the challenge of providing access to potential students, while increasing educational standards. Although the College must maintain a balance between access and standards, it has remained faithful to its mission of providing a high quality, affordable education to its students.

Each year for the last ten years, the Student Life Division has published and distributed its Mission Statement and Goals and Objectives for each of its departments. The programs and services provided by each of the Student Life areas are guided by a student development philosophy described in the overall Mission Statement for the Division which is congruent with the College’s Mission Statement. The Mission Statement and Goals and Objectives are reviewed annually by the Vice President and the Dean of Students to ensure that each department is not only meeting its stated goals but revising and adapting them to meet changing institutional and external expectations and needs as appropriate.

The physical layout of the College’s five distinct campuses makes it difficult to create the bond of a single campus community and sometimes even to communicate effectively with students. While surveys of resident students consistently show a high level of satisfaction with the residential community, most students are commuters and they seem to participate less in campus life than do resident students. Many students balance significant work commitments with their academic responsibilities, which can limit their opportunities to become more involved in the College community.

Although the International Student Office and the Center for Adult and Lifelong Learning do not report directly to the Student Life Division, the Director of each office attends the monthly Student Life staff meeting. The Directors provide information and unique insight into their particular area of expertise and how the programs and services offered by the Student Life Division interrelate with their students and offices. There has been extensive growth in the services for International Students recently, as a one person office has grown into a Center for International Education coordinating International Student Services, ESL programs and Study Abroad programs. The number of International students has grown by 234% in a six-year period. Non-traditional age and evening students are supported by two lounge areas, outreach workshops, support groups and staffing dedicated to their population. The programs and services offered by the Student Life Division are accessible to all undergraduate, graduate, full-time, part-time, resident and commuter students. Alumni also utilize programs and services as appropriate, e.g., Career Services.

During the New Student Orientation Program, participants are required to take the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (C.I.R.P.) Survey, which allows the College to gain some valuable information about the background and aspirations of its incoming students. The College also requires a battery of placement tests for first-year students prior to registering for classes. Personal and psychological counseling, as well as substance abuse counseling, is available to our students at no additional charge. The Office for Students with Disabilities offers special assistance for students with specific needs, although the office relies on students to self-identify in order to provide support services. For example, individual students with disabilities are provided with accommodations through this office. While this office is not part of the Division, it interacts closely with the departments of Career Services, Residence Life and Counseling and Health Services to insure equal access in all aspects of college life for students with disabilities, who are otherwise qualified.

In any community, individuals will periodically experience personal and interpersonal problems. The Dean of Students serves as an ombudsperson for a host of emerging student issues. The Student Life Office staff, together with the professionals in Counseling Services, Judicial Affairs, Public Safety, Health Services, the ADEPT Program, Campus Center, Career Services, Interfaith Center and the Office of Residence Life, provide a safety net of services to address any situation from crisis intervention to everyday challenges.

Each student is assigned an academic advisor by the appropriate Faculty Department Chair, once the student has selected a major. Undeclared students are advised by the Interdisciplinary Studies faculty and are all assigned advisors through the required First Year Seminar class. Recently the College completed the merger of the day and evening divisions, creating a "one college" registration and advising structure. Academic advising has been a significant focus in this transition, as demonstrated by the creation of the Academic Advising Center in 1995. Through this re-organization of services, the advising function was made distinct from the registration process. Staff were also provided with a renovated facility that is more conducive to providing individualized academic counseling and support. The Academic Advising Center, also outside the Division, has a very competent and committed staff of four professionals, and an evening staff of several faculty, to provide for the needs of many of the College’s undergraduate students. Any undergraduate student, whether day or evening, with a major or without, can access services. The Office is open evenings as well as during the day for the convenience of the students. Staff members are active in the presentation of First Year Seminar classes and other educational programs throughout the year.

The Career Services Office has two professionals with two clerical staff to service the needs of the entire undergraduate and graduate population. The services are also available to alumni. The staff provides career counseling, career fairs, class presentations, a career resource room, internet access to employment opportunities, on-campus recruiters for students and general assistance. Evening hours are available for both students and alumni. A newly renovated office area has been developed for the Career Services Office, which will be completed Spring 2001. This new space in the Campus Center should be much more accessible for students, faculty and alumni.

The Counseling and Health Services department is also slated to move to the Campus Center and will be adjacent to the Career Services area. This is the first time that the entire department will be housed together providing for an integrated wellness approach to services. This department is one of the cornerstones to the historical sense of community at the College. The personnel in the Health Services component include two part-time physicians, one full-time nurse, two part-time nurses and a secretary. An internship program has been established with the North Shore Medical Center and student nurses from the College’s Nursing Department are also able to do a rotation through this office. Counseling Services is staffed by three professional, licensed clinicians with specialties in clinical psychology, social work and alcohol/substance abuse plus three graduate student clinical interns and a receptionist. Through an extensive program of individual and group counseling, workshops, and educational seminars, the staff facilitates personal growth in students and assists students in the resolution of personal concerns which may be disruptive of their academic progress.

Some years ago, the Campus Center staff developed a semester long series of leadership seminars for interested students. The program began modestly but has grown steadily. This past academic year had over seventy students who completed the program and participated in the special recognition ceremony offered at the conclusion of the final class.

The Student Life Division provides the advisor to the Student Government Association. This allows the College to have a direct impact on the training and experiential learning opportunities afforded the students elected to the Association. This position also provides an identifiable liaison between the student body and the College administration. Students are also involved in each of the "contract" committees, i.e., the committees established by the contract between the Massachusetts State College Association and the Commonwealth’s Board of Higher Education. In addition, over forty groups and clubs are available to students who have common interests or academic affiliations. There are also ad hoc committees established throughout the year focused on pertinent issues on which students are requested to participate. A recently established student group is the Residence Hall Association. This organization is composed of students living within the College’s residence halls and provides leadership training, educational programming and community service projects off campus. The RHA has won several regional and national awards for their programs.

Additional educational programs and seminars and leadership workshops are offered throughout the year for all students. National, regional, state and local leaders provide commentary and analysis of current issues for the student community. All such events are provided to the students without charge.

One of these continuing challenges is the development of a stronger sense of community on campus. A number of trends seem to indicate progress with this effort. Among these positive trends, there is evidence of more social and educational programs being offered; increased participation in these programs; greater involvement in community service and service learning initiatives; lower rates of crime; reductions in the number of judicial cases; and fewer false fire alarms. What is still needed, though, are more systematic and direct measures of the impact that these perceived trends have on student learning, rather than simply tracking the numbers of programs and incidents.

Some creative ways to use space, time and resources have recently been implemented to strengthen the sense of community. For example, a newly renovated, multi-million dollar dining hall now brings together residents and commuters in the same facility to eat daily. Another initiative was a new logo campaign, which was developed to establish a common identity and create a sense of pride in the College. The academic course schedule was rearranged to set aside time each week when classes would not be scheduled. This period, known as Community Time, is now overflowing with events and activities for the College community to attend. As a campus that is also becoming more diverse, the Student Life Division has taken a leadership role in establishing new programs to honor and celebrate diversity, and by aggressively addressing acts of intolerance.

The College governance structure operates on a tri-partite system. Without the active participation of any segment of the academic community, the ability to address issues through the governance system is not possible. In recent years it has been the practice of the faculty not to participate in College governance while there are outstanding collective bargaining issues. Although this decision severely limits and, indeed has halted the functioning of the governance system, this practice is expected to continue as unresolved collective bargaining issues persist between the MSCA/MTA and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education.

While some important linkages have occurred in recent years, the integration of Student Life programs with the academic life at the College remains an area where there is not sufficient collaboration. Among the successful efforts are new initiatives, such as collaboration between the Honors Program and Residence Life including academic affiliation housing; a faculty lecture series; staffing and clinical supervision of the Sports Fitness and Leisure department’s Athletic Training major; the jointly administered New Student Orientation program; and outreach programs in the classroom on a wide range of developmental issues are among the successful efforts. These efforts need to be built upon for the future.

The effective communication of institutional decision-making and the subsequent impact that such decisions have on service to students have been very difficult issues for the campus to address. The major investment in a new administrative software system utilizing client server technology is the most significant effort to provide staff and administrators with the tools necessary to more effectively communicate with and serve students. Student Life’s extensive Divisional planning process has established a foundation for a developmental approach that is consistent with the institution’s mission. The annual process of reviewing the Divisional Mission Statement and setting departmental goals and objectives has served to move forward many new initiatives. In addition, long-range plans have been in place for several years, initially developed through the Divisional Five-Year Plans and subsequently through the College’s Strategic Planning process.

Student Life supports campus diversity in numerous ways, i.e., providing educational programming and outreach; offering programs to welcome diverse populations; advising and supporting student organizations; providing staff development and training to sensitize staff; and offering individual support services for students. The Climate Survey, an instrument used to assess the campus climate for students of color, is one of the means employed to measure institutional efforts. The Quality of Life Survey annually assesses the residence hall community according to the diversity of respondents. While much has been accomplished to meet the needs of a diverse student population, there is much work yet to be done.

As a campus predominantly composed of commuter students, the Division provides initiatives to welcome and involve commuting students in campus life. Historically, commuters have been concerned with more fundamental needs, i.e., finding a parking space on campus, discovering an inexpensive and convenient place to eat, finding an on-campus job, etc. The commuter population remains a large, diverse and challenging constituency to try to engage. It is an area that requires further attention and efforts to determine how the institution can best serve commuting students.

For several years, office hours in critical Student Life services, such as Career Services, Academic Advising, Financial Aid, Counseling and Health Services have been extended to provide more convenient access to evening students. Yet, the comparatively low numbers of students who take advantage of these services illustrate the need to find more effective ways to connect with this population as well.

Recent changes in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service policies now require ESL programs to be accredited in order to continue accepting new students. Meeting this new requirement is a critical goal for the Center for International Education in the future.

Recent Board of Higher Education mandates require new standardized testing of incoming students, while raising the admissions standards and also limiting the percentage of admissions standards exemptions. These changes were implemented abruptly, resulting in a myriad of implementation issues. Over the next few years, with more thorough planning, it is anticipated that the new test, the Accuplacer, and other instruments administered during New Student Orientation will provide reliable placement tools in assessing writing, reading, math and computer literacy skills.

The Office for Students with Disabilities staff were recently relocated to a new office suite that is more visible, accessible and has state-of-the-art equipment. This new facility can also accommodate more students and a larger staff. Supervision of the office was shifted to the Academic Affairs Office in order to place a greater emphasis on the central importance of providing services to students. Office records reflect that almost ten percent of the student population reports some form of disability, underscoring the reasons for the expansion and relocation of this department. The number of students who self-report their disability seems to be on the rise.

Organizational restructuring during the period of review brought together key crisis intervention offices into the same Student Life staff and made them all accountable to the same divisional leader. This reorganization has reduced inter-office tensions and increased internal communication and collaboration. These offices, including Public Safety, Residence Life, Counseling Services, Health Services and Judicial Affairs report a high volume of student situations that are routinely addressed. A collaborative approach to the residence hall community was developed through the creation of Community Action Teams. This model brings together Public Safety, Residence Life and Counseling Services staff members to provide training, program outreach and address concerns collectively. The Office of Residence Life, in particular, has been identified by the Massachusetts State College Building Authority as the model program among the state colleges.

Historically, students have cited insufficient or unclear communication and a lack of customer-oriented service as frustrations and concerns in the Financial Aid area. However, in the last several years customer service and communication have been a priority for the department. A well-organized system is in place to explain deadlines, criteria and the application process. Through Federal Direct Student Loans and the use of new technologies, the Financial Aid Department has been able to provide more efficient and timely service to students. New advances in voice mail technology and web access facilitate better communication and service, as students are now able to access forms electronically. Recent efforts to increase the scholarship endowment have also been successful. State grant assistance was increased by $2 million in FY ’01.

The New Student Orientation program underwent a major restructuring in 1997, as several new components were added to provide a greater academic emphasis in the program. New students have consistently rated the Orientation Program very positively in their evaluations. The vast majority of new students are of traditional age, and thus the Orientation program is primarily designed to address their needs. Despite some efforts to address the needs of evening, transfer and non-traditional age students, this is still a shortcoming of the Orientation program that is currently under review for the future.

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (C.I.R.P.) Survey results revealed that entering first year Salem State students reported lower self-esteem and less academic success than many of their peers. Consequently, additional small group sessions with faculty mentors were planned and a New Student Convocation program was created to increase the academic tone of the Orientation experience. The C.I.R.P. Survey provides a wealth of baseline information about students as they enter the institution. While these results have proven to be useful, they deserve further analysis and should be reviewed in greater depth by the College to better understand incoming new students.

A major renovation and relocation project is underway in the Campus Center facility to create a new Student Life Center, clustering frequently used services together. This project will result in the centralizing of Counseling Services, Health Services, Career Services, Student Activities, New Student Orientation and the Campus Center in one building for the first time. The potential programmatic synergy from the new proximity of these Student Life offices is eagerly anticipated.

Career Services program offerings have grown tremendously in the last few years. The department, though, is in critical need of additional staff to keep up with the ever-increasing demand for more services. Although the staff eagerly anticipates moving to a newly renovated facility in the next year, this increased visibility and accessibility is likely to further increase the demands for more services.

While the Counseling and Health Services Department will be brought together in one facility for the first time in 2001, the need for additional staff in these offices is also critical. Health education is provided through the outreach efforts of a number of Student Life departments. Although a range of health issues are addressed, more centralized planning and coordination of these efforts is needed.

Compliance with Title IX has been a major focus for the institution. The College has made substantial progress toward achieving gender equity, as the institution now offers eleven intercollegiate sports for both male and female student-athletes. The growth of intercollegiate teams and intramurals has crystallized the need for additional athletic and recreational facilities. Although there has been some progress with facilities development, the critical shortage of recreational and athletic facilities severely limits student participation opportunities. Despite the creation of a new Wellness facility on campus, the demand for recreational space continues to outstrip the available options.

The Athletic program is distinguished for its strong record of academic and athletic success. Student-athletes consistently demonstrate higher retention rates, G.P.A. levels and graduation rates than their peers.

The financial strain impacts the Division in many ways including, reducing the availability of funding for programming, delaying facilities renovations, slowing the implementation of new technologies, etc. These factors, in turn, affect the ability to respond as effectively as possible to student needs, and to strengthen the sense of community on campus.

Almost all administrative personnel responsible for co-curricular activities have an advanced degree, beyond a Baccalaureate degree, and sufficient training and experience to perform their job. Although numerous renovation projects are in process and are much needed, the current Student Life facilities remain inadequate to fulfill their stated missions. In particular, the need for additional residence hall spaces has reached such a critical shortage that it now negatively impacts enrollment at the College. Current demand for housing from new and returning students demonstrates that at least 500 more students would live on campus if sufficient residence hall spaces were available.

The College will need to carefully manage this process through the upcoming transition to a new administrative software system employing client server technology. Following the implementation of this system, the College anticipates a more efficient and effective information system, which will facilitate better service to students.

Since most assessments are focused at the departmental level, the Division would benefit from a more global review of current efforts to develop a coordinated plan for assessing programs and services. There is a strong desire among the departments to more specifically document the learning outcomes of the Student Life Division’s efforts. However, developing models for assessing the effectiveness of voluntary and/or non-credit opportunities pose unique challenges. The ability to gather data is often dependent upon the student’s willingness to participate not only in programs, but also in assessment activities. More intermediate measures are needed to assess the impact of student learning in an on-going capacity.

The academic advising issues identified are well known and yet there is little prospect that the current dynamic will change in the future. Until such time as these seemingly intractable issues change, the Academic Advising Center continues to strive to overcome the limitations of the current structure. However, the prospect of degree audits through the new administrative software system to be implemented is a promising solution to facilitate communication in the advising process.

Pursuing additional positions to bring staffing patterns to the level other state colleges and/or the number of staff recommended by professional associations remains a high priority for the future. As the institution continues to seek to address student retention through a variety of means, the growing student demand for counseling support services must be considered. Specifically, future divisional priorities include an additional mental health clinician and an additional career counselor to meet student demand for services in these areas. Ethical Standards/Rights and Responsibilities Over the period of review, the number of incidents adjudicated through formal means has declined substantially. The College will maintain its current efforts in this area.

In summation, the institution is poised at an exciting time of change. Dramatic internal and external changes continue to impact the institution, bringing new challenges for the future. The abrupt transition to the new Admissions standards has brought new classes of better academically prepared students, but it has also focused the institution on the critical need to improve student retention. Student Life must continue to focus on assessing and addressing the changing needs of a student body in transition to aid in this important effort.

Several recent or pending facility, staffing and technology improvements are transforming the institution in fundamental ways. Among those impacting the Student Life Division are the following: continuing customer service advances in the Financial Aid area; opening new facilities for Career Services, Counseling and Health Services; constructing a new residence hall; creating additional athletic fields; implementing client server technology; initiating distributed support systems; and hiring additional staff positions in vital support service areas. The institution needs to continue to fund and support these initiatives in order to deliver better services and facilities to students.