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St Lawrence University

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Date: Sep 16 2011
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
St. Lawrence is a school with a lot of potential, but which fails to meet that potential in glaring and massive ways. The campus is beautiful, that cannot be denied, and there are some excellent professors. Unfortunately, the administration doesn't care about their students beyond the money they can donate/fame they can bring, and will respond with apathy or even outright hostility to any attempt to challenge convention, or even just stand up for yourself.

In particular their process of contesting grades or reporting problem professors is so archaic and bureaucratic as to be absurd, and they blatantly admit to assuming a students guilt before considering a professor's flaws. They will retain problem professors even after several notifications—individuals who have regularly missed classes, thrown things at students, yelled and and verbally attacked students, and have no ability to actually teach.

Ultimately the antagonistic position of the administration and their protection of a few terribly individuals ultimately downgrades the entire school, as it discourages students, frustrates scholars, and overshadows the positives brought by the few excellent professors the departments boast. These problem individuals are allowed to run so-much amok as to literally send students into depressive states, and to drive some from the school itself.

What makes all this truly sad is that SLU has the potential to become something great, but it has no focus or direction. Located in the wilderness, true, SLU could take advantage of its position and become a school with a sustainable vision to rival Green Mountain College. Instead, they are so obsessed with becoming the next Williams or Hamilton that they ignore the very potential that could make them great. The weather and location are nothing that should bother a student who has truly done their research before enrolling—what should give these students pause is the antagonistic and arrogant administration, the protection of idiotic professors, and the support of student institutions that help the few, not the many. I wish I could say that I was proud to have gone to SLU, but all I can really say is that I wish I had had the good sense to transfer, or even better to never attend at all.

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commentWhile I've heard of(and experienced) problems with grades and problematic professors, the professor in question left after her trial year was up, and the university DID respond well to the problems I had. Did you only use the academic petition notice and not follow up with the dean? Maybe you really did have a bad experience, especially because things could be different if it was a tenured professor… but I think since the class of 2000 things have positively changed, if that really is your class year!
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St Lawrence University
St Lawrence University
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