The Winston-Salem Journal has interviewed Jacqueline McBride, the director of communications at Salem College about the Salem Youtube college tour video I mentioned.
In the interview, she says exactly what I would expect from a starstruck teen: “I’d be a fool not to use it”.
Ms. McBride, please - be a fool. You’re selling the students short by using a celebrity moment that’s 8 years old (which is 20BILLION years in internet time) and that isn’t relevant to the student experience there to market the school. The time to use that brief celebrity moment *maybe* would have been in the 2001 marketing video.
MAYBE.
Salem College has so much more to recommend itself than this. And you should know that.
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.
I woke up late this morning. I had a 1030 appointment in Winston, and I woke up at 845. (Not ONE WORD about laziness - I worked and then had homework after I got home, thankyouverymuch!) As I blazed my way through the pages of the paper (like Esbee, I read the dead tree version as I breakfast) one thing attracted my attention in The Week Ahead section of the Local News section. I looked at the clock, squealed and grabbed my camera and things, getting to my appointment only five minutes late. At the end of my appointment, I celebrated joyously - I’d gotten done just in time to haul myself to Salem College, park at the edge of the campus, and walk the half-mile to Corpening Plaza. In the cold and rain.
The closer I got to the square, the more I realized that things just.weren’t.right. Where is the teeming sea of humanity? Balloons? Dancers? Wait…what day is today?
I called My Sainted Mama and asked her to read the blurb to me again. As she read it, she started laughing and well…it took a while for her to regain control of herself. And then I sloooowly made my way back to school, picked up my registration card for next semester, and went home.
Birthday Celebration
Winston-Salem will have an artsy celebration of the 80th birthday of one of its most-famous residents
SATURDAY
A birthday party for Maya Angelou will begin at 1 p.m. at Corpening Plaza.
The party will feature performances by the N.C. Black Repertory Company and students from the N.C. School of the Arts, Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest University.
And, of course, there will be cake and punch and a reading of one of Angelou’s most celebrated poems, “Phenomenal Woman.”
